Florida International Forecast:
“How bad would it suck to not beat an airport?”
Chief D-7 Meteorologist Bob Wevodau
THE INTRO:
I am writing this forecast here today on the eve of the WVU game, so by the time this is published, we will know a lot more about our football team than we do now. Either way with a WVU loss or WVU win, this is a key game. Coming into the season looking at this one on paper, I thought to myself, how on earth can this game possibly have any meaning by the time it is played, we’ll it most certainly does. We have yet to have the “Everything is going to be all right” game. The one were everyone clicks and nothing goes wrong. Assuming we don’t have that game Thursday night in Morgantown, this is our last chance to build any kind of confidence heading into Conference play. I can’t say much about Florida International and I don’t even know what their mascot is, but the Terps need to take this game as seriously as a heart attack, because if we don’t gel now, we won’t stand much of a chance come October.
Luckily for us, and unfortunately for the last time this season possibly, we actually know the kickoff time for the game before the weather forecast is posted. And once again the University has heard our pleas and granted us a 6:00 start! I won’t bore you with another editorial about how great the 6:00 start is for games like these, so let’s just leave it at “this start time pleases me”.
THE HISTORY:
The average high in College Park, MD for September 23rd is 77 F° and the average low is 59 F°. This is very similar to the Morgantown game 9 days earlier. As for the extremes the record high for this date is 98 F° set back in 1895, and the record low is chilly 36 F° which occurred back in 1904. Since both records are over 100 years old, I am going to play the percentages and say that they will last a little longer yet.
THE FORECAST:
Yikes! The Almanac is calling basically for Armageddon, with heavy thunderstorms and damaging wind and strong down pours. God I hate these forecasts. You trust the Almanac and then you get a forecast like this and you wonder “Do I tempt fate and ignore my sources that have been so good to me for so long? Or do I trust my gut and go with what I feel comfortable predicting?”. Well let’s put it this way, while tailgating in the torrential downpour, don’t stand too close to me because Karma may just have a big lightening bolt with my name on it. I am going solo on this forecast. So for better or worse, here’s the prediction I am now married to:
The forecast for the September 23, 2006 “BWI-Florida International Game” is for decent football weather. Any hints of fall, that were so charming to write about in the previous forecasts, will be replaced by the “harsh realities of fall”. We are due for a windy tailgate and I think this is the game we are going to get it. I am not predicting any rain, but I think it will be mostly cloudy and breezy. We should see about 68 F° by tailgating time(the noon tailgating time that is) and that will continue to rise up until about 4 pm when it will hit 74 F°. Game time should see the temperature back down to around 72. The low will be 54 F°, but it most likely won’t be much factor at this time of night, unless you pass out in the bed of your truck and wake up at 4:00 am on Sunday.
Once again, there are no sun screen and poncho warnings for this game. But I am issuing a breeze warning (if no such thing exists I am hereby patenting it). Hold on to your cups people and good luck with beer pong, because when the wind gets between the two Dodge Dakota’s, cups and empties are going to be scattering.
The game day sunrise in College Park, MD on September 23rd is for 6:56 am. The sunset is scheduled for 7:03 pm which will give us a twilight kick off followed by 3 quarters of night football. As for the moon, it should be out around 7:57 AM Saturday morning, and will set at 7:29 PM, but I wouldn’t jot down those times just yet since the moon will be 100% new.
THE SNOW REPORT:
We are back to no chance of snow at all for this game. It has never snowed in College Park on September 23, and with the help of the crappy ozone layer we now have, it probably never will. Boy I can’t wait for the BC game! This section is going to be about a page and a half long.
Look here for further updates, as we get closer to game day.
THE CHARITY PLEA:
Don’t forget to save your loose change and stray bills to donate to our “Save the Terrapin” fund. Remember with every $15 we raise we can save/adopt one terrapin through the Terrapin Institute, which will be saved (by being tagged) from commercial harvest. All “STT” progress will be monitored on the website.
To follow up to the Charity plea, as you can see Bix is posting turtles on the home page for each 15$ we raised. Per Brian we raised around $15 this past tailgate, which makes our total on the year 115$. Just 35$ short of our goal. Thanks to alcohol and peer pressure we have now saved 7 turtles.
Look here for further updates, as we get closer to game day.
THE X-FACTOR:
Just to show you some extremes that could happen and have happened on this particular date in weather history.
- 1815 - One of the greatest hurricanes to strike New England made landfall at Long Island and crossed Massachusetts and New Hampshire. It was the worst tempest in nearly two hundred years, equal to the hurricane which struck in 1938, and one of a series of severe summer and autumn storms to affect shipping lanes that year. (David Ludlum) Damn why couldn’t they save this for the BC game!!
- 1904 - The temperature at Charlotteburg, NJ, dipped to 23 degrees, the coldest reading of record for so early in the autumn for the state. (The Weather Channel)
- 1983 - A thunderstorm downburst caused a timber blowdown in the Kaibab National Forest north of the Grand Canyon. Two hundred acres were completely destroyed, and scattered destruction occurred across another 3300 acres. Many trees were snapped off 15 to 30 feet above ground level. (The Weather Channel) Homer Simpson: Awwww lumber has a million uses!
- 1987 - Autumn began on a rather pleasant note for much of the nation. Showers and thunderstorms were confined to Florida and the southwestern deserts. Warm weather continued in the western U.S., and began to spread into the Great Plains Region, but even in the southwestern deserts readings remained below 100 degrees. (The National Weather Summary) Is this really news?
- 1988 - Thunderstorms developing along a cold front in the south central U.S. produced severe weather in Oklahoma during the afternoon and early evening hours. Thunderstorms produced softball size hail near Noble and Enterprise, and baseball size hail at Lequire and Kinta. A tornado near Noble OK destroyed a mobile home injuring one person. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
- 1989 - Seventeen cities in the north central U.S. reported record low temperatures for the date, including Devils Lake ND with a reading of 22 degrees. Jackson KY reported a record low of 41 degrees during the late afternoon. Strong northwesterly winds ushering cold air into the central and northeastern U.S. gusted to 55 mph at Indianapolis IND. Winds along the cold front gusted to 65 mph at Norfolk VA, and thunderstorms along the cold front deluged Roseland NJ with 2.25 inches of rain in one hour. The temperature at Richmond VA plunged from 84 degrees to 54 degrees in two hours. Snow and sleet was reported at Binghamton NY. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary) This will give my breeze warning some street cred.
***This is a disclaimer to remove all responsibility on myself if this forecast is wrong. Being that it is very difficult to predict the weather greater than 48 hours in advance, the odds of needing this disclaimer are about 100%. However I do believe this forecast will be pretty close to what we can actually look to expect.