87storms

In what can only be described as unusual this year…radar actually looks pretty good up here.

It's subjective...obviously, the play-in tourney needs to make money, but basketball only has 5 guys taking the floor from each team. It's not like football or baseball. For many years, it was a superstar league and kind of still is, though now because the game is global the talent pool is off the charts and you almost need 2 or 3 stars, so a lot of the anti-tanking rules (like how they smoothed out the lottery odds for the worst teams) may end up being overkill. I think a lot of these discussions show who's a true fan or not. I love basketball, so the idea of a play-in tourney is like...cool, more hoops lol. To casual fans, they may see it as watering down the season. Now what's really getting ridiculous is all the conference re-alignments in college sports.

I still think we need a couple more region-wide storms here. A lot of these events aside from Ophelia are still producing ticky tack/sporadic amounts of precip followed by several days of dry weather. The storm track still seems to be too far north with the deep south feeling the impacts even more than we are. It'll be interesting to see if the general overall pattern sticks through the winter...if so, there's gonna be a lot of time spent tracking Miller B's.

I don't think there's a right answer for how many teams should make the postseason. The main reason for the play-in games in the NBA is to avoid tanking for high lottery picks (like the Lebron's and Wemby's of the world), though with the amount of parity increasing, lottery picks may not matter as much as they once did which could make the play-in games a bit "extra". As for baseball, I think it's fine as-is. I certainly thought having only 2 from each league make the playoffs back in the day was a little weird, but maybe 4 was good enough. That said, if you get swept in a best of 5 after having a small break to rest aches and pains (which any athlete would appreciate), then you're just not ready to win it all.

That’s the streaky nature of sports. The Rangers leading the league in runs scored seemed to have paid off.

Phenomenal finish to the day once that little cloud-inducing vort moved through.

Are the Os really about to get swept? Would like to see them get one. They might be going through the growing pains that the Nats went through for years.

Ended up getting a localized shower yesterday imby...probably ended up with 0.1-0.15" if I had to guess. I have not been one of those who has enjoyed the last couple days of weather lol, so I'm kinda liking the upcoming forecast the next few days. Hoping that the meandering upper level low is far enough north to keep the clouds at bay.

Blue skies looking west over the Catoctins. Looks like a nice afternoon on tap in time for the orioles/terps combo.

…in other news, I finally got my hands on some Eagle Rare…a rare find these days. I still remember Chill and others recommending that one to me. I personally think it’s underpriced…and I’m ok with that.

Meanwhile, the Dolphins are ballin’ under their coach, who was once on the ‘skins staff. They may need to find a younger, innovative coach instead of someone who might be stuck in their ways. Season is early tho…tbd.

The weather this week has been high level. I have noticed more stink bugs lately, but they don’t bother me. The tiny black biting flies or wherever they are, I can do without.

There's definitely more sun already than I expected. I'm not a big fan of extended cloud cover, though I don't mind a reset every now and then like this past weekend.

I remember Summer 2018 being super wet to the point that several Potomac Locks were flooded at times. Basically, the polar opposite of our April thru August stretch, at least in the drought zones. Summer 2019 wasn't dry either, if I recall correctly.

Can actually see some breaks in the clouds up here. Pretty good forecast by LWX as they mentioned the potential for that the last couple days as the high builds a little further south.

Today was a marine layer on steroids. Satellite imagery showed a cloud deck that hardly moved all day lol. Basically the weather you’d find in a lull during a winter nor’easter.

Looks like a Pacific NW climate incoming with a low level easterly flow all week. Hopefully, that at least includes some breaks in the clouds.

Looks like the next round arrives around 2am and lasts through the morning with another ~0.5-0.75” areawide and more towards the 95 corridor.

0z nam looks kinda good so far.

I caved (taking an online class, so had to keep my priorities straight). No bourbon yet, but I did pour a glass. Now it’s time to pad some precip stats.

Yea, we need that bowling ball of precip to not turn into a ping pong ball by the time it reaches the 95 corridor. I'm at about ~1-1.25" around here. Could use another band or two. I've got some Breckenridge Oktoberfest waiting for me...that and maybe even some Bootjack whiskey.

~0.75” so far

I could see this being an overperformer, if anything. It’s a weakening system, but it’s not often we have a tropical system moving straight off the Atlantic and up 95 lol. Satellite looks phenomenal: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/sector_band.php?sat=G16&sector=ne&band=GEOCOLOR&length=12

Been managing to stay in the southern edge of that band. Upslope is doing its thing so far. The bands off the Bay look intriguing, too.

Pretty good shower winding down now with around 0.5” so far.