Quick Weather Update For Those Heading Off To Citi Field For St. Johns vs. Georgetown

Taking a look at the radar, it looks as though the heavy rain has already pushed through the Tri-State area. There is another batch of precipitation near the Great Lakes that will head in later today, but for the most part the area should be dry during the late morning and early afternoon. There may be some lingering drizzle, but the Gates to Citi Field should open at their scheduled time of 10:40 AM. As Steve over at NYNJPAWeather.com points out, there is the potential for some embedded Thunderstorms this afternoon, so Citi Field may even get people lingering around the new park even longer if there is a rain delay:

While rain is racing through the forecast area via the warm front, the significantly heavy steady rainfall ahead of the cold front will not materialize due to the lack of moisture which is bottled up over the Southeast coast. This also means the atmosphere is more stable and lacking the “high octane” moisture which would have made strong to severe thunderstorms possible over the southern Philadelphia metro and central/southern New Jersey. So what can we expect for today?

Well, showers and thunderstorms will impact the forecast area as the cold front moves through the region this afternoon, generally around 12 PM to 4 PM from west to east. The thunderstorms will be capable of heavy downpours, isolated lightning, and strong wind gusts up to 40 mph

So, it may be a long day at the new ball park in Flushing.

Speaking of Citi Field, their A-Z Guide takes a completely different tone than the Yankees does about batting practice:

Fans are welcome to arrive to Citi Field early to watch players take batting practice. Fans can enter the Left Field Gate 2 ½ hours prior to the scheduled game time. Please note that batting practice does not take place prior to every game. If batting practice is in fact scheduled to take place the following is a pre-game timeline:

Gate entry times for batting practice at Citi Field.

	1:10 p.m. game	4:10 p.m. game	7:10 p.m. game
Mets BP	10:40 a.m.	1:40 p.m.	4:40 p.m.
Visitor BP	11:30 a.m.	2:30 p.m.	5:30 p.m.

We hate to pile on the Yankees, especially as Yankee fans, but we can't help but wonder if going to baseball games at Citi Field is going to be a much more pleasant experience than doing so in the Bronx. Today, Stadium Insider will get a first look at Citi Field and we'll report back later. Read the full post, after the jump

Will Weather Be A Factor For The Opening Of New York's New Stadiums?

UPDATE (3/28 9:51 PM): Steve over at NYNJPAWeather.com paints an ugly picture of the weather for the next 12 hours:

Meanwhile, locations to the north of the warm front will have very heavy rain. The process of lifting the low level jet stream, which will supply the forecast area with plenty of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic, along with significant lifting via upper level dynamics will support wide spread heavy rainfall over the northern Philadelphia metro and almost all of the New York City metro. Small river and urban flooding will be an issue in these areas and caution will need to be taken when driving tomorrow morning.

So while cloudy to partly cloudy skies can be expected through the rest of the day, a very active period of weather can be expected late tonight through early tomorrow morning with the potential for flooding, severe thunderstorms, wind damage, and even an isolated tornado.

Luckily, he is still referring to the active weather as "through early tomorrow morning." That means it still could be over before the first event at Citi Field is set to occur.

------
Anyone who has read this blog for the past two years knows that we have a strange interest in the weather. Weather isn't anything we can control. but it is extremely interesting to watch weather patterns unfold and see how they affect people.

Unfortunately for fans holding tickets to the first exhibition games at Citi Field on Sunday and Yankee Stadium on Friday, the weather seems to have some interesting things in store for us this week. For analysis of this evolving weather pattern, we will defer to Steve DiMartino, the talented independent meteorologist in charge of NYNJPAWeather.com. Lets first see what Steve has to say about how the weather will affect the first game at Citi Field on Sunday March 29, featuring the college teams of St. Johns and Georgetown:

Obviously, this should all lead to some impressive rainfall by Sunday morning. Combine these factors with the evolution of an occluded front (discussed last night in this post), and the set up is prime to produce heavy rainfall over the forecast area with the potential for some minor small stream and urban flooding. Rainfall amounts of an inch to two inches will be possible by Sunday afternoon as the cold front clears the forecast area. The heaviest rainfall is expected tomorrow morning between the hours of 4 AM and 11 AM as the cold front enhances the lifting over the entire region which will be seen as an elevated line of heavy showers and thunderstorms. Wind damage may be an isolated threat with these storms.

While that certainly is not good news for people planning to arrive early at Citi Field when gates open, it does give some hope that the game will actually be played. That being said, most people probably don't even care about the game on the field - they just want to roam around the new ballpark. One thing to keep an eye on is whether or not the Mets protect their new field and call the game early. They probably don't want college kids running around, tearing up their brand new field, if they can at all avoid it. If you are like us and plan on checking out the new park tomorrow morning, be sure to check Mets.com for any cancelation information before heading out.

For the majority of our readers who don't care about the Mets or their fancy new ballpark, we also have some early news about how the weather will affect the first events at the new Yankee Stadium. We recognize that the first real event at Yankee Stadium is the workout day on Thursday, April 2. That being said, the open workout is during a workday and most of the tickets were unattainable to the public. Therefore we will focus mainly on the early indications for the weather next Friday, April 3. For the record, Thursday's weather looks like it will be sunny with seasonable temperatures. Now, lets see what Steve DiMartino has to say about the weather for the first exhibition game - Yankees vs. Cubs on Friday, April 3:

The pattern that is going to unfold through this weekend is a typical spring time pattern as the trough that has been positioned over the East the past few months continues to retrograde to the West.

Another disturbance will move through on Friday with scattered showers and a period of steady rain, but will also move quickly through the forecast area.

It is important not to get too worked up about weather more than five days out. As Steve points out at the top of his website "Focus on 5 days at a time and you won't go nuts." Everyone should recognize that this time of year is the rainy season in the Northeast, and weather is likely to affect many of the events scheduled at the new stadiums in New York City.

Just keep an eye on reputable Tri-State weather sources such as Steve's afformentioned site, and the National Weather Service forecasts (found at great websites such as wunderground.com). If possible, avoid Accu-Weather and The Weather Channel as their model is dependent upon making money and not on giving the most accurate weather forecasts. Read the full post, after the jump