Weather changes, March 30, 2008, from 04:51.42 p.m. through 4:57.51 p.m., outside our kitchen window.

4:51:42 p.m. By the time I decided to get the camera, it had been hailing long enough to coat the roof of this parked car and change the color of the soil in the bed at the foot of the Elizabeth Apartments from solid brown to near white. I raised the kitchen window and started taking photos.

4:51:59 p.m. The Elizabeth is directly across NW 22nd Avenue.

4:52.13 p.m. The Rose Plaza is diagonally across the intersection of NW Everett and NW 22nd.

4:57.16 p.m. The sun came out as quickly as the hail had started earlier.

4:57.51 p.m. The hail on the fire escape melted from opaque ice balls to shiny wetness in the bright sunshine.

This was the third or fourth day in a row that I'd seen hail, followed by bright sun. Finally, a visual definition extraordinaire of what Portland's weather people call sun breaks.