Hail!

Today has been the weirdest day.

I woke up to the sound of a gully washer, followed less than an hour later by sunshine and dramatic skies. Before I finished my 2nd cup of coffee, the sun was gone, obscured by clouds so dark that I considered turning on the light. Lightning and thunder were next, and then the clouds opened up again, but what poured forth wasn’t rain but hail. It only lasted for a couple of minutes, but it was the most intense hail storm I had ever seen. Knowing that the hail stones would melt very quickly, I grabbed my camera and headed outside to document this unusual event.

Now, an hour and a half later, there’s no trace it ever happened (except for the pile near the key lime, see below), the sun is shining, and I just saw a hummingbird flutter by outside.

Silly me, I thought today was May 15th, but apparently it’s still April.

Hail on roof

Violets (Viola odorata), Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra), and potted squid agave (Agave bracteosa) in back yard

This could be a photo of the first snow fall of the season (if it ever snowed here)

Raised vegetable beds

Succulent display table

A whole avalanche of hail shooting off the roof and collecting next to our potted key lime

Variegated maiden hair grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Silberpfeil’) outside the front yard fence

Trailing ice plant (Delosperma cooperi), looking decidedly more forlorn than usual

Agave desmettiana ‘Variegata’

Agave lophanta ‘Quadricolor’

Puya coerulea var. violacea

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While hail damage was minimal overall, some plants were affected. (Click here for an update.)

Karly Rose fountain grass (Pennisetum orientale 'Karley Rose’) looking decidedly less perky than the other day

Siskiyou Pink gaura (Gaura lindheimeri 'Siskiyou Pink') looks a tad flattened, too

Echeveria bifida var. metallica showing cosmetic damage—darker green is showing where the purplish metallic skin was punctured

This is a Euphorbia x martinii, one of the woody spurges. Like all euphorbias, its sap is a milky latex-like substance that is irritating to some people. It looks like the hail stones must have hit the plant hard enough to release some of the sap because the entire plant is dotted with white drops of latex. None of our other woody spurges show this kind of damage.

5/20/2011: Click here for a hail damage update.