It has long been understood that when it comes to the game of baseball, weather can be both a welcome and unwelcome member of the roster. Baseball teams are reliant upon accurate weather predictions to not only play a game but also properly train players. 

Novel research out of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) CROCUS (Community Research on Climate and Urban Science) project, shows that the weather we experience can vary simply by ZIP Code. With weather sensors being deployed across the city of Chicago, early research indicates the impacts of various weather events can look significantly different neighborhood-by-neighborhood, or stadium-to-stadium in this case.  

And as the effects of climate change make the weather even more volatile — from more extreme heat to poor air quality events to detrimental storms — both fans and players can expect many more disruptions.  

“Climate change is something that impacts us all — even our beloved baseball teams. But in Chicago, our stadiums are representative of a larger challenge. Depending on where you live — or play — the impacts can be far greater, especially when it comes to historically disinvested communities,” — Scott Collis, atmospheric scientist at Argonne who serves as the measurement lead for CROCUS

“When we are looking at the weather, we can no longer accurately say that all parts of the city will be impacted in the same way. We must look much more specifically to the street scale itself, and CROCUS instrumentation allows us that ability,” said Max Grover, atmospheric data scientist at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. Argonne serves as the lead institution on CROCUS.

A key component of CROCUS research is understanding what causes these types of disparities. More specifically, looking at how the presence of trees, parks, roads, buildings, parking lots and skyscrapers influence the weather present in different neighborhoods. These observations are then used to develop high-resolution models that show how adding elements such as more plants can reduce flooding, or the use of different roofing materials can reduce heat.

“Climate change is something that impacts us all — even our beloved baseball teams. But in Chicago, our stadiums are representative of a larger challenge. Depending on where you live — or play — the impacts can be far greater, especially when it comes to historically disinvested communities,” said Scott Collis, atmospheric scientist at Argonne who serves as the measurement lead for CROCUS.

CROCUS is a five-year, $25 million program carried out by a team of 18 organizations, and funded by DOE’s Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research. The project seeks to understand how climate change will affect urban areas.

Academic, community and civic partners include Argonne, Chicago State University, City Colleges of Chicago, North Carolina A&T State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Notre Dame, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Texas-Austin and Washington University-St. Louis. CROCUS also partners with CIEMAT in Spain.

CROCUS community organizations include Blacks in Green, Greater Chatham Initiative, Puerto Rican Agenda and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

More than 20 sensor arrays will be deployed over the next five years across the city to gather more data on Chicago’s changing climate. Current deployment sites include Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago State University, Northwestern University and Argonne.

Learn more about CROCUS at cro​cus​-urban​.org.