That is right, leave it to me to find a positive even after 60,000 fans had to be evacuated from Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday. We have amazingly caught up to normal in the rainfall department after having drought-like conditions for the past few months. You can see above we actually have a surplus of rain of .16" of an inch. This sums up why it is great to be a meteorologist here in Indiana. Our weather not only changes in a heartbeat but it can do so in a fury.
Saturday was a perfect example. We only had two small showers on radar well to our south and west at 10 a.m. and most of the maps did have the heaviest rain staying south of the area. Live Doppler 18 was tracking this small area of rain toward the stadium by 1 p.m. So it still looked good for more storming Boilers than stormy skies. We knew it would probably not be totally dry for the whole game, but at least the worst of the weather should miss us.
Well, nature never likes to be outdone and nature stormed back to life so that by 11 a.m. I knew we would be in for a battle not just on the football field but from the sky. The front literally came alive and you could really pick out that it was located about 60 miles farther north than forecasted and it made all the difference in the world. Lightning was firing up on the boundary and it was drifting east-northeast toward Ross-Ade.
The good news is the Purdue officials were made aware of this and did a great job of evacuating the stadium at halftime. This was the first time the stadium had been evacuated since the late 1980s according to WLFI sports anchor Larry Clisby. He told me a dramatic story of how Purdue was playing against Miami of Ohio. Back then they did not have any suites and Larry was all wired up and had to take refuge under a desk. Yes, he really hid under a desk. He was scared because he was struck by lightning in high school. So he knows it is a real hidden danger most folks do not take seriously in Indiana. Yesterday, history repeated itself, but instead of hiding, Larry and everybody else did in fact stay calm like you should during severe weather and it really made a difference. My hats off to everybody that went to the game and the good news is that Purdue not only won the game, but more importantly everybody stayed safe. In my book it was one of our biggest home wins ever, no matter who we played!
Now just when you think things are settling down, nature is not done with us yet! Dramatic changes in temperatures are on the way. Even though your calendar says Autumn officially begins on September 23rd it is coming early this year. We have a parade of fronts on the way. We are talking not one, two, but three cold fronts that will move through the area that will usher in relief that is long overdue. But we are not talking just a big cool down, but goose bump weather that could actually make it feel a bit chilly by Wednesday morning. We have been sizzling since August and we have our coolest weather since May on the way. Make sure to tune in tonight to find out how low we will go!
I better go dig out some sweatshirts and jackets for the family. In the meantime, you have a great day and I will have aurora pictures for you that are nothing short of spectacular sent in by Monty Sloan and even a woolly worm update. We have had big differences in those reports. Will it be a milder winter north of Lafayette this year according to the woollys? I will have this and more coming your way on tomorrow here on the blog.
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