This morning, I went for a walk up in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I was expecting showers, and forecast warned me there might even be thunderstorms. But I was not expecting hail.
![Hail covering the ground, with green leaves of Frangaria species emerging from the hail](https://www.danielharper.org/yauu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/White-Christmas-1-1024x576.jpeg)
In places, the tiny hailstones covered the ground, looking so much like snow that I decided it was a white Christmas — just like the ones we used to have at home.
![About an eighth of an inch of hail accumlated on the rear windshield of a car](https://www.danielharper.org/yauu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/White-Christmas-1024x1024.jpeg)
I was wary of driving down winding, twisty mountain roads covered with a quarter of an inch of hail stones. But I watched other cars drive by without any trouble, and decided to try. The driving wasn’t that bad — after about five minutes I got below 1500 feet elevation, and the roads were clear of hail.