It's America's Day! The Weather & Redskins Outcome Favors the Democrats

Now I am doing my best today to be positive after the huge whipping the Steelers put on the Washington Redskins at home last night. As most of our bloggers now by now, I was born and raised in Washington, D.C. so I will always be a Redskin fan. Now I should be okay eventually. This should not be too hard with great forecast you see above! The Redskins are still doing way better than anybody predicted this year and last night was a good learning experience if you want to call it that. Speaking of predictions, the Redskins have predicted 17 of the past 18 Presidential Elections correctly dating back to 1936! If the Redskins lose their home game closest to the election the incumbent party loses the election. If the Redskins win the incumbent party stays in power. Well, it looks like Obama has the edge not only in the national polls but on the football field. We will see if this incredible stat becomes 18 of 19 today. No matter who you vote for you can be proud of living in a country where your vote really does matter and you have a voice in government.

You see former Indianapolis Colt Marcus Washington making a big hit on a Steeler. Courtesy of extremeskins.com

The weather has also been known to impact Presidential elections. Most of the country today will have nice weather and I would say much nicer than average weather is in place for at least 40 of the 48 contiguous states. All the real cold, stormy weather is locked up well to the north in Canada and Alaska. We have a couple of storms at the corners but in between most of the country is living up to its sea to shining sea name.


The rule of thumb is the Republicans usually pray for rain. Republicans usually have a better turnout in elections. Democrats pray for sunshine so many of the fringe voters get out and vote. Based on the map above you have to say advantage Democrats. I have read many intriguing books on the subject and apparently unusually nice weather with Indian Summer conditions across much of the Midwest helped to propel John F. Kennedy to power. He only won by about 100,000 popular votes and the spectacular weather enabled more folks to get out and vote. This favors the majority party and back in 1960 this may have been more than enough for a Kennedy victory. Nowadays we have early bird voting sweeping the country and early data indicates this would also favor more of the fringe voters to come out and vote giving yet another advantage to Democrats. So right now as all the weather and sports indicators go McCain has a huge uphill battle. But he is known as the Maverick and we will see if it will be enough. Our staff is ready to give you great election coverage tonight and make sure to tune in for the latest to see how it all works out.

I will also have more tonight on our severe weather risk later this week. Let us all keep our guard up as the National Weather Service in North Webster reminds us. Big storms do happen in November. Check it out.


November 10, 2002

4 dead

26 injured

F4 tornado damage at Van Wert, Ohio (winds 207 to 260 mph). Tornado touched down near Willshire and moved northeast for 53 miles to central Henry County. The tornado lifted near Malinta, Ohio. F4 damage occurred on Lincoln Highway west of Van Wert. F4 damage also occurred at the intersection of Dull-Robinson and Zook roads. There was one fatality at this location, as well as an injury. A couple was in the upstairs portion of their home. As the tornado approached the husband attempted to cover his wheelchair-bound wife. As he was doing this the home was hit, and a projectile struck the husband in the back of his head. His wife was sent to the hospital in critical condition. Another casualty occurred when the tornado swept a car off the road near Van Wert's Twin Cinemas, killing the driver inside.

After leaving the city of Van Wert, the tornado was between F3 and F4 strength through the remainder of Van Wert County. The tornado maintained F3 strength through Paulding County and extreme northwest Putnam County. Two more fatalities took place near Continental, Ohio, when the tornado destroyed a mobile home. The twister then began to weaken, becoming F0 in strength across Henry County.

F1 tornado damage at Hartford City, Indiana (Blackford County) (winds 73 to 112 mph). The tornado touched down two miles southwest of Hartford City on Angling Road and headed northeast, through the north side of town, to three miles northeast of Hartford City. The continuous track was five miles long. There was evidence that this tornado may have briefly touched down several times from northeast of Hartford City to east of Montpelier.

F0 tornado damage near Petroleum, Indiana (Wells County) (winds 40 to 72 mph). This damage was discovered during the aerial survey. This was a brief touchdown with minimal damage.

F3 tornado damage near Berne, Indiana (Adams County) (winds 158 to 206 mph). Touched down two miles northeast of Berne and headed northeast. Lifted at the state line near Salem. Path length 5 miles.

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Coincidentally, the last tornado to produce F4 damage in the Northern Indiana NWS office's area of responsibility occurred in Van Wert County, on February 18, 1992.

Tune in tonight for much more. While I am not expecting tornadoes at this time we all need to have that plan B ready to go. I will see you soon. Thanks for reading!