Weekly Weather Report

As you all may know, I have expressed interest in doing our weekend weather reports for all of our fans and football fans. Well here goes my first attempt at doing something that hopefully becomes a weekly commodity! (I also apologize for the lateness of the report I hope to have an accurate report out at least a full two days before our games) also I apologize if my predictions are somewhat off, as I'm still kind of new at forecasting it will get better as the year progresses LUCKILY this week shouldn't be particularly hard.

Weather can be the ULTIMATE game changer and equalizer in football. It can make a spread offense look sloppy and spell upsets across the nation and is almost impossible to game plan for. I always call it the great equalizer in this great Hokie sport and it can end some teams national title hopes and help spur some of the great upsets of the season. It can also turn what would otherwise be a great day of football and tailgating into a wind-burned, hypothermic hell for the unprepared fan.

For this reason it's crucial (for both fans and players) to understand exactly what mother nature is throwing at you: whether it's a torrential downpour aiding in the beatdown of the Miami hurricanes, a hand-numbing cold standoff vs Duke, or watching a certain announcer's car get struck by lightning for picking against us (not saying any names here or anything) mother nature certainly plays a role in Blacksburg, and if nothing else can be pretty crazy. However, even something as unpredictable as Blacksburg weather does have some predictability and patterns to it.

This weekend, the pattern is pretty easy to recognize as there is a high pressure system coming over our lovely football town. It seems that mother nature herself is smiling on us as our first football game is sure to be a BEAUTIFUL one. To understand high pressure systems one must first understand how thunderstorms and clouds in general form and are created. As I'm sure you all know warm air is less dense, so it rises, and it's from this very principal that meteorology is associated with, as the sun's rays come down and heat the Earth you get pockets of warm air that form and are lifted up into the atmosphere. As this warm air rises it cools and begins to condensate. This condensation ultimately forms clouds as the water droplets usually attach to dust particles. There do need to be a few other conditions in order for clouds to form but for the most part that's what you need to know. I'll get more scientific in later posts

In order to have a decent shot at predicting what the weather will look like, you also need to pay attention to pressure systems. Pressure systems tend to pretty much paint a picture of what weather is happening and where. Low pressure systems generally are associated with rain and cold and the types of weather we wish on #loluva for the rest of forever.

High pressure systems on the other hand are generally associated with beautiful weather like sunshine, clear skies, and a light breeze. High pressure systems push the air flow out (not allowing them to flow inward and upward in order to create clouds and storms) which leads to the nicer weather. This weekend we fall into the category of the latter: there's a high pressure system flowing in from the west that will be hanging over us.

This is wonderful news and does spell out a weekend of incredible weather, and there's even more good news! Because high pressure systems generally flow from the east with clockwise wind rotation, and the system looks like it should be east of us, we will be on the west side of the west pressure system. Why is this such good news? Because we're in the northern hemisphere, weather patterns typically flow from west to east, and cooler weather and winds are typically associated with the west side of the system. What this means, essentially, is that temperatures will probably hover or drop just a tad - so my prediction would be mid 70s with a light northeastern breeze probably 5 mph 10 tops. AKA - 'perfect football weather'.

How the weather plays out on the field:

I believe the weather will not alter this game all too much, seeing as we should be fielding the vastly superior talented team we should have a significant advantage. The weather won't alter that, there are no extreme winds, or rain, or temperatures to make the ball difficult hold on to or catch so there shouldn't be any drops this week... the receivers don't have the excuse of the #1 D in the country. Weather can sometimes make underdogs a lot more capable of pulling the upset - not this week. The O-line should be able to bully them and Trey Edmunds should be able to put up RIDICULOUS numbers. There should be no loss of traction from mud, so our big boys up front shouldn't have any problem throwing their weight around. We should see the offense establish themselves early and it will be perfect conditions for the WRs and LT to hopefully build some chemistry, and hopefully get the backups in. Considering Western Carolina is in a transition year on D (switching from a 3-4 to a 4-3), I'd expect some big numbers from our boys on the O - especially in the running game. As for the D the weather should be just fine and shouldn't alter their play at all, if they come to play this could be an ugly day for Western Carolina as they are not anywhere close to as talented as 'Bama's big boys. We should be able to do whatever we want with them on that side of the field. They do run a spread and the weather will not impact their play at all, however I think the mismatch in talent is far too wide to let an fcs school run up big numbers against us.

Final prediction

high - high 70s (if you want a number 78) low - mid 60s (65)

5-10 mph winds in the northeastern direction Clear skies sunny day!

Big win for VT 45-3 hokies - LT and the WRs hookup for a few big plays and they look much more reliable against a poor transition D.

GO HOKIES