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Boston College Forecast:                                                                                                        

 

“The biggest game in the history of Maryland Football!”

            Chief D-7 Meteorologist Bob Wevodau

 

Before I get started how could you not put a picture of Doug Flutie into this games forecast?  BC is now our enemy, but what kid didn’t run out into the yard the day after the Miami game and throw a football as far as he could and pretend that he just beat the hated Miami Hurricanes (remember when the Canes showed up to the bowl game in camo? God I hated them).   Anyway fast forward 20 some years and now the Eagles are standing between us and post season play.   I said in my opening quote that this game is the most important game ever in Maryland Football history and though I often say things for shock value, I think this has some merit to it.  If we beat either FSU or UNC, this game will be to become Bowl eligible, if we lose to FSU and UNC, this game will be for our post season lives.  This is a young Terps team and going to a bowl game, any game, is a huge success.  It is a feather in the cap of the players and it sends a message to recruits.  And to step even further out on a limb, if we beat FSU (please God!), then come back the next week and beat UNC, this game could decide the Atlantic Division.  That seems like a stretch, but let me put it into perspective for you.  I am going to be at a wedding for this game.  So now looking at my life history, me missing a game that could determine whether or not we go to Jacksonville is certainly not out of the realm of possibility.  If I knew for sure I was going to the BC game, no chance, but this is the X-factor in the equation that makes life so unpredictable.  Speaking of which, lets look at the weather.   

 

This just in, shocker no game time given.  Do the NCAA, and the TV Stations that televise it, have any idea what this does to my forecasting??  Say what you want about day games, but despite the Saturday morning alarm clock, they do actually have a useful place in college football, and that place is November. The Temps are dropping quickly (and by the way do you realize I only have one more regular season forecast to make for 2005, where does the tailgating season go?).  The average high in College Park for November 19 is 56 F° and the average low is 39 F°.  So even an average day is still going to require long sleeves and a coat.  The record high for this date is a MONEY 77 F° set back in 1928, and the record low is a frigid 18 F° which occurred back in 1891.  Lets hope we settle in closer to the record high than the record low.    

 

Well there’s good news and bad news with the Almanac.  The good news is only two of us live in Boston, the bad news is it is still going to be crappy in Maryland as well.  The Farmers Almanac for November 19th is calling for a storm with snow and rain all through New England, with the Mid-Atlantic seeing cloudy conditions.  Not good, but again could be worse.  I honestly don’t think even Boston would see snow in that scenario and the cloud cover could be a blessing in disguise keeping the temps from getting too cold here in Maryland.  So I am going to raise the low and keep the high slightly lower than predicted.

 

The forecast for the November 19, 2005 “Drop Down and Get Your Eagle on Bowl”* is for fair to so-so weather (where else can you find a forecast with such scientific terms!)  The cloud cover will make a run at tailgating MVP keeping the morning temperature from being to cold.  However, once it hits about 10 am, the clouds will go from hero to goat once people start to realize that if the sun got through it would be a much warmer day.  By game time, and I am saying either 12:00 or 3:30, the temps should be in the low to mid 50’s maybe topping out at 57 F°.  Though I think I am being overly cautious, I am going to issue a code: LIGHT YELLOW poncho warning.  Just a small chance of a possible passing drizzle, but nothing to hamper the fun.  Winds could be a factor if indeed there is an East Coast storm passing through.  Look for windy conditions with gusts up to 15 mph.    

 

*I have no idea what these means but I hear the cool kids say it a lot.

 

The game day sunrise in College Park, MD on November 19th is for 6:55 am.  The sunset is scheduled for 4:51 pm.  Again the UTC-Daylight savings time thing is throwing me, but I think those predictions sound about right.  As for the moon, it will be a wanning gibbous with 88% illumination.  The moon is schedule to set around 11:00 AM and not come back until the following day.

 

Interestingly enough (and by that I mean I am probably the only one who cares), but College Park has seen measurable snow on this date in history.   On November 19th in 1955 College Park got 2.3”.  Has there ever been an ACC game in the snow before?  I am guessing yes at some point, but it probably wasn’t a Ga Tech-FSU game.       

 

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 - The Columbia Gorge ice storm finally came to an end. In Oregon, 54 inches of snow, sleet and glaze blocked the Columbia River Highway at the Dalles. Apart from traffic on the river itself, all transportation between Walla Walla WA and Portland OR came to a halt. Nine trains were stopped as railroads were blocked for several days. (David Ludlum)
  • 1957 - Nineteen inches of snow covered the ground at Cresco, IA, a record November snow depth for the state. (The Weather Channel)
  • 1981 - An unusually early snowstorm struck the Twin Cities of Minnesota, with as much as a foot of snow reported. The weight of the heavy snow caused the newly inflated fabric dome of the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis to collapse and rip. (The Weather Channel) NOT THE METRO DOME!!!
  • 1987 - A sharp cold front pushed across the Great Lakes Region and the Mississippi Valley. Northwest winds gusting to 50 mph in Iowa caused some property damage around Ottumwa, and wind chill readings reached 16 degrees below zero at Hibbing MN. Showers and thunder- storms over Florida produced 5.80 inches of rain in six hours at Cocoa Beach. (The National Weather Summary)
  • 1988 - Strong thunderstorms developed during the mid morning hours and produced severe weather across eastern Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley into the wee (HE HE, they said “wee”) hours of the night. Thunderstorms spawned twenty-one tornadoes, including thirteen in Mississippi. One tornado killed two persons and injured eleven others at Nettleton MS, and another tornado injured eight persons at Tuscaloosa AL. Thunderstorms produced baseball size hail in east Texas and northern Louisiana, and Summit MS was deluged with six inches of rain in four hours. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
  • 1989 - Gale force winds continued to produce squalls in the Lower Great Lakes Region early in the day. Snowfall totals in western New York State reached 24 inches in southern Lewis County, with 21 inches reported at Highmarket. Unseasonably warm weather prevailed across the Northern and Central Plains Region. Eight cities reported record high temperatures for the date, including Denver CO with a reading of 79 degrees. (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.