Yikes!... the size of a SOFTBALL?!?!? I've seen mostly marble-sized hail in our town, like Nora... and I have seen golfball-sized hail on the news in other areas not too far away (places I have driven through from time to time), but *never* as large as a softball. Bad enough that poor man was in his car when it happened and ended up in the hospital... I sure wouldn't want to be caught outside with no shelter to hide under when it happened. Considering that we don't have really bad weather around here... snow storms with whiteout conditions, high winds from near passing tornadoes, ice storms (that *look* beautiful, but are trecherous to drive in) being the exceptions.... I don't envy anyone living where the really bad weather takes place.
What you said about a 1/4 of a mile making a difference in the weather is so true. My Mom was talking to a lady on the phone one day and mentioned what a gorgeous day it was and that she was getting ready to hang her laundry out on the clothesline. The woman thought she was being sarcastic because she was looking out her window (on the other side of our small town) at a hard downpouring of rain that showed no signs of letting up at all.