Disappointing peach tree saga. Any pointers for next year?

Hi Y'all, Last year a peach tree that grew from a pit which sprouted in our garden 5 or 6 years ago, blossomed in abundance last spring. The tree was literally covered with blooms which were all pollenated and the developing friuit had to be thinned aggressively. We had a bumper crop of delicious, large and juicy peaches.

But this spring, that same tree had a total of about 2 dozen blossoms, all on the same side of the tree (the west).  They all seemed to be pollenated and the fruit started to develop. Then about 3 weeks ago we had high winds and large hail (some said it was a small tornado).  Only about a dozen remained on the tree immediately after the storm. But since then all but 5 have fallen off!

The tree seems to be quite healthy with lots of fresh growth all over and very little "leaf curl". (Leaves I see with it, I'm pulling off.) But I'm puzzled with the very sparse blossoming.  Any explanation for this or any way to improve it next season?

Here's a few pics...

It's not uncommon for stone fruit trees to produce every other year.  Basically if they produce too much at one time they can exhaust the trees resources so much that it doesn't have enough to produce much fruit the next year.

Some advice on how to control biennial bearing:
What Is Biennial Bearing: Information On Alternate Bearing Of Fruit Trees

Thanks Peter! Very helpful info!

It could have been frost or a freeze that knocked out the blooms on the other side. A freeze can freeze the buds before the blooms open.

Ya Bruce My two trees in Denver do the same thing. This year the squirrels have been "pruning" the fruit for me. They are not even waiting for the fruit to get ripe! Anyway I am lucky to have fruit every three to four years. If it isn't the animals it is snow, hail, frost, etc.

Yeah, squirrels are aweful. If they’d eat the whole thing they couldn’t do so much damage, but they only want the tiny seed in the pit.

Thanks Ken, I had not thought of that but it makes a lot of sense!

I have a 40 ft "volunteer" peach tree. The peaches take forever to ripen. They are still completely green in July!
The birds don't wait for ripening, they peck holes, then the bees, wasps and beetles start in on the holes. If I want to eat a peach I have to chew around the bad parts. Thats if I can find some that actually had time to ripen.
I usually just pick up what's on the ground, cut off the good parts and freeze in small one serving zip locks to make compote for French toast.

Here's an update on the tree about which I posted above. The first year was a very plentiful yield of very large peaches. The second year we harvested about 7! But this year is making up for the last!  It's a late peach but is yielding loads of large, delicious, sweet juicy fruit. Here's pics of part of yesterday's pick. So far (since the first of September) we/ve picked about 86 pounds of peaches from this one tree and expect the total will be well over a hundred pounds!

Dang!  Those a gorgeous!  My mouth is watering something fierce now.

They are delicious!!! While I've been picking them, my wife has been very busy processing them. She has made a couple of pies, a number of jars of freezer jam and has blanched, peeled, sliced and frozen most of them for use during the winter. It has been an awesome crop this year. Thank you Lord! Here's a pic showing peach jam, slices for freezing, frozen peaches in bags and some fresh peaches.