Ping, ping ping: Driving into a big hailstorm in the name of science

INSIDE A TEXAS HAILSTORM (AP) — Wind roared against the SUV's windows as its tires sloshed through water dumped onto the road by the downpour.

- BY SETH BORENSTEIN, BRITTANY PETERSON and CAROLYN KASTER

A horizon-wide funnel cloud loomed out the window, several miles away. Then came the loud metallic pings on the roof. First one, then another. Then it was too fast to count and too loud to hear much of anything else.

Hailstones were pelting down, and the car was driving toward them.

"How big are they?" meteorology professor Kelly Lombardo asked from the passenger seat.

"Probably no more than a nickel or dime, but they're just flowing at 50 mph," said fellow researcher Matthew Kumjian as he steered through the flooded road.

Lombardo and Kumjian are part of a team of about 60 researchers chasing hail across the Great Plains to better forecast an underappreciated hazard that causes about $10 billion a year in damage in the U.S. The researchers brought along three Associated Press journalists to observe the first-of-its kind project called ICECHIP, including trips into the heart of the storms in fortified vehicles like the one driven by Kumjian.

The payoff is data that could improve hail forecasts. Knowing what's going on inside a storm is crucial to knowing what's going to happen to people in its path, meteorologists said.

"We have a really tough time forecasting hail size," said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini, one of the project leaders. "All scientific experiments start with data gathering, and without that data we don't know what we're missing. And so that's what this project is all about."

On this afternoon, Lombardo and Kumjian, Penn State University professors who are married to each other, were negotiating rapid weather changes while collecting their data.