LEVELLAND, Texas >> Dozens of researchers are chasing, driving and running into storms to collect fresh hail, getting their car bodies and their own bodies dented in the name of science. They hope these hailstones will reveal secrets about storms, damage and maybe the air itself.

But what do you do with nearly 4,000 melting iceballs?

A lot.

Researchers in the first-of-its-kind Project ICECHIP to study hail are measuring the hailstones, weighing them, slicing them, crushing them, chilling them, driving them across several states, seeing what’s inside of them and in some cases — which frankly is more about fun and curiosity — eating them.

The whole idea is to be “learning information about what the hailstone was doing when it was in the storm,” said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini, one of the team’s lead scientists.

Calipers and crushers

It’s pushing midnight on a Friday in a Texas Walmart parking lot, and at least 10 vans full of students and full-time scientists are gathering after several hours of rigorous storm chasing. Hailstones are in coolers in most of these vehicles, and now it’s time to put them to the test.

Researchers use calipers to measure the width, in millimeters, of the hailstones, which are then weighed. So far after more than 13 storms, the biggest they found is 15.5 inches, the size of a DVD. But on this night they are smaller than golf balls.

Once the measurements are recorded in a laptop, the fun starts in the back of a van with a shark-festooned beach blanket protecting the floor.