"rb608" wrote in message
ps.com...

...Anybody have a name for this stuff

Not me.

or how it's formed?

I've got a guess. Hail gets buffeted up and down by conflicting air
currents. Each time it drops down into warmer and wetter air, the surface
melts and accretes a new layer of water via condensation and/or
microdroplets. Each time it moves up, the now greater surface
refreezes.....and on and on it goes till the hailstones are too heavy to be
lifted anymore. The snowballs are formed pretty much the same way. The
difference is that at this time of year the warm air layer is not nearly as
much so as in the summer months. If any melting occurs at all, it is
minimal. When the ball goes back up, it doesn't have a film of liquid water
to freeze into solid ice.....just fused snowflakes.

Wolfgang