If you were quick enough to dodge the quarter-sized hail in northern Santa Fe on Thursday afternoon, you might have looked back and wondered if it had also started raining leaves.

The hail, measured in places as dime, nickel and quarter sized, blasted leaves and small branches off trees from the Roundhouse to the Plaza for a few minutes around 2 p.m.

Tourists and natives alike took shelter under restaurant awnings, in stores and under umbrellas to fend off the strange-looking deluge.

Afterward, Linda Palmer, a visitor from San Francisco, stared warily at a small river carrying greenery and floating ice balls along a large portion of East Marcy Street.

"I haven't seen anything like this for a long time," Palmer said. "The tricky bit now is figuring out how to cross the street."

Palmer took shelter in Video Libraryon Marcy Street and watched the interesting monsoon-season weather display. Afterward, she noted the freshness in the air.

"It smells all minty now," Palmer said, looking at nearby trees. "These are cottonwoods, aren't they? But the leaves all over, they smell minty. That's interesting."

Kristine Archuleta, who's lived in Santa Fe all her life, was driving on St. Francis Drive when the hailstorm struck.

"I was in my car and it was crazy," she said. "I was like 'Is my window going to break?' "

Her car and others around town appeared to not be damaged.

In general, quarter-sized hail will damage trees but isn't big enough to hurt cars, said Dan Porter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.

"Quarter-sized hail is definitely not that uncommon, actually," Porter said. "A lot of the hail we get happens on the Eastern Plains, but it is not out of the ordinary in Northern New Mexico. The only odd thing about this storm is that it just happened to hit the Capitol and tourist areas."

The storm developed between Santa Fe and Los Alamos and became most intense as it moved over northern Santa Fe just before 2 p.m., he said

"It was a brief intense updraft," Porter said.

In an updraft, raindrops are pushed upward into the atmosphere until they freeze and start to collide. As they collide they clump and grow until the updraft can't hold their weight anymore, which sends them back toward the ground as hail, Porter explained.

"The stronger the updraft, the more it can sustain in terms of hailstone growth," he said.

Thursday was probably the stormiest day we'll see in the immediate future. Monsoons through the weekend are not predicted to be as intense, Porter said.

"As we progress into the weekend, the chances for thunderstorms are more isolated and the chance for hail will be less," Porter said. "The main thing will be the isolated threat of wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour in some places."

After the storm, at least a few intrepid tourists said they wouldn't mind seeing more hail.

"We wish it would happen in our city — we're in a drought," said Alan Hassenflu, who was visiting from Houston on Thursday with a group of about six co-workers.

Hassenflu and his friends were eating outside at La Casa Sena on East Palace Avenue when the hail started falling, he said.

"We finished fast and got under the canopy," Hassenflu said, taking a whiff of the minty air as he walked to his car. "It smells great now, though. We're actually really liking this. It's been an interesting twist."

Contact Sue Vorenberg at svorenberg@sfnewmexican.com.