Home Run Weather 2012

PSU Alumnus, Paul Dorian has developed a mobile app that determines if the local weather conditions are favorable for home runs

Paul Dorian received B.S. and M.S. degrees in meteorology (1981, 1983) from Penn State University and has been working since 1990 in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania with The SI Organization, Inc (the SI).  As part of his work at the SI, Paul has developed a mobile app called “Home Run Weather 2012” that determines if the local weather conditions are favorable for home runs.  This simple concept is backed by math and physics and years of historical home run and weather data.  The app factors in the local “stadium-specific” weather conditions, including temperature, dew point, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction.  It also factors such things as time of day and the drag coefficient of a baseball in order to generate a Home Run Favorability Index (HRFI) that varies from least favorable (0) to most favorable (10).  It allows the user to select from any of the 30 major league cities up to 24 hours in advance of game time to generate the HRFI.  The app also displays the current and forecasted weather conditions for the user selected city and time.  It may be of interest to Fantasy Baseball players, as well as to weather and baseball enthusiasts.  The app is now available at Apple’s iTunes store for iPhones, and it will be available soon for Android mobile phone users.  To find out more click here.

As a remote-sensing industry leader, the SI has provided systems engineering solutions for state-of-the-art sensor technology and end-to-end imagery analysis and has been heavily involved with weather-related activities throughout its 40-year history.  The SI currently employs other former Penn State meteorology and engineering students and has an active working relationship with the Applied Research Laboratory.

Paul operates a weather web site for The SI at thesiweather.com where he posts forecasts and videos for company locations in the metro regions of Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New York, Denver and Los Angeles.