Long Beach has gone 74 years without snow, and according to some residents, it appeared that streak ended Wednesday. The real answer, though, is more complicated.

Frozen specks briefly fell from the sky across the city Wednesday afternoon, with sightings stretching from Bixby Knolls all the way to the waterfront, including at Long Beach Airport.

But according to the National Weather Service, our 74-year snow drought has not, in fact, come to an end. While plenty of Los Angeles County has seen record snow levels over the last week, including at elevations as low as 1,000 feet, the NWS said any precipitation falling at lower levels—including Long Beach, whose highest point is a mere 417 feet at the roof of Shoreline Gateway apartments—does not meet the definition of “snow.”

“With temperatures well above freezing, areas at lower elevations are seeing a lot of small hail or graupel (NOT snow),” the agency tweeted.

According to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, the distinctions may be slight, but they exist. Snow, the organization’s National Severe Storms Laboratory says, “forms mainly when water vapor turns to ice without going through the liquid stage.”

“Snowflakes that most of us are used to seeing are not individual snow crystals, but are actually aggregates, or collections, of snow crystals that stick or otherwise attach to each other,” the agency’s website says. “Aggregates can grow to very large sizes compared to individual snow crystals.”

Graupel, meanwhile, “are soft, small pellets formed when supercooled water droplets (at a temperature below 32°F) freeze onto a snow crystal.”

Graupel can also be referred to as “snow pellets” or “soft hail” and generally disintegrate when handled, according to NOAA.

And hail, for those who are curious, is frozen precipitation that can begin as graupel or sleet but then grows in size.

Whatever it is we witnessed in Long Beach, though, the NWS is clear on one thing: It’s not snow.

Frozen precipitation in Bixby Knolls that may be hail or graupel, but is definitely not snow. Photo courtesy of Martin Lazniarz

Cold and rain coming to Long Beach; how about some snow?