Hail?
Hell no..we got no hail in the PNW (aka God's Country)
I do have plenty of deer trying to destroy my tomatoes.

Sorry for your troubles, hail sucks. I had one really bad storm once 5 years ago. It was one of my best years yet up to that point and this horrible, nasty, quarter size hail storm comes out of no where and you can do nothing but hope they will bounce back. Mine did that year, it wasn't as good a year as it would have been had the hail not pulverized it in the first place, but I guess I should just be happy it wasn't the tornado they were saying it could have been ;-)

Hail sucks for the gardener. I live in an area that usually gets at least several hail storms every summer. Hasn't been any here yet. Keeping fingers crossed.

What I've come up with is this structure and I have a couple more like it. My tomatoes have grown up to the top since this photo was taken. The posts and wood are cheap enough though the hardware cloth is sort of pricey but it should last decades.

{{gwi:74644}}

I had a wholesale nursery in Florida and a garden the first time we had a big hail storm. I felt so sorry for the plants. My dad stayed in the car in Sanford while my mom went shopping, when a major hail storm happened. Windshields were broken. Their car looked like someone had hit it with a hammer about a hundred times. All the car dealers had special sales after that storm.

gjcore: Thanks for sharing a picture of your hail protection. I was watching the hail pummel my garden and they dont fall vertically down. As with rain, it comes sideways as well. So your plants at the front would still receive considerable damage wont they? I thought of just getting a huge piece of sturdy plastic and just put it over the entire tomato bed (doable since i only have about 12 plants). Obviously that means I have go actually go put it on before the storm hits, unlike yours which you leave on all the time. We do get weather warnings and that was how i actually saved 60 -70% of my plants this time.

Zackey: In June when we had the huge hailstorm, my car which wasnt parked in the garage was hit too - its perhaps more than 100 round dents all over. Surprised the windscreens didnt break! Insurance company said they couldnt assess our case till end of August because they were inundated with similar cases in the region!

In my experience here on the high plains of Colorado the most damaging hail falls mostly straight down certainly though there is some sideways action.

My setup certainly isn't perfect but it does afford a good degree of protection. If I'm at home when the next hail comes I could attach tarps, sheets or blankets to my frames. Really having any sort of frame that you could throw something over and secure would help a lot. Just covering with a tarp etc. directly on the plants only provides minimal protection.