Home
Up

California Forecast:                                                                                        

“When is the Government finally going to act and issue a cease and desist order.  There is only ONE Cal, and he isn’t some hippie university on the West Coast”

                                                                        -Bob W.                     

THE INTRO: 

Seriously, there simply can’t be two Cal’s.  We need to settle this thing once and for all.  But unlike some people in this world who just gripe about what is wrong with everything, I actually have a solution.  It’s pretty good actually and I wish you all could see me patting myself on the back.  Why doesn’t Cal Ripken keep the name Cal and the University of California go with Cali?  I mean come on, Cal is an abbreviation, but Cali, now that’s a nickname.  Can you imagine the band playing “Going Back to Cali”?  I’d be going nuts if I was one of their fans and I heard the Tuba’s blaring out that classic!

Though people who don’t know me probably think I’m joking (I like to pretend sometimes that someone other than J and Chris reads the site!), those who DO know me, know that I’m dead serious.  I mean I’m willing to bet that we won’t even fill the stadium for this one.  Half the Maryland fans are going to roll out of bed see Cal on the schedule and think “Christ, we can’t beat the Iron Man, I’m going back to bed!”. 

Speaking of nicknames,  how is it that people can get away with calling LaDamian Tomlinson LT, and now I hear on the Packers radio network, they are actually calling Aaron Rodgers A-Rod?!?!?!   Are you kidding me, I don’t need to get up on my soap box to preach about how A-Rod is single handedly killing the sport of baseball, but come on, he is A-Rod.  Aaron Rodgers is just some answer to a trivia question some 80 year old Packers fan is going to ask his grandkid one day.  Is nothing sacred? 

Anyway, all nickname issues aside, this is a game that us Maryland fans have been looking forward to for a long time.  In fact I can actually remember the day finding out about the Cali series.  Though I have to admit, I am looking far more forward to next years tangle with the Bears, but this one still ranks pretty high on the anticipation meter.  The ACC vs. PAC10.  The East vs. West it’s a classic match.  As much as I love the West Virginia rivalry, and want it to become a permanent fixture on the schedule, it’s nice to see a team that you will most likely never get to see outside of maybe a bowl game.  So I look forward to this one greatly.

And why shouldn’t I?  This is going to be a solid test for both programs.  A year ago today I would have thought this would be a blood bath with Cali having more trouble with jet lag than with the Terps, but something happened to this school last season.  They played mediocre football at best. They came out of the gates on fire winning their first 5 games, but then lost 6 of the next 8 they played.  So I’ve gone from thinking this one is an “L” to half expecting Maryland to pull it off.  And for once I have to hand it to Debbie Yow, I think she has put us in a spot to win this thing.  But more on that later. 

As you all are more than aware, because of the novelty aspect of this game, there should be a decent crowd, both for the game and for the tailgate (Ripper vs. the Terps joke aside), so before I start another rant, let’s take a look at weather for this key early season match up.

THE HISTORY:

Here is how we have looked on September 13^th in the past.  The average high for this date is 80F and the average low is 63.  The record high for this date is 94 F set back in 1925, and the record low is 44 F set in 1917.  Now I hate to say this, but with this team coming from the Bay Area in California, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to have a 90 degree day with high humidity.  So we are all going to have to take one for the team and think warm sticky thoughts.  Also the kickoff for this one is at high noon which will help warm things up for our visitors, so being that mother nature chooses to cooperate. 

THE FORECAST:

Oh boy, I can’t seem to find the link for the Farmers Almanac anywhere on line.  I’m a little shaken by this turn of events.  I did find a GREAT new site to predict precipitation forecasts long term, but unfortunately it only goes out a month ahead of time and I usually like to have the forecasts out before that.  So I may have to start making these predictions on my own, at least until I can find that  link again (this seems to happen once a year so maybe next week it will be where it’s supposed to be).  Anyway, I think I’m going to do the unthinkable and call for rain.  It isn’t what I want, and it certainly doesn’t go along with my hazy, hot, and humid wish.  But looking at the facts I think we could see some rain on this day, in fact I think we are also going to see some wind as well.  So here we go:

The forecast for the September 13^th “East-West” Game is looking for some rather “iffy” weather.  I always hate making this call because I don’t want it to be correct (actually I kind of still do) and it is also such a hard call to make.  I mean you put yourself out there if you call for rain and it is sunny.  Anyway, the rain will obviously keep the temperatures lower than usual.  So for a high I’m going to go with 73 and for the low we’ll go with 67.  The kickoff time calls for a 6:00 AM tailgate start so you think the low might come into play, but the clouds will keep it from getting too cold (like a nice wet blanket).  So at least we have that going for us.  The winds are also going to be annoying and may interfere with flip cup.  They should be 10-15 mph with maybe a bigger gust knocking some stuff over.  So to recap High 73, Low 67, rain throughout the day (maybe not continuous but still rainy), with breezy conditions.

