GC: n

S: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/04/30/small-hail-chance-in-scattered-thundershowers-2-10-p-m-today/ (last access: 15 July 2015); http://www.ktvq.com/story/29182535/q2-weather-just-a-little-free-lawn-watering-with-small-hail-today (last access: 15 July 2015).

N: 1. small (adj): Old English smæl “thin, slender, narrow; fine,” from Proto-Germanic *smal- “small animal; small”.
hail (n): “frozen rain, pellets of ice falling in showers,” Old English hægl, hagol (Mercian hegel) “hail, hailstorm,” also the name of the rune for H, from Proto-Germanic *haglaz, probably from PIE *kaghlo- “pebble”.
2. Precipitation of translucent ice particles, which falls from a cloud. These particles are almost always spherical and sometimes have conical tips. Their diameter may attain or even exceed five millimetres.
3. small hail (ice grains or pellets) may consist of frozen raindrops, of largely melted and refrozen snowflakes, or of snow pellets encased in a thin layer of solid ice.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=small&searchmode=none (last access: 15 July 2015); http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hail (last access: 15 july 2015). 2. METEOTERM/IMV – International Meteorological Vocabulary, WMO – No. 182 (last access: 15 July 2015). 3. EncBrit – http://global.britannica.com/science/small-hail (last access: 15 July 2015).

SYN:
S:

CR: freezing fog, frost, glaze, hail, hailstone, hoar frost, natural disaster, rime, sleet.