MSU Baseball Forecast: Breaking Out the Coats Again???

Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

Well we have another MSU baseball midweek game to bring a little bit of spice into the equation this season. We will be facing off against the Alcorn State Braves of the SWAC. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 PM CDT so we will forecast for the three hours following first pitch on Tuesday. We will use http://weather.cod.edu/forecast/ for our NAM data. So let’s get right to it.

250 mb

This looks a little tricky in the upper-atmosphere as far as our synoptic-scale setup is concerned. It looks like we have a small jet streak trying to form just to the west of the Mississippi River. Now how much it will affect us all depends on how large and strong this jet streak becomes tomorrow. If the NAM verifies, which could likely happen, then we will be slightly affected by this system by some uplift caused by us being just slightly in the front-left quadrant.

500 mb

DPVA looks a little weak for this system as we look throughout the forecast period. We do have small pockets of vorticity that will be passing over the area. Does this mean we will have cloud cover throughout the game? Probably. But I don’t see us getting any precipitation with these clouds, which is good news for sure.

700 mb

UVVs are quite strong towards the end of the game right over our area which could spell some thicker clouds appearing overhead. Until that point, we don’t really have any strong UVVs heading over our area. If we do have clouds, they will probably be some stratus clouds slowly turning a little thicker as the game goes on. Other than that, nothing really to speak of on this map that will affect us.

850 mb

Cold air advection rears its ugly head as we look through the forecast period at this level. And by cold air, I mean COLD air. By the end of the forecast period, 850 mb temperatures are around 2°C which is pretty cold for this time of year. Relative humidity values are also hovering over 95% throughout the period which spells good news for cloud cover. But we will see how it all falls out later.

Surface

Temperatures will plummet throughout the game, which means we will be needing those heavy coats as the game progresses. We will go past 40°F during the game. Add in winds coming in from the North and this will bring down the wind chill a considerable amount. It’s not going to be comfortable out there for an April evening. My suggestion for clothing is long pants, thick coat, basically cold weather clothes as the temperature plummets overnight.

Numbers you want to know

First pitch (6:30 PM CDT): 49 degrees, partly cloudy, winds NW at 10-15 mph.

Last out (9:30 PM CDT): 40 degrees, few clouds, winds NNW around 5 mph.