CODE YELLOW- Well the good news is there won’t be any sunburn warning, however the poncho warning is in full effect.  If I were a man, I would have gone with a code red, but I just trying to somewhat hedge my bet.   

The game day sunrise for College Park, MD on September 13, 2008 is 6:48 AM.  The sunset should be around 7:18 PM.  This is where I think Debbie Yow made a good decision.  You see, I have a theory on how to give yourself a better chance to win on the road.  One of the key factors in my theory is that you want to play as early in the day as possible.  You don’t want to go down to Death Valley for example and play them at 8:00 PM.  Everyone will have been drinking all day and ready to go.  But if you play them early, the crowd isn’t really that into it.  So by that theory you would think, we’ll then why is it good to play Cal…or excuse me Cali, at noon.  We’ll if you haven’t figured it out by now, Cali will essentially be playing a 9:00 AM Football game.  I don’t see any scenario in which this is good news for them.  Especially when 9:00 is like 7:00 AM to most college kids.  So I think by making us play in the heat as early in the day as possible, Debbie Yow (whether she meant to or not) did us a favor.

Now on to the moon, for this game the moon will set in the morning at 4:40 AM and then return later in the day at 6:24 PM.  So the game will be essentially moonless, but does it really matter for a noon time start?  Anyway for the ride home, the moon will be just about full.  I’ll say 95% illuminated.  It will be a waxing gibbous just two days short of a full moon.          

THE HURRICANE REPORT:

I actually have sort of a funny feeling about this one.  A tropical storm, whether a direct hit or not, would certainly most likely bring us a day described in my initial forecast.  Plus the part of the Farmer’s Almanac I did access mentioned something about a Mid-Atlantic Hurricane in the 2^nd half of September (thought this game is technically in the 1^st half), so I’m going to raise the warning here to 22.   Now 22 means there is a lot of weird stuff going on, and that isn’t necessarily the case right now, but I think it will be by mid September, so I’m going with that.

. 

THE SNOW REPORT:

Closed for the Season.

With the record low for the date being 44 F, no reason to open shop on the Snow Report.

THE X-FACTOR: 

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

• 1922 - The temperature at El Azizia in Libyia soared to 136 degrees to establish a world record. To make matters worse, a severe ghibi (dust storm) was in progress. (The Weather Channel)
• 1928 - Hurricane San Felipe crossed Puerto Rico resulting in the highest winds, the heaviest rains, and the greatest destruction in years. The hurricane produced much damage in the Virgin Islands, and later hit the Bahamas and Florida. (David Ludlum)
• 1984 - Hurricane Diana, after making a complete loop off the Carolina coast, made landfall and moved across eastern North Carolina. Diana deluged Cape Fear with more than eighteen inches of rain, and caused 78 million dollars damage in North Carolina. (Storm Data)
• 1987 - Showers and thunderstorms produced heavy rain in the northeastern U.S. Flooding was reported in Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Greenwood NY received 6.37 inches of rain. A dike along a creek at Prattsburg NY gave way and a two million dollar onion crop left on the ground to dry was washed away. The prolonged rains in the eastern U.S. finally came to an end late in the day as a cold front began to push the warm and humid air mass out to sea. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1988 - Hurricane Gilbert smashed into the Cayman Islands, and as it headed for the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico strenghtened into a monster hurricane, packing winds of 175 mph. The barometric pressure at the center of Gilbert reached 26.13 inches (888 mb), an all-time record for any hurricane in the Carribean, Gulf of Mexico, or the Atlantic Ocean. Gilbert covered much of the Gulf of Mexico, producing rain as far away as the Florida Keys. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1989 - Unseasonably cool weather prevailed over the Central Plains Region, with a record low of 29 degrees at North Platte NE. Unseasonably warm weather prevailed across the Pacific Northwest, with a record high of 96 degrees at Eugene OR. Thunderstorms over south Texas produced wind gusts to 69 mph at Del Rio, and two inches of rain in two hours. (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.