All’s clear

Not a cloud in the sky.

Like most of you, my life is super busy. So much so, I rarely get a chance to update The Rainout Blog for the seven people who visit this blog. (That number may be a bit inflated.)

Often, a sports/weather event will occur or be forecasted – remember: Game 3 of the ALDS was rained out – and I’ll cringe just a little because there’s no time to grab the laptop and write a post and share a photo or two.

Today, I have a little free time. So, what’s happening? Nothing.

Weather in Kansas City for the first two games of the World Series have been perfect.

We have Thursday night NFL action in Denver, where it looks like there will be a better chance of Peyton Manning NOT adding to his touchdown record than there is a chance of rain drops or snowflakes – you never know in Denver.

The low in the Mile High city tonight will be around 48. It’ll be a little chilly, but it shouldn’t be enough to affect Manning’s performance. He’s not a cold-weather quarterback, ya know?

There are a couple of college football games scheduled for tonight. Miami travels to Blacksburg for an ACC showdown – more likely a “letdown” for the home team – with Virginia Tech. Temps will dip to the mid 40s, which is about as cold as the Hokies’ offense.

You’ll see about the same weather conditions in Greenville, North Carolina if you tune into tonight’s East Carolina home game with Connecticut. (Why would you do that?)

And you know what? Sunday’s NFL slate looks pretty unspectacular too, meaning no rain, no mud, no snow, no fog… no nothin’.

More Manning, more cold... this is getting old

Hey, guess what. Our guy Peyton Manning gets yet another chance tonight to prove he’s a winner in cold weather. That’s right, Manning and his Broncos host the ‘Bolts from sunny San Diego in tonight’s NFL Network Thursday night game.

Temperatures throughout the game should be in the mid 30s with no chance of precipitation … blah, blah, blah. Oh, I should mention that with a mild wind, it will feel like low 30s.

(That’s warmer than it was at my house this morning, but then I didn’t have big defensive linemen chasing me down looking to knock snot bubbles out of my nose.)

I don’t think Manning and the Broncos will have much trouble with the Chargers on a clear, but cold night in Denver. I can see it being one of those games where the Broncos’ defense gives up a lot of yards and points, but the Denver offense scores a lot more.

I’m not in the prediction business, but I’ll say Broncos 45 Chargers 31.

Upon further review... Opps! I really should stay out of the prediction business. Chargers 27 Broncos20

Flood Me with Your Qualcomm Stadium Pics

If there’s anyone out there working to remove water from Qualcomm Stadium, send me your pics, and I’ll post the best photos here on the blog, giving you full credit, of course. Send photos to rainoutblog@gmail.com. Thanks a bunch, and good luck!

That’s Way Too Much Water on the Poinsettia’s, Guys

Given the fact that the field at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium is several inches under water, I’ll give a slight edge to Navy in Thursday’s Poinsettia Bowl. I’m sure that’s not the first, nor the last, Navy joke you’ll read or hear regarding the stadium flood.

Heavy rain in Southern California over the past few days has left the stadium flooded, and now we’re less than 24 hours away from the scheduled kick off between Navy and San Diego State University.

Kickoff is scheduled for 5:06 p.m. Pacific, and Poinsettia Bowl officials are insistent the game will played as scheduled. "The stadium grounds crew worker will work round the clock to make sure they get in the game," executive director Bruce Binkowski said.

And if you’re worried about the San Diego Chargers, don’t. The team that calls Qualcomm Stadium home is finished with its regular season home schedule. However, there is a chance the team could host a playoff game next month. The Chargers end the regular season at the Bengals and Broncos. Now there’s a couple of teams that are under water.

A spokesman for Mayor Jerry Sanders said workers have been trying to pump water out of the stadium since Thursday morning. Good luck, fellas!

I’m no expert on pumping water from football fields – although I listed exactly that on a resume once – but I just can’t see how the field will be ready for play 21 hours from now after watching this footage from San Diego’s KGTV.

Fire Then Rain in San Diego

The forecast for heavy rain storms to hit in San Diego and Southern California this weekend could have far more of an impact on the folks who are trying to rebuild homes and lives after wildfires there in the fall than the impact that may be felt for Sunday's playoff at Qualcomm Stadium between the Chargers and Tennessee Titans.

Forecasters say a trio of storms could dump about a foot of rain in some of the southern portion of the state and about seven inches in San Diego County. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 Pacific and, according to WeatherChannel.com, temperature highs should reach about 58 with a 60 percent chance of rain.

Stadium officials have said a tarp will cover the field until an hour before kickoff in the event of persistent heavy rain.

The greatest chance of rain for this weekend's playoff matchups is in Seattle, of course. Forecasters there are calling for a high a 45 degrees and a 90 percent chance of precipitation falling on Qwest Field as the Redskins beat the Seahawks.

In Pittsburgh, where the Jaguars again will take down the overrated Steelers, there is a 30 percent chance of precip with lows dipping down to 39 for the 8 p.m. kickoff. Remember, the Jags took care of business in snow at Heinz Field just a few weeks ago.

And in case you're wondering, the Tampa weather will be lovely Sunday for the Bucs game with the Giants. A high of about 70 is expected at game time. I'm not sure who will win this one, but I'm thinking Eli Manning might put together a solid game away from the not-so-friendly Giants Stadium confines and lead his team to a win. That's just a hunch.

