Wolfpack Going Turkey Hunting

It's game day again Wolfpack! Today though we are back out of state, hunting the Hokies in Blacksburg, VA. Unfortunately, it is likely going to be another rain game...

An approaching cold front will help to produce precipitation in Virginia this evening, overnight, and throughout the day tomorrow. The game is at 8:00 tonight and our 100-piece pep band are bringing our ponchos because of the chances for rain tonight. I'm not sure whether Lane Stadium allows umbrellas or not, so it would be a good idea to bring a rain coat with you to have. 

Blacksburg

The temperature today is likely going to reach the upper 70's, however tonight ahead of that cold front the temperature is going to drop down into the low 50's. There is a northeasterly breeze which will be persistent but not strong throughout the game helping the temperature to cool off a bit. Tomorrow the cold front will make it's way through Blacksburg and Raleigh, The high tomorrow in Blacksburg will likely not rise out of the 50's, and tomorrow night after the heavier rain and thicker clouds clear out the temperature will drop into the low 40's. 

Raleigh

The temperature today in Raleigh has already risen into the low 80's and may rise a few more degrees before increasing cloudiness slows the solar heating to a stop. Increading cloud cover tonight will turn into precipitation tonight ahead of the approaching cold front, and the low tonight will drop into the low 60's. Tomorrow, the high will settle around the mid 60's due to overcast skies and precipitation, and tomorrow night after the front passes the temperature will drop to near 50, so be sure to take a jacket out with you tomorrow night if you go out. 

Put on your game faces everyone and help get our team the conference win we need! This would be an awesome win for our team, and a great momentum builder into the next couple weeks. It's Game Day! Let's go Wolfpack!

The Monarchy is Ending

It's Game Day Wolfpack!! Today we travel to Norfolk, Virginia to take over Old Dominion University. We are wolves, hunting, and we're hungry. It's time to end the Monarch's rein.

Today is going to be a beautiful day! Conditions in Norfolk currently are 82 degrees under partly sunny skies with a slight chance of precipitation within the next couple hours. Once that chance clears out skies will be mostly sunny with a high today around 85 and a low tonight in the upper 60's.

If you going to the game, wear red! If my understanding is correct, ODU is trying to organize a white-out for today, so the red will certainly make a statement. We're taking a 50-piece pep band, and with that we will overwhelm their 19k person stadium. Let's come out of this game 3-0! Let's go Wolfpack! Beat ODU! It's Game Day!

Colonels Expecting General Loss, Commander

It's Game Day again, Wolfpack Nation! This weekend seems to be very similar to last weather-wise. A warm, moist southwesterly wind is helping the atmosphere provide the low cloud cover right now as well as helping organize lines of thunderstorms along the strong cold frontal boundary moving eastward ahead of the strengthening upper-level trough. Thunderstorms are likely this afternoon and this evening in association with this cold front and the weaker boundary behind it. I am not sure how much lightning will be produced by these storms, but if you remember last year, we needed to evacuate the stadium because lightning was too close within the bubble the NCAA and ACC have set up for lightning safety. There is a chance we will need to evacuate the stadium again today.

What to Know for this Afternoon

Lines of storms are already organizing in south central NC as well as central western NC. The initial line has moved through Fayetteville and is working its way toward Greenville and Wilmington. The secondary line of storms is beginning to extend from Greensboro down to Charlotte.

Timing: Based on what I am seeing from a couple models, it could be raining before the game on some of the tailgating. The strongest line of storms will likely move through near the beginning of the game, between 6:00 and 7:00. After that, because of the slow-moving nature of this system, it could possibly be raining through the rest of the night on and off.

What to Bring

Band - We will need Ponchos again. Jacket, Pants, Black Socks and Shoes, Gloves, Gauntlets, Hats, and Ponchos should be the uniform parts for today.

Fans - It would be wise to bring a rain jacket, poncho, or umbrella to the game.

Let's Go Wolfpack!!

14 Years ago. Like it was yesterday. Respect those who serve.

September 11, 2001, was a Tuesday like any other. The sun rose on the Eastern seaboard in New York City at 6:33 am, just over two hours before an unbelievable terror engulfed the most powerful nation in the world.

