Southerly Flow May Impact Game 1 of the MLB NLCS! (credit: Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz)

DISCUSSION: As Game 1 of the National League Championship Series is played this evening between the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field, weather may have an impact on the outcome.   As a result of a mature low pressure system slowly moving eastward across parts of Central Canada, an associated cold front is slowly moving eastward across the Central United States.  As a result of this cold front's position, there is decent southerly flow of 10 to 15 kts in the vicinity of the Chicago metropolitan area (with stronger winds aloft).  The presence of this southerly flow may have an impact on some deeper fly balls hit sufficiently high by way of them carrying further out to left, left-center, or center field (depending on what direction specific fly balls are hit by Cubs or Dodgers batters).  The reason for this factor is due to the fact that home plate is oriented on the south side of the field; while the outfield is oriented in a northerly-to-northeasterly direction which is conducive for fly balls carrying deeper than usual in the outfield.  

Within the graphic above (courtesy of www.weather.rap.ucar.edu), you will denote the red-circled region with the star icon (which represents the approximate location of Wrigley Field located in Chicago, Illinois).  Hence, in and around the star (representing the approximate position of Wrigley Field) you can denote the aforementioned southerly flow which may support the presence of fly balls which may carry more than average during the game this evening.  Should be interesting to see how these windier conditions affect the outcome of the game and possibly the series as it progresses.

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​~Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz