Here's a view to the NW showing the ground coated with hail, a brown river of runoff in the middle foreground, and a small apple tree with shredded leaves near the center...

Oh, and the melon patch is barely visible along the fence behind the little apple tree

sorry, this was supposed to be with the above text...

fabaceae_native,

I am so terribly sorry. What a beautiful garden you had. You put soooo much work into it. I cannot even begin to imagine your disappointment. It seems rather late in the year for a hail storm of that proportion, especially in New Mexico. I hope you can salvage some of your harvest.

Did your roof and gutters and cars survive?

They just froze, didn't they?

Wow, that was a bad hail storm and I've seen dozens if not hundreds. But never that depth of hail after that long. Have seen it piled head high where it drifted in on flood waters.

Sorry for your lose! Sometimes gardening is a cruel business!!!

milehighgirl: miraculously no damage to cars or structures, other than some exterior lights. Here in NM it seems hail is not uncommon anytime from Spring to Fall, but usually it's just pea-sized and short-lived. This was the worst I've seen.

ltilton: I don't think they froze, since what's left of the vines is still green and not black. It was just being pelted with and buried by ice balls the size of grapes that did the damage I think.

Fruitnut: Gardening sure can be cruel, I'm just glad that it's only a hobby for me.

Just had to offer my condolences also. I had one like that a few years ago when I lived in Austin. It not only ruined my crop of fruit for the year(including what would have been my first ever crop of Magness pears) it also spread massive fireblight throughout my apple and pear trees. We had a really bad storm in Dallas this year but some how we avoided much serious damage inspite of some really serious hail. Best of luck on your recovery.

Scape