Home
Up

Georgia Tech Forest Forecast:                                                                                        

“Let’s keep both our tailgate and Loss Column Yellow Jacket Free”

                                                            -Bob W.

THE INTRO: 

I am really looking forward to this tailgate.  I know, I look forward to all tailgates, but this one is going to be different.  Though we won’t have everyone it should be one of the most attended ‘gates of the year.  We will have enough die-hards on hand to ensure that we have a 6 hour tailgate, regardless of kick off time.  We should also have plenty of people and time so that we can play games at a leisurely pace as opposed to the abbreviated WVU tailgate.

Now that’s what to expect for the tailgate, but as for the game, I’m not really sure what to tell you.  Georgia Tech beat the living snot out of Notre Dame on week 1.  At that time I thought “Wow, I guess Tech is going to be pretty good.”.  Then of course everyone started beating the snot out of Notre Dame and I got to thinking “Hmm, maybe ND isn’t the best measuring stick with which to gauge a program”. So I waited until the Ga Tech- BC game in Atlanta to draw any conclusions.  After that debacle, I got to thinking, you know what, we can beat this team.  BC on the other hand I’m starting to worry about, but that’s for another weekend.

Hopefully my feelings about Tech are correct because we may be desperate for a win by the time this one rolls around.  We just lost to WVU, we are getting ready for the biggest game of the year in Wake, and then we have the Rutgers game by which point RU will have waited 2 weeks for us to show up.  So this is a pretty stormy stretch, and if things go badly we could be 2-3 when the Jackets arrive.  We need to get that third win somewhere before UVA comes to town.  I know we can beat UVA, I’m almost positive we can beat UNC, and NC State has done little this year.  So if we can get win #3 before Homecoming, then bowling will be more of a matter of where, than if.

Of course that is the “Woe is Me” scenario.  I’d like to think we can handle Wake in Winston Salem, Represent in Rutgers, and come into this match up 4-1, in which case Georgia Tech maybe the only thing standing between us and a top 25 ranking.  But no matter what your mindset is right now, we can all agree that we need this ACC win.  So with that said, lets move on to the weather.

THE HISTORY:

Were back in College Park for this one, and the average high for CPMD for October 6^th is 72, and the average low is 53.  The record high for College Park on this date is 94 which occurred in 1941, and the record low is 35 which occurred in 1881.  That is quite a stretch between the records, and it is basically telling us that October 6^th can be either really hot, or really cold.  Welcome to Fall in the Mid Atlantic.

THE FORECAST:

This is what I call a slam dunk Farmers Almanac Forecast.  The Almanac is calling for “Dry Windy Weather”.  This is great news for me because it pretty much allows me to play the averages without feeling like a wuss for not going out on a limb.  Of course it is going to be dry and windy, it’s October!  For those loyal readers of the D7 Forecast (yes both of you), you’ll remember that October is the driest month of the year in Maryland (and yes you may use that factoid to try to win a few bar bets).  The Almanac is giving me permission to make a lazy forecast, and who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth, so here it is:

The forecast for the October 6^th “Terps vs. the Yellow Bellies” game is for typical October weather.  As always we get whored with the kickoff time, but I see this one as either a noon or 3:30 kick off.  With those times you’d better pay attention to the entire forecast because we’ll probably see both the high and low.  Speaking of the high, it should be in the low 70’s, we’ll say 74.  The low will be in the 50’s, and I’ll go with 51.  This will make for a chilly morning followed by a nice day.  There shouldn’t be any chance of rain (though the record for the date is 1.47” in 1957), and it will be a typical breezy fall day.  We’ll say winds 10-15 mph with a couple gusts up to 20+, so hold on to your flip cup.  So to recap, high 74, low 51, sunny and breezy.

OK, it’s time for a new code, what’s with the obsession with codes?  We’ll….I don’t know, I just think they are cool.  Anyway, no sun burn code, no poncho code, but we are going with a wind code.  The wind code for this match up will be code YELLOW.  I’m starting to see the flaw in the wind code, because what can you do about it?  You know for rain or sunburn you can bring stuff, but there isn’t much you can do about the wind.  But I’m keeping it, if for no other reason it increase wind speed awareness. 

The game day sunrise in College Park, MD on October 6^th is for 7:08 am.  And unfortunately this could be a factor.  If we get a noon start time this means we have over an hour of in the dark tailgating.  The sunset will be around 6:43 pm, which will come into play for a 3:30 game.  The moon looks like it will be a quarter full, or a waning crescent with about 25% illumination.  It will rise at 2:32 am and set at 4:44 pm. 

THE HURRICANE REPORT:

Well we had a little excitement in the Atlantic last week with Tropical Depressoin Ingrid, but it was just raked by high winds aloft and it never got it’s sh#t together.  We are about half way through Hurricane Season and the Atlantic (at least above the Carribean) has been an awfully savage place for tropical systems.  I don’t see this pattern changing anytime soon so I’m thinking we should be safer than normal.  As a result, I’m keeping the threat level pretty low.  I’ll say 3.

. 

Look here for further updates, as we get closer to game day.

THE CHARITY PLEA:

We’re still collecting money for the turtles.  I believe the abbreviated tailgate for WVU still got us $32.50 bringing our total close to 70$, under the old system this would have saved almost 5 turtles.  Under the new system this will provide much needed money to help give the little guys a head start in the growing up process by allowing them to be raised safely, until they are old enough to fend off predators. 

THE X-FACTOR: 

Just to show you some extremes that could happen and have happened on this particular date in weather history. 

• 1836 - A second early season snowstorm produced eleven inches at Wilkes Barre PA and 26 inches at Auburn NY. All the mountains in the northeastern U.S. were whitened with snow. (David Ludlum)
• 1984 - The temperature at Honolulu, Hawaii, reached 94 degrees to establish an all-time record at that location. (The Weather Channel)
• 1985 - A tropical wave, later to become Tropical Storm Isabel, struck Puerto Rico. As much as 24 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, and the severe flooding and numerous landslides resulting from the rain claimed about 180 lives. (Storm Data)
• 1987 - The western U.S. continued to sizzle. Afternoon highs of 85 degrees at Astoria OR, 101 degrees at Tucson AZ, and 102 degrees at Sacramento CA, equalled October records. It marked the fourth time in the month that Sacramento tied their record for October. (The National Weather Summary)
• 1988 - Cool Canadian air prevailed across the central and eastern U.S. Toledo OH reported a record low of 27 degrees. Limestone ME received an inch of snow. Warm weather continued in the western U.S. Boise ID reported a record high of 87 degrees. (The National Weather Summary)
• 1989 - Temperatures soared into the 90s across southern Texas. Afternoon highs of 93 degrees at Houston, and 96 degrees at Austin and Corpus Christi, were records for the date. Beeville was the hot spot in the nation with an afternoon high of 101 degrees. (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.