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Middle Tennessee State Forecast:                                                                                      

“The West Virginia Warm Up Game”

            Chief D-7 Meteorologist Bob Wevodau

THE INTRO: 

OK, maybe I am getting a head of myself with that opening comment, but let’s face it.  If we can’t handle MTST in College Park, we have no shot of ruining the Mountaineers season.  Assuming we put away William and Mary (and God help us all if we didn’t), this is the Terps chance to get to 2-0.  Sure the schedule starts out soft, but we will need every W we can muster, no matter what week we get it.  With that being said, the Terps need to make sure they do not overlook the pesky Blue Raiders who came pretty damn near to knocking off NC State in Raleigh last year, which is more than we can say.  So with that warning lets look at what the weather has in store for the Terps and their faithful band of tailgaters. 

The 2006 schedule just keeps getting better and better.  What’s better than tailgating?  How about tailgating without having to set your alarm clock!  That’s right for another week, the Terps won’t run out of the Tunnel until 6:00 pm, when the lights are out, and the sun is setting.  I don’t know why, maybe Debbie Yow got sunburn during last season, but finally we are getting some good game times in CP. 

THE HISTORY:

The average high in College Park for September 9 is 81 F° and the average low is 64 F°.  And going by that I would love to see an average day for this match up.  Those temps are almost San Diego like numbers.  Anyway, on to the extremes, the record high for this date is a not so SoCal like 98 F° set back in 1872, and the record low is a cool 48 F° which occurred back in 1901.  Even if we did set a record low for this date, it really wouldn’t matter because the 6:00 PM starts will allow us to tailgate during the warmest time of the day. 

THE FORECAST:

The Almanac is calling for some humid weather with some hit or miss showers for the Mid-Atlantic, and though that makes for some interesting football watchin’, we really would like to minimize the X-factors for this match up.  And though, I would like that to be the case, I think we are realistically looking at some precipitation.  I usually don’t like calling for rain because it is so hit and miss, and when you miss, everyone likes to remind you.  However, historically it appears that September 9^th has been slightly more rainy than average football days, so with that past knowledge and the infinite wisdom of the Farmers Almanac, I think I am going to go with a chance of showers.  No rain out, but you may want to keep a poncho handy in case a storm/shower does roll through.  The Temps will probably run a little above average with the forecasted humidity, so you may also want to take that into account.  Anyway, let’s make this official and say:

The forecast for the September 9, 2006 “Making the Raiders Blue Game” is for mostly cloudy skies with occasional rain showers rolling through.  A slight chance of a thunderstorm, but I’ll keep it optimistic and say just showers.  We should see about 78 F° by tailgating time which will warm up to about 84 F° before game time.  The low will be 69 F°, but it won’t be any concern to us.  As the game kicks off the Temps should be back in the low 80’s and by the time the players sing the fight song, it should be back in the Mid 70’s. 

Unfortunately with this time of year we are going to have to go with 2 warnings.  First and foremost is the CODE YELLOW umbrella alert.  Not a washout, but you may want to have one handy.  The next warning is a CODE YELLOW sun burn warning.  Even if the sun only peaks through for a little bit, it is still plenty high enough in the sky to do some damage.  So don’t say you weren’t warned!

The game day sunrise in College Park, MD on September 9^th is for 6:44 am (at this time of year we are losing about 1 minute of sunlight each day at sunrise and sunset).  The sunset is scheduled for 7:26 pm or just around half time.  As for the moon, I hope I am getting this right, but the moon should be out by 8:03 PM and then set around 8:52 AM the next day. (I think the moon rise and set are the toughest part of the forecast, for one they give them in the UTC time zone where ever that is, and they also take place over different days a lot of time, just a general pain).  The moon will be a Wanning Gibbous 95% illuminated.  Just a little shy of a full moon, so watch out for all those crazies. 

THE SNOW REPORT:

It never has, and probably never will snow on September 9^th in College Park, MD.  The record low as mentioned about is 48 F and that is nowhere near enough for snow.

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.

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. 

• 1921 - A dying tropical depression unloaded 38.2 inches of rain upon the town of Thrall in southeastern Texas killing 224 persons. 36.4 inches fell in 18 hours. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)

• 1944 - The "Great Atlantic Hurricane" ravaged the east coast. The storm killed 22 persons and caused 63 million dollars damage in the Chesapeake Bay area, then besieged New England killing 390 persons and causing another 100 million dollars damage. (The Weather Channel)

• 1971 - Hurricane Ginger formed, and remained a hurricane until the 5th of October. The 27 day life span was the longest of record for any hurricane in the North Atlantic Ocean. (The Weather Channel)

• 1987 - Thunderstorms produced severe weather in the central U.S. Thunderstorms in West Texas spawned four tornadoes in the vicinity of Lubbock, and produced baseball size hail and wind gusts to 81 mph at Ropesville. Thunderstorms produced hail two inches in diameter at Downs KS and Harvard NE, breaking car windows at Harvard. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

• 1988 - Florence became a hurricane and headed for the Central Gulf Coast Region. Florence made landfall early the next morning, passing over New Orleans LA. Winds gusts to 80 mph were recorded at an oil rig south of the Chandeleur Islands. Wind gusts around New Orleans reached 61 mph. Total property damage from Florence was estimated at 2.5 million dollars. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)

• 1989 - The first snow of the season began to whiten the mountains of Wyoming early in the morning, as for two days a moist and unusually cold storm system affected the state. By the morning of the 11th, a foot of snow covered the ground at Burgess Junction. Thunderstorms developing along a cold front crossing the Ohio Valley produced severe weather in Indiana during the late afternoon and early evening hours. Strong thunderstorm winds blew down a tent at Palestine injuring seven persons, and frequent lightning interrupted the Purdue and Miami of Ohio football game, clearing the stands. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

***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.