Finance & Commerce

Play ball, with one eye on the storm clouds

By Dan Emerson Special to Finance & Commerce

To borrow a phrase from noted baseball fan Robert Zimmerman, the Minnesota Twins don't need a weatherman to tell them which way the wind is blowing. The flags on top of their new outdoor stadium will do that.

But, they do need to know if it's going to rain, when, and for how long.

The man for the job is Craig Edwards, who joined the team in April as baseball's only on-site meteorologist.

Edwards, 61, grew up a Cubs fan in the Chicago suburbs. After earning a meteorology degree at the University of Northern Illinois, he began working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Milwaukee in 1972, later moved to Indianapolis, along the way occasionally providing forecasts to groundskeepers for the Milwaukee Braves and minor league Indianapolis Indians – a resume footnote that would later prove useful.

In December, 1991, Edwards moved to the Twin Cities NOAA office, where he served as chief meteorologist until retiring in 2006. Then he provided weather forecasts for Minnesota Public Radio, before becoming the Twins' first staff meteorologist.

Edwards and Paul Huttner – a former WCCO-TV meteorologist who was his forecasting partner at MPR – approached the Twins last January about working for the team in their new, open-air ballpark.

The team had already contracted with the Burnsville office of DTN Telvent (formerly Meteorologics, Inc.) to provide daily weather info. But, after they met with Twins' Public Affairs Director Kevin Smith and head groundskeeper Larry DiVito, “in April, Larry called us back and said maybe we could work out something for game-day,” hiring Edwards. (Huttner continues to work for MPR.)

On game days, Edwards arrives two hours before the first pitch, stationing himself in his 8-by-7-foot concrete “bunker” situated behind the third base dugout below field-level, keeping an eye on two 20-inch monitors showing radar imagery beamed from a handful of weather-data providers, including several private companies and the National Weather Service.

DTN provides “Future Radar,” which uses sequence-animation to predict where precipitation will likely fall, up to two hours in advance. The NWS has a product called high resolution, rapid-refresh radar-service that's also useful in tracking rain.

By tracking frontal boundaries and cloud-lines approaching the park (usually from the west), and watching the colored blobs indicating precipitation and storms, the objective is to accurately provide short-term forecasts for the fenced-in micro-climate known as Target Field.

Why use more than radar source? Because, based on differences in proprietary software, data provided by competing meteorology services has varying degrees of precision and accuracy.

“Some 'zoom in’ better than others, some have more or better storm-tracking information,” Edwards explained. “Some have 'mosaic' capabilities” – using multiple radar systems to give a regional view. Some radars run a little “hot,” making areas of precipitation look stronger than they may actually be.

By tracking movement, “We can zoom in on a shower in Litchfield and know that it is going to move five miles north of the ballpark, and people there won't know it rained. If it's raining in Burnsville, that's irrelevant to the comfort of the fans in the stands.’

“The weather should 'remain under the radar,’” he said, no pun intended, “and let the fans enjoy game without wringing their hands about what might be in the offing.”

When Edwards took the job, DiVito told him the team “would be playing through a lot of 'green' radar” – indicating that light precipitation would not be enough to halt play.

“It's the red and orange on the radar (indicating stormy weather) that will delay games.” So far, fans have lived up to Minnesotans' reputation for weather-hardiness, as indicated by the fans who chanted “outdoor baseball” during the season's first in-game rainfall.

Unfortunately for Edwards, he can't see the game action, but can hear what's going on, and communicate with DiVito, who's closer to the field and ready to advise the umpires on any potentially problematic weather.

“The goal is to get at least some of the game in before we will have a delay.” Once a game starts, the decision to suspend or call-off the contest is in the hands of the umpires, he noted.

Between games and home stands, Edwards provides DiVito with ballpark weather forecasts up to two days in advance.

“We can tell when the next rain event may be, and Larry can use that to decide whether or not to water the field. He's very astute at using that information,” says Edwards, who in 2008 published a book of anecdotes from his forecasting career, called “Nature’s Messenger: Memoirs of a Prophetic Meteorologist.”

DiVito said Edwards' expertise has proven to be “a huge resource for myself and the Twins organization. Working with him and learning more about weather has been a highlight of the season for me thus far.”

Looking forward to possible MLB playoff games at Target Field this fall, Edwards is not sure if the leagues have specific criteria regarding low-temperature guidelines.

“I know they will play through 40 degree weather, and you could throw in wind chill and snow flurries – as long as the players can dress comfortably and the ball isn't slick.

“Based on the schedule this year, I understand the World Series could last until the first of November. But we'll deal with autumn weather when we get into it,” said Edwards, always the cool-headed weather scientist.

©2010 Finance & Commerce. Original Article