Hail 2 March

We were driving to work this morning when it started to hail.  I haven't seen hail very often in Bodega Bay, so I was pretty excited.  I asked Eric to pull over so I could take a few pictures.  I tried recording a short video (see below).  And then, since the hail wasn't melting very fast, I went down to the beach to photograph the hail on the sand for the record.  [If you can't see the video below, click on the title of this post to go to the website.]

Hail 2 March 2018 from Jackie Sones on Vimeo.

I think I've only seen this once or twice in the last 10 years or so — hailstones being pushed up into a drift line by the waves:

 

Most of the hailstones were ~4 mm across:

 

Next, here's a series of photos with marine flora and fauna for context.

With coralline algae (bleached by the sun):

 

With snail egg capules:  

 

With a small sea urchin spine:

 

With a springtail (collembolid) on a hailstone (upper left corner)!