A strong upper level ridge had pushed through the Northeastern United States, stalling and redirecting hurricane Erin, which was a category 1 at the time, from moving back toward the coast and potentially causing flight delays in Boston and NYC. Instead of 70 mph winds and sideways rain, the Big Apple woke up to a gorgeous seasonal 67 F and mostly sunny skies.

I was in third grade. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was attending school at North Raleigh Christian Academy at what was the Durant campus. We all left school very shortly after arriving, and my teacher seemed distraught. When my brother and I got home, we went next door to see the news. By the time we arrived, we watched the second plane crash into the South tower. I was horrified. "How could someone do something like this to so many innocent people? Were they all going to die?" The questions kept replaying over, and over, and over in my head.

Numbers from this infamous day: Almost 3,000 people total died in the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and Flight 93: 343 were firefighters and EMS, 23 NYCPD officers, 37 Port Authority police officers, and 125 military personnel. Over 10,000 other people were treated for injuries. Only 6 people who were actually in the World Trade Center towers when they fell, survived.

Over 500, 528 to be exact, were volunteer first-responders. Individuals who put their lives on the line every single day to make sure the general public is safe from harm. Firefighters, Police officers, Paramedics, and members of our military are all volunteers. I was only in third grade, but I remember that time, when being an American citizen meant being an American citizen. Our status as Americans did not rely on the color of our skin, the platform of beliefs we held, or the label we could have had from life circumstances. Being an American meant being a part of something bigger and better, having opportunity to grow and learn, being a piece of the heterogeneous homogeneity characterized by the melting pot we lived in. Why now do we such a hard time seeing the best in one another, and instead assume the worst about someone?

Take today, and this week, and this month, and through the rest of the year to thank our volunteers. Thank a firefighter. Thank a police officer. Thank a Paramedic. For goodness sake thank a member of our armed forces. Thank those who work at the food bank. Thank those who work at consignment shops. Thank those who work in places you frequent. Thank everyone you come in contact with, because without them doing their job, you would not be able to live your life the way you do now. Most of all though, especially today, thank our first-responders.

Game Day The Wolfpack Way!

Wolfpack Nation! It's finally game day in Carter-Finley Stadium!! This has been a long awaited day, and I am really, really looking forward to coming back home!

Weather-wise, today will be less than ideal unfortunately. The National Weather Service is saying that there's about a 40% chance of showers throughout the day, and it looks like that may be the case.

Generally speaking, the temperature will start off this morning at around 70 degrees and will rise to a high much cooler than yesterday settling in the mid 80's. Cloud cover will depend on the amount of moisture and the convection with that moisture as the wind from the northeast blows inland from the coast.

Precipitation Potential

It looks like the main pocket of precipitation may start up in the early afternoon, around 2:00 or so. Once convection initiates with these storms, it is likely that they will begin forming rapidly. Their movement though should move them out of the way fairly quickly, so the rain we receive tomorrow may actually be from multiple storms linked together which formed along others' outflow boundaries.

It looks like broken rain may continue into the evening until about 9:00-10:00, or around the time the game is ending against Troy. Also unfortunate, it looks like the heaviest rain will be falling around halftime. I hope it's not raining at this time, but I cannot control the weather (if I could, I would not be in-debt!).

What to Bring

If you're a member of the team or one of the spirit squad, you know what to do. Band, yes, we will likely need ponchos tomorrow. If you are not a part of the above, it would be wise to bring an umbrella or light rain jacket (it will be too hot for a heavy rain coat or even rain boots).

Band Checklist

Band, remember what we need: Jackets, Hats, Pants, Gauntlets, Gloves, Black Socks, Black Shoes, Instruments (You would think this is a given, right? Well, it's happened.), Ponchos, Sunglasses (optional but helpful), Sunscreen (Recommended).

Wolfpack Nation: This is the time to show the world what we're all about. Bring the noise, bring the cheers, bring the support to pick up everyone in attendance. Carter-Finley needs to ring again with the shouting of 60,000. It's Game Day!! Let's Go Wolfpack!!

"Once In A Blue Moon"

Tonight will be that rare calendar occurrence. What is a blue moon anyway and how rare is it?

As the saying goes, when something happens only "once in a blue moon", it is commonly understood that it does not happen very often. But how often (or rare) is the occurrence anyway? Let's briefly look at some simple numbers. 

