We had some unusual weather here recently. First we had a severe thunderstorm, which produced the marble-sized hail pictured. As you can see, the hail beat up the new growth on the trees and also many of my potted plants. A few nights later, it got down to 28°F. The poor plants didn't know what hit them (no pun intended). The leaves on one of our Japanese maples out front weren't so happy with the cold weather and have all wilted. I'm assuming the tree will put out some more leaves, or at least I hope it will. It's right in the middle of the bed and will be an eyesore all summer otherwise. Maybe I will go speak some encouragement to it.
Note the curious shapes of some of the hail. Most of them were smooth, some with white centers, but some of them had jagged edges. I'm not sure how that happens - do pieces of hail sometimes run into one another and break off pieces? If so, what does that imply about the conditions inside the storm cloud?