Freeze Frames

As predicted the weather in Foxborough Sunday was horrible for the Jets – Patriots game. The pregame visuals were great, including the Weather Channel dude appearing on ESPN providing a live weather report from a beach somewhere near Foxborough. However, the best in-game visuals came out the winter wonderlands of Cleveland, where the Browns slid by the Bills, and Pittsburgh, where the Steelers melted like a snowman in a greenhouse to the warm-weather-based Jacksonville Jaguars. I may chime back in later with some weather details on each game, but for now here are some uber cool photos from those games. Enjoy!

Browns 8, Bills 0 in Cleveland


Jaguars 29, Steelers 22 in Pittsburgh


Patriots 20, Jets 10 in Foxborough


And now for something completely different:
Chargers 51, Lions 14 in Sunny San Diego

Ummmmmm, Lemon

Hey, I want to give a brief shout out and thank you to my good friend Steve Czaban for posting three fine photos of milfilicious Tina Fey on his Web site today. (Ok, the Czabe is not my good friend, but he is my favorite sports talk radio host. Close enough, eh?) Anyway, you can click on Czabe.com to see the sensational pics of Tina, aka Liz Lemon, for yourself. How does this relate to sports/weather you ask? It doesn't. It's just another opportunity for me to post a pic of yummy Tina.

What's that? You came to this site to read something about sports weather? Ok, check out this new weekly feature on The Rainout Blog that focuses on sports teams with weather-related nicknames, mascots or logos. (Ok, I'm not going to do this once a week. Maybe once a millennium, and this is that one time, Spanky. So here goes.)

Let's start with the San Diego Super Chargers and their lightning bolt logo flashing (not literally) on the side of their helmets and pants. The Bolts have gotten off to a slow start this season, as you well know, and have gone through a tough week with wild fires spreading like, uh, wild fires in San Diego. Many of the players evacuated their homes, and the team was forced to move its practices to Arizona. As of this posting, there is no word where the Chargers will play their scheduled home game against Houston this week. It's looking more and more likely that the game will be played on the team's home field, Qualcomm Stadium, but there are still questions about playing the game on Sunday or moving it to Monday night. Update: The game will be played at 4:05 p.m., Sunday in San Diego as scheduled.

In the NHL, the Carolina Hurricanes are so far one of the top teams in the league and are looking very much like the team that won the Stanley Cup two seasons ago. The 'Canes lead the Southeast Division with 15 points, the second most in the NHL, and have a 6-1-3 record. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Lightning is second to the Hurricanes with 10 points in the Southeast. The Colorado Avalanche haven't yet lived up to expectations, but the season is way too young to write off any team. The Avs have 10 points and are third in the Northwest division. (Wow, this is really lame.)

The NBA is still in preseason, so let's not get into that league right now, if ever.

Ok, that's it. You're caught up.

Oh, wait. That team with the snow-capped mountains featured on its logo is down 0-2 in the World Series. Have I mentioned that I'm so sick of Boston sports teams?

Fires Threaten Bolts

I've been debating with myself all day whether to mention here the fires burning in San Diego County.

You follow the news. You know the story. However, there are a few side stories from the fires that relate to sports.

Among those who have been forced to leave their homes are members of the sporting world, LaDainian Tomlinson, Phillip Rivers and approximately 40 other San Diego Chargers players. Others forced out of their residences are current San Diego Padres pitcher Trevor Hoffman and former Padre Tony Gwynn, according to an Associated Press story.

Flames consumed hundreds homes across the Southern California region Tuesday and hundreds of thousands of residents were forced to leave the area. Qualcomm Stadium, the home of San Diego's NFL team, is being used as an evacuation center.

Poor air quality forced the Chargers to cancel practice Monday, and the team will spend the remainder of the week in Arizona.

There is talk the Chargers scheduled home game Sunday with Houston could be played in the Cardinals Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.. The Cards have a bye week. Some are speculating the game could be moved to Sunday night or Monday night, but there has been no official word from the NFL about whether the game location or time will be changed. (Didn't I just say the other day I wasn't going to rewrite news stories?)

By the way, USA Today's The Weather Guys (Yes, I'm mentioning them again.) explained Santa Ana season on their blog yesterday. The season begins in October and can be a culprit in these autumn California wildfires.

(Qualcomm Stadium Photo: Stan Liu/Reuters)

Raider Nation Finds Odd Way to Prep For Chargers

In case you didn't notice the Oakland Raiders have played in two consecutive road games in which the contests were delayed by Mother Nature. First, a lightning storm halted the Raiders' game in Denver by 24 minutes, and couple of weeks ago Lane Kiffin and his Black and Silver crew had its kickoff in Miami pushed back a half an hour by more charges of lightning. (The photo placement above is to visually illustrate the rainfall before the Raiders game in Miami and not just a gratuitous posting of a picture featuring a hot, wet NFL cheerleader.) This week, the Raiders are guaranteed to see lightning again, but this time it will be on the helmets (and pants) of the San Diego Super Chargers. There is a very slim chance, however, the Raiders will face a third consecutive weather delay. Forecast for San Diego Sunday call for mostly sunny skies. What else would expect from Sunny San Diego?