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Virginia Tech Forecast:                                                                                            

 

“Prime Time Pay Back Time!”

            Chief D-7 Meteorologist Bob Wevodau

 

This is it.  This is our national stage, this is the time to make a statement in the standings, in recruiting, in local bragging rights.  Time to avenge the debacle that was the 2004 Va Tech game.  All things in the Universe can swing the Terps way with just one huge televised win.  The problem is that we have to go through Virginia Tech.  Tech has looked very good this year and this will be no small feat for the Terps.  However, Byrd will be rocking (at least through kickoff), the lights will be on, and the adrenalin will be flowing.  A great gambler once said, be weary of the home underdog when the whole campus has had all day to drink and get fired up.  Hopefully that will be the case.  The football atmosphere should be electric, but hopefully not the actual atmosphere.  To find out, let’s go to the forecast. 

 

Well we have known the kick off time for a while now.  Luckily this one will begin 7:30 on a Thursday night.  I can already see the editorial in the Diamondback “I was late for chess club because traffic was so bad for the football game, isn’t the purpose of this University  higher education, not Football?”, enough about Justin though, this one will be our first taste of PRIME TIME (unless the schedule makers at Temple really blind side me).  This of course really affects the forecast.   The average high for October 20 in College Park is 66 F°.  The average low is 48 F°.  The potential is there for our first bundler of the season.  The record high for this date in the free state is 86 F° (1969, he he).  The record low is 31 F° (1972), which makes it our earliest possible game where it could conceivably snow, though the chances of that are the same as Mike Vicks chances of coming out negative on his next STD test.  Interestingly enough we have had measurable snow on this date.  In 1940 1.4” of snow fell on the DC area.  A fact that I find hard to believe.  Since we are a night game with a 1:30 PM tailgate start, we should experience both the daily high and low on the 20th.

 

The Farmers Almanac forecast for Oct 20 is for milder weather, which really doesn’t give us much information.  According to the Dictionary milder means “further from extremes” so if the day before is hot, then milder temps would mean cooler weather, and if the day before was cold, milder weather would mean warmer weather.  The kicker is the Farmers Almanac doesn’t even mention temperatures in the period before October 20, so I have no idea what the Almanac is calling for.  I am going to go out on my own and call for an average day.  Here’s what we got:

 

The forecast for the October 20, 2005 “College Park Turkey Shoot” is for excellent college football weather.  The tailgate should kick off with temperatures in the mid to upper 60’s.  As the stack of empty beer cans accumulate on the table the temperatures will slowly start to dip as the sun sinks lower and lower.  As game time approaches we should be seeing temperatures around 60.  Once the sun goes down we will drop into the mid 50’s and by the time we leave the parking lot at midnight it should be down to the upper 40’s.  This is a full closet game meaning you are going to need a variety of clothes to get you through the day.  I will have my “Lights Out” shirt on early, then the D-7 long sleever, then a MD sweatshirt, and the red woolie cap will be held in reserve.  We’ll go with a high around 67 F° and a low around 49 F°.  For the wind I am calling for gentle breezes which will hopefully not interfere with our drinking games.      

 

The game day sunrise in College Park, MD on October 20th is 7:22 am.  The sunset is scheduled for 6:22 pm.  We are down to 11 hours of sun.  As for the moon, well I had a little scare looking that up.  For moon rise the weather page said “No Moon Rise”!  I have never seen that before.  The moon sets at 10:57 am so I think they just mean that it won’t come back up until the next day.  So the tailgate will be moonless, but if you are planning on pre-tailgating look for a wanning Gibbous which is 89% full.  Would be a harvest moon, but that would only work if it was out at night.    

 

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

 

 

Update

 

ARE YOU READY FOR THIS GAME???  ARE YOU READY!!!   I can’t believe it is still 3 days away.  I am going to try to limit the amount of “F” bombs I drop between now and then but it is going to be hard.  This could be the greatest victory in the Ralph Friedgen era, or it could be a loss.  But anything is possible this week!  On to the weather, I know you are getting tired of hearing this, but once again the D-7 Weather Desk is on the $.  The NWS is calling for a high of 69 and a low of 55.  D-7 called for a high in the upper 60’s and a low in the upper 40’s.  Our low may be too low, but if you are going to have problems that’s one to have.  So once again we are calling it a great night for football.  Mother Nature has done her part, now it is up to Sam and the boys to make it THE Perfect night of college football.  GO TERPS!   F’ YEAH!!!

 

 

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

  • 1770 - An exceedingly great storm struck eastern New England causing extensive coastal damage from Massachusetts to Maine, and the highest tide in 47 years. (David Ludlum)
  • 1983 - Remnants of Pacific Hurricane Tico caused extensive flooding in central and south central Oklahoma. Oklahoma City set daily rainfall records with 1.45 inch on the 19th, and 6.28 inches on the 20th. (17th-21st) (The Weather Channel)
  • 1987 - Cold arctic air invaded the Upper Midwest, and squalls in the Lake Superior snowbelt produced heavy snow in eastern Ashland County and northern Iron County of Wisconsin. Totals ranged up to 18 inches at Mellen. In the western U.S., the record high of 69 degrees at Seattle WA was their twenty-fifth of the year, their highest number of record highs for any given year. Bakersfield CA reported a record 146 days in a row with daily highs 80 degrees or above. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
  • 1988 - Unseasonably warm weather continued in the western U.S. In California, afternoon highs of 96 degrees at Redding and Red Bluff were records for the date. (The National Weather Summary)
  • 1989 - Forty-nine cities reported record low temperatures for the date as readings dipped into the 20s and 30s across much of the south central and southeastern U.S. Lows of 32 degrees at Lake Charles LA and 42 degrees at Lakeland FL were records for October, and Little Rock AR reported their earliest freeze of record. Snow blanketed the higher elevations of Georgia and the Carolinas. Melbourne FL dipped to 47 degrees shortly before midnight to surpass the record low established that morning. Showers and thunderstorms brought heavy rain to parts of the northeastern U.S. Autumn leaves on the ground clogged drains and ditches causing flooding. Up to 4.10 inches of rain soaked southern Vermont in three days. Flood waters washed 600 feet of railroad track, resulting in a train derailment. (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.