How weather can impact baseball, from summer heat to cold winters | Illinois Public Media

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While a home run can send a baseball soaring past 400 feet, achieving this feat involves complex physics during the ball-to-bat collision. However, atmospheric conditions also significantly influence the game.

In fact, a study by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society found that warmer air from high temperatures can account for 1% of home runs.

Steve Nesbitt, a professor in the Department of Climate, Metrology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Alan Nathan, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the same institution, discuss how weather dynamics affect the game.

Partial funding for Weather Realness is provided by the Backlund Charitable Trust. If you want to ask a local scientist a question on the program, please leave a voicemail at 217.333.2141 or email weatherrealness@illinois.edu