The moon orbits on its axis around the earth approximately every 29.5 days, meaning at either side of that 29.5 day period we will experience a full moon (The full moon occurs on different days across the globe from the standpoint of perspective. I felt I should point that out to potentially eliminate confusion. Basically, people in Australia will not experience a full moon on the same night as people in England). Each month has an average 30.5 days. By quickly observing that 29.5 < 30.5, we can come to the conclusion that it is in fact possible for there to be two full moons in a particular month. Typically throughout the calendar year, there are 12 full moons. A blue moon is the occurrence of a 13th full moon, the second in a given month.

So what is so special about a blue moon? 

Well, actually nothing really. It is just a second occurrence of a full moon in a calendar month. The amount of time between blue moons is approximately 2.5 years. That means the saying "Once in a blue moon" means "about once every 2.5 years". 

Will the moon actually turn the color blue?

Blood moons are hauntingly red/orange, however Blue moons are not typically blue. They are just normal full moons. It is possible though that from your vantage point the moon appears blue depending on numerous atmospheric factors including temperature and atmospheric moisture, however it is not very likely that the moon will hold a strictly blue coloration. On the contrary, because of how much moisture there is in the atmosphere right now here in NC, it is more likely that as the moon gets down on the horizon it will be more of an orange-yellow than a blue. If it does appear blue from where you are, please send me pictures so I can post them!

That's all I have for now. I will be helping out with band camp this next week at my high school before starting my band camp with the Power Sound of the South Marching Band at NC State, but coming back into August now I will be posting from Facebook daily with at least a blog post each week for game days and possibly more often depending on how incredibly interesting the weather is. For now, get ready for the not-so-spectacular-but-actually-spectacular blue moon!

Picture:

- http://mysticinvestigations.com/supernatural/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/blue-moon-werewolves.jpg

Information:

- http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/blue-moon-makes-fridays-moon-special/story?id=32789558

- http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/once-in-a-blue-moon-happens-on-friday-why-150730.htm

Eyes From The Skies To The Heavens

So, I have not yet posted for June, and although we've had a fair amount of convective storms including numerous tornadoes in almost every state east of the Rockies, tonight I would like to look beyond the reaches of our atmosphere.

Astronomically speaking, we are very small... and after watching Sports Science on Lionel Messi, the greatest soccer player in the world, angles and precision fascinate me even more when dealing with the incredible vastness of our solar system. Tonight and tomorrow night, Venus and Jupiter will be visible in the night sky in such unusual proximity that it is considered a decadal conjunction.

The information for this post, including distances, angles, and pictures, are mostly coming from the National Graphic page found here entitled "Venus and Jupiter Get Bright and Tight in This Week's Sky".

The Sky by the Numbers
Venus will be around 56 million miles away from Earth. Jupiter, on the other hand, will be about 550 million miles away. However, Venus appears much brighter (6x's brighter to be exact) due to it's gaseous atmosphere even though it's only around 1/10 the size of Jupiter. The gases making up the atmosphere consist of mostly carbon dioxide and thick clouds of sulfuric acid, which help to provide for the planet's huge albedo, or ability to reflect light. The albedo of the moon is about 0.11-0.12, but only reflects about 7-8% of sunlight due to uneven surfaces such as mountain ranges and craters. Fresh snow on the ground has an albedo of about 0.8-0.9 and reflects about 85% of sunlight. Venus on the other hand, has an atmospheric albedo of 0.9 and reflects about 90% of sunlight. Now, imagine you are driving down the road and are blinded by a patch of ice or snow on the ground... then take that brightness and put it on an entire planet. That is why Venus, although only 10% the size of Jupiter, appears to be six times brighter.

These two planets, which have been gracing viewers as gorgeous night lights around sunset, tonight and tomorrow night will be less than half a degree apart from each other from earth's standpoint: a distance so close that at arms length, National Geographic says that one's pinky finger will cover both, and both will be view-able in the same lens of a backyard telescope.

Later in the month on July 18th, a crescent moon in addition to Jupiter and Venus will all be visible at dusk in the width of about 3 fingers, or 4 degrees. It'll be an sight of astronomical proportions!

...Okay, yeah, that was bad.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer! I will try to post more often as I get into a routine with this second summer session. Go Wolfpack!