What fell at Qingyang: hail or a meteorite shower? Both fit the sizes; early-spring hail is uncommon there, and showers of countless meteorites are rare everywhere

Opened 26 October 2026. Hail: goose-egg to pea sizes are textbook hail, and the Ming History records many such storms, but in the north-west only 1 of 14 dated hailstorms fell by the 3rd month. Meteorites: showers of thousands of small stones happen (Pultusk 1868, Holbrook 1912), but only a few per century worldwide, and they come with loud booms and a fireball, which no account mentions. The Ming History's editors kept hail separate and filed this as stones, so their source said 'stones'. The same month a real fireball fell with thunder at Yilong, Sichuan (7 April), about 550 km south; probably a different event. Not decidable without the local gazetteer or a stone.