West Virginia Forecast:
“When they say Almost Heaven, are they referring to their weak Football Schedule?”
Chief D-7 Meteorologist Bob Wevodau
THE INTRO:
That opening quote says it all. When the ACC dismantled the Big East it was great for the Conference. After watching this seasons NFL Draft you can really make the argument that the ACC is now the place to be for both Basketball and Football. This of course is great news, but the one down fall to this realignment is that it made West Virigina’s schedule the cupcake of all cupcakes. As a result, WVU gets to play the likes of Marshall, Eastern Washington, East Carolina, Mississippi State (ouch), Syracuse, UConn, Cincinnati, So. Florida, and Rutgers. It is like the never ending pre-season. As an alum or student how do you even get up for these games??? The Mountaineers do have legitimate games vs Maryland (not ranked by the way), Louisville, and Pittsburg (also not ranked). So as a result of the ACC’s raiding of the Big East, the Mountaineers only have to remain conscious to have an 9-3 record? Because of this cake walk(you can tell I am writing this right before lunch) the powers to be have given them the #5 overall ranking. Someone has to step in and stop this madness, and that someone has to be the Terps.
I can’t begin to explain how excited I am for this game. It is unfortunately one of the first MD-WVU games in a while that I will not be in attendance. And maybe that is for the best. When you only play 3 legitimate games all year, and you get one of them on a Thursday night we all know the Hill Billies will be out in couch burning force, so the Terps have got to show up ready to play. And though I can’t predict what the score is going to be, I can give us a peak ahead into what Mother Nature holds for this early season prime time match up.
As mentioned earlier, the Terps will once again be playing under the lights, but unlike weeks 1 and 2, this one will be for the entire country to watch. Tailgating will most likely start around noon for the Maryland fans, and 6:00 am for the Mountaineer fans, who don’t even fake like they have a legitimate school where you actually have to show up for classes.
THE HISTORY:
The average high in Morgantown, WV for September 14th is 77 F° and the average low is 56 F°. We are basically losing about 6-8 degrees from the MTST only 5 days earlier. As for the extremes the record high for this date is 95 F° set back in 1998, and the record low is an unbelievably cold 34 F° which occurred back in 1964. Considering the tailgating times and the scheduled start, both the high and low need to be taken into consideration.
THE FORECAST:
The Almanac is calling for thunderstorms a few days prior, followed by fair weather, and I think I am going to go with that. The weather site I use for historical data didn’t have much in terms of precipitation records for Morgantown over the years, so combine that with the Farmers Almanac and I’ll just play the percentages and agree with the fair weather assessment. Anyway, let’s make this official and say:
The forecast for the September 14, 2006 “Twilight Tussle” is for beautiful football weather. Hints of fall will be in the air in Morgantown and it will most definitely finally feel like football season. The skies will be clear with just a few high clouds and no chance of rain. We should see about 72 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 78 F°. Game time should see the temperature back down to around 70. The low will be 58 F°, but it most likely won’t be much factor at this time of night. Though as the game ends it could be back down into the mid 60’s.
The WVU game is my first forecast of the year that does not have any warning issued. Should be a beautiful day, so just go out and enjoy it.
The game day sunrise in Morgantown, WV on September 14th is for 6:59 am. The sunset is scheduled for 7:30 pm making this game completely under the lights. As for the moon, it should be out around 12:04 AM Saturday morning, and will set at 4:13 PM, which is a shame because it is going to miss a heck of a ball game. The moon will be a Wanning Gibbous 50% illuminated. Half full for the optimists, and half empty for the others.
THE SNOW REPORT:
It’s a long shot but for the first time of the year it is actually possible it could snow. The record low for Morgantown on this date isn’t below freezing, but it can certainly snow at 34 F. Even with that possibility I am 99.99999999% certain, it ain’t going to happen, and if by some act of God it did snow this day, it most certainly wouldn’t be in the day time or early evening. So barring a miracle, nothing to worry about here.
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.
- 1937 - The mercury soared to 92 degrees at Seattle, WA, a record for September. (The Weather Channel)
- 1944 - A very destructive hurricane swept across Cape Hatteras and Chesapeake Bay, side swiped New Jersey and Long Island, and crossed southeastern Massachusetts. The hurricane killed more than four hundred persons, mainly at sea. The hurricane destroyed the Atlantic City NJ boardwalk. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
- 1970 - The temperature at Fremont, OR, dipped to 2 above zero to equal the state record for September set on the 24th in 1926. (The Weather Channel)
- 1987 - Barrow, AK, received 5.1 inches of snow, a record for September. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
- 1988 - Hurricane Gilbert made the first of its two landfalls on Mexico, producing 170 mph winds at Cozumel. (The Weather Channel)
- 1987 - Thunderstorms developing along a cold front produced severe weather from Minnesota to Texas. Thunderstorms in Iowa produced baseball size hail at Laporte City, and 80 mph winds at Laurens. Hail caused more than ten million dollars damage to crops in Iowa. Thunderstorms in Missouri produced wind gusts to 75 mph at Missouri City and Kansas City. A thunderstorm in Texas deluged the town of Fairlie with two inches of rain in just two hours. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
- 1988 - Thunderstorms produced severe weather over the Texas panhandle during the evening hours. One thunderstorm spawned a strong (F-2) tornado in the southwest part of Amarillo, and deluged the area with five inches of rain. The heavy rain left roads under as much as five feet of water, and left Lawrence Lake a mile out of its banks. Hurricane Gilbert lost some of its punch crossing the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Its maximum winds diminished to 120 mph. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
- 1989 - Unseasonably cool weather prevailed across the south central U.S. Eight cities reported record low temperatures for the date, including Raton NM with a reading of 30 degrees. The afternoon high of 59 degrees at Topeka KS marked their third straight record cool maximum temperature. Unseasonably warm weather continued in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle WA reported a record eight days in a row of 80 degree weather in September. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
***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.