Originally Posted by
staehpj1
If I understand you correctly, that sounds more like what I would call sleet here. Hail is more of a summertime phenomenon and occurs when there is a strong updraft associated with strong summer thunderstorms, so it is most often accompanied by lightning. It is inhibited by colder weather and is unusual in winter.
Hailstones can be quite large, and while not the norm, golf ball sized stones are not that unusual. There have been reported cases of hail as large as 8" (20 cm). I haven't seen really big hail while on tour but have seen 4" diameter hail a couple times in my life.
Hail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
No, not sleet.
These are stones, often of quite a decent size. Sunday's were only about 1/2 cm in diameter, but I've seen them larger.
It's something that occurs quite often in winter here. Keep in mind that winters here aren't like the Canadian prairie winters I was used to. Although it gets quite cold on the mountain tops, near the ocean it rarely dips below freezing. But the combination of the mountains and the ocean and systems coming up from Antarctica can create some interesting weather.
In the summer we can get the big hail ... last summer we had a couple storms of golf ball sized hail.