IT IS MAY, RIGHT? HAIL AND ALL?

Yesterday afternoon, following ten minutes of severe wind, we twice experienced a prolonged hailstorm. The first episode resulted in an inch of small, BB to pea-sized hard hail which covered all the ground surfaces except the lawn grass (which needs mowing again already). Our rear deck was completely covered with a little extra because it was cascading off of the roof by bouncing over the gutter. All the tree rings in the yard and orchard were white. Even the most sheltered rings were covered as the storm made the hail penetrate the leaf cover of the trees. In my experience, most hail only lasts a few minutes, but this event continued for an amazing twenty minutes and kept me peering out front and back and full of wonder. As a parting oddity, about three minutes before the downfall diminished, full, bright sunlight broke through the cloud cover and turned the falling hail into a brilliant wall of extremely bright white. During the downfall, the temperature dropped almost ten degrees to near 50 degrees. Most curious!

A later period of hail seemed ready to repeat the first, but only lasted about half as long and left less than half the hail on the ground. This time, however, the hail was not as icy, but instead was more like compacted snow - almost like snow pellets in mid-winter.

Quite unusual, indeed. Sorry I didn't get a photograph, because my camera was otherwise occupied with a different project. Did anyone around here experience the same storm in a similar way?