weekly weather report...them

Ugh....Pitt....where do I even begin? As a student, Pitt was the beginning of quite the downward slide for us in football. The beginning of the end of a ten win streak that bested every other team in the country. When I watched that game I was utterly baffled that a team of our caliber, coming into the game ranked in the top 15 could be absolutely CRUSHED by a Pitt team that had lost to Youngstown state a few weeks prior. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?!?!?! Upon further research I discovered this wasn't a fluke, no this was the norm. Pitt is our beloved hokies kryptonite, and as I watch lightning cackle and thunder boom outside of my window, I wonder if this isn't an ominous sign for more of the same. Lets face it, this team is young, VERY TALENTED, but young they're going to make mistakes, and to cure these heebie-jeebies and end the bad juju that is the Pitt game were going to have to overcome these mistakes and play a damn good game.

I miss him

As I stated earlier in a little blurb, we've got a big ole storm barreling down on the mid Atlantic/northeast here in the next few days. This is both good and bad news. Good news, if you're superstitious like myself, in that it seems like every away rainy game seems to have the home team dropping a game. Bad news in that this is Pitt, so all bets are off the table. Hopefully this rain will take some wind out of the sails of Pitt's tailgating and home field advantage, which can only be an advantage for us. However, should the scattered showers and bad weather hold out and hang around this cannot be good for us. If we want to beat Pitt we HAVE to shut down their running game, and some water on the ground and on the field could make for some missed tackles and can only harm the passing game where I think tech holds a significant advantage. Hopefully the rain holds off, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

After our bye week our team had some much needed time to heal up and avoid injuries. Yet still we're missing our top three RBs and our dline has some significant injuries as well...HOWEVER our defense looked really really awesome against UNC this last weekend, and whether that's due to fedoras ineptitude, our TOP, or Bud's D I don't know. Regardless it was a step in the right direction playing some zone, and shutting down a very good and quick scoring offense. Regardless I'm still not blown away by the offense and as last year proved Bud's magnificent D can only take us so far. This week I'd like to see lots of Caleb, maybe a little rogers, and a whole lot of efficiency from Brewer. We need to get up fast and not look back against Pitt.

The weather Report:

For the kickoff at Pitt, I'd expect this big ole system to move out by kickoff, and maybe a few scattered showers/drizzle to hang around - keeping it nice and cool and comfy. The high will probably be around 60 buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut we aren't concerned about that because it's a night game! Thus the low, which we should be more concerned about, is gonna be about 55. For those of you traveling I would bring a jacket, with a hood just to be safe. The good news is the wind should slow down, and the gusts that we'll be seeing these next few days should turn into some week westerlies by Thursday (that is wind from the west to the east)

NOW FOR THE SCIENCY STUFF

I've been waiting for a stormy week to do this lesson because well.... this is the super rad weather that gets people to pay attention. Apparently things that can kill you or are super intense are immediately 508749867 times cooler.

Case and point

you all have no idea how long I've been waiting to break these pictures out

And one more from our very own HOKIE STORM CHASERS!!!

no I wasn't on that chase

If that didn't catch your attention go ahead and skip this section. If it did maybe.... just maybe you're part meteorologist!

My grandfather was a meteorologist, so that makes me a 1/4 meteorologist

This is the stuff that both creates curiosity and terrifies weather enthusiasts everywhere. In an ideal scenario we'd watch a tornado out in a desert in new Mexico, unfortunately this is typically not the case. Typically tornadoes come from big storms (yes, just like in 'Twister'). These storms are called super cells, and typically have storms that you've all heard and know about. Cumulonimbus clouds are the big uglies of the meteorology world, they're topped off with their wonderful anvil head that we all have heard of at one point. The anvil head happens when the cloud gets sooooo tall that it actually levels off at the bottom of our lowest level in the atmosphere. The cloud then begins to spread out as it levels off there, pointing in whichever direction the prevailing (super high up winds) are traveling. IF the storm is strong enough, you'll see a little bump appear above the anvil. This happens when so much energy and heat has built up in the air that it actually punctures the atmosphere and keeps developing upwards. These storms typically have more energy within them than atomic bombs.

Yeah you read that correctly ATOMIC BOMBS

They're dangerous. IF one were storm chasing they'd be looking for THIS on the radar

tornadoes even look mean from satellites

See that pretty little hook? Yeah that's probably a tornado or what will become a tornado, we call those hook echos. Warm air can easily blow into that region and can mix with the cold air in the storm creating a circulation and rotation within the storm. This rotation typically leads to the creation of tornadoes (among mucho other effects). LUCKILY these are pretty rare, and typically happen in the Midwest (that's why it's called tornado alley and most why there's a ton of tornado research out yonder). Now this week, we have a squall line forming which still offers its own little dangers.

how neat is that?!

Squall lines are a long straight line of storms that can bring with it a lot of really dangerous weather.

yay squall lines

Squall lines form from storms that produce downdrafts in front of them, these downdrafts create lift and actually outrun the cold fronts that they're associated with. You all living in the Mid Atlantic and the Ohio valley probably remember the derecho. Derecho's are essentially squall lines on steroids.

kind of like this guy...

you remember the damage those things caused? Well that was a squall line, squall lines typically just have straight line winds and hail and thunder and lightning. This stuff all sounds damaging but hey, at least it's just thunder and lightning. Unfortunately, squall lines can have tornadoes too! If the winds line up correctly, the squall line is strong enough, and it's timed well enough (daytime heating) there is a chance that discrete cells in the storm can form. Discrete cells are small parts of the storm that break out in front of the squall line kinda like this.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/lzk/images2/ref020508.gif

The storm out in front labeled "Supercell" is well in fact a super cell. These are called discrete cells, they break out and aren't associated with the rest of the storm. This is dangerous, because if winds are blowing northward (or southward if you're an Aussie) you can create rotation and a hook echo. Hook echo = tornado, thus squall lines can still be very dangerous if conditions line up.... much like they are this week. A lot of the mid Atlantic has been blanketed with some tornado watches despite the pretty day. This can be deceiving because pretty days actually increase the potential energy in the atmosphere making it easier for storms to brew trouble. The national weather service knows what they're doing guys, trust them and their forecasts.

ANYWHO (phew I could go on with severe weather all day) how does this all play out on the field? For the first time since I've started this little series I think this actually play's out in Pitt's advantage. The Pitt offense runs a big heavy running back downhill, and while it may not be pretty it forces you to execute and out-man them up front and then bring down their massive 250 lb running back. Mother nature isn't gonna stop us because he's not going to try to go east or west and he's not making sharp cuts, the only thing it might hurt is cuts by WRs and CBs and frankly... if it's a one for one kind of thing I'd take having a WR wide open for one play than be completely out of a play for free. So frankly I kind of think that works in their advantage as well, however the rain should steal a little thunder (pun intended) out of their crowd hopefully.... it could be an interesting game. I still think our tackles and ends can make the plays however and Bud will have his D prepared for the day and slow things down. I think on offense we see a little bit of sam rogers in short yardage, and some Caleb opening the game up with the big plays. I also expect to see some big plays out of our WRs and TEs but I do expect them to wear our defense down as the game goes on. We have to either dominate TOP again or get a nice lead and force them to pass to get back into it. Hopefully we can catch them sleepwalking live UVA did last week

FINAL PREDICTIONS (I don't do scores anymore sorry folks)

High 64
Low 53
Winds 6 MPH gusts
Precip (30-40% of scattered showers)
Some cloudy skies

GO HOKIES