The phrase "a palpable need" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a need that is very clear, intense, or easily perceived.
Example: "In the aftermath of the disaster, there was a palpable need for immediate assistance and support from the community."
Alternatives: "an obvious need" or "a clear necessity".
But there is a palpable need for consistent rules of engagement.
Following the Scottish public's "clear decision", he argued, there was a "palpable need for renewal" of the UK's constitutional arrangements without "dither or delay".
There is a palpable need for effective, well-tolerated pharmacotherapies that can mitigate or eliminate the detrimental effects of poor sleep on children's mood, cognition, and daily function without causing unwanted side effects or otherwise endangering the child.
In almost everything I've written there is a thread of this: a man's seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself.
This vast, palpable need for help is a shameful indictment of our health care system — one that politicians opposed to reform insist is the world's best.
"In almost everything I've written," Serling said in 1967, "there is a thread of this: man's seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself".
Bradley Dean colors Marvin's case of arrested development with essential vulnerability and palpable need.
Add the palpable need to cover your rear.
In doing so, we may be able to improve our understanding of a neglected feature of our emotional system — namely, its sensitivity to something other than palpable needs or threats.
It can result in a "palpable mass" that needs to be biopsied to establish malignancy or infection, wrote Dr. Sener, the former president of the American Cancer Society.
"There's wintry virtuosity at play, combined with a palpable absence of any need to show off," he continued.
