INDIANAPOLIS — Are you ready some football?!
Welcome to Week 7 of Operation Football, Week 6 of college football and Week 5 of the NFL season. Let's break down for the weekend.
As expected, the remnant cloud cover of a dying rain/thunderstorm complex is all that will impact Indiana today as we get ready for Operation Football games this evening.
Please have a great evening of tailgating and rooting on your team, and don't expect any weather issues in Indiana. Kick-off temperatures at 7 p.m. Will be in the 70s and gradually drop into the 60s by the 4th quarter. Sunset this evening is 7:22 pm.
College Football Saturday (local teams)
Both Purdue and IU are on the road this weekend. If you're making those road trips to either Madison or Evanston, plan on unseasonably warm finishes to both games, with the potential of 80s in Wisconsin by the finish there and even upper 70s at Northwestern. Morning cloud and/or fog will diminish throughout the day as a warm front lifts to the north.
Back home in Indiana, Ball State has a 2 p.m. kickoff in Muncie against Western Michigan, and the weather will be rather pleasant. It'll be mainly sunny and temperatures nearing 80° by the fourth quarter. CHIRP CHIRP!
College Football (Top 25)
There are some nice matchups nationally this weekend with playoff implications. For most of these games, weather will have minimal impact.
Some of the exceptions:
Scattered shower/thunderstorm potential in Columbia (Ole Miss-South Carolina), Athens(Auburn-Georgia), Seattle (Michigan-Washington) and Tallahassee(Clemson-Florida State).
High heat in College Station, TX (Missouri-Texas A&M), Ames, IA (Baylor-Iowa State) but with dropping temperatures and breezy conditions, and Berkley, CA (Miami-Cal) where record temperatures are possible during the day. Thankfully, for the latter game, it will be a "dry heat" in California this weekend.
NFL Sunday
One of the games this weekend with perhaps the most impact from weather will be in Jacksonville. An onshore flow, combined with a stalled boundary nearby, brings the likelihood of showers during a majority of the game — and day, for that matter. Field conditions won't be the best as the Colts look to get their first win in Jacksonville since 2014!
We'll have unseasonably warm conditions in preceding a frontal boundary moving through the eastern Great Lakes on Sunday. Highs soar into the 80s for the Baltimore Ravens-Cincinnati Bengals matchup with possibility of quick-moving showers as the front moves through the region. But it's very possible that the line of rain/thunder with this front threads the needle of these 1 p.m. games.
Heat will be a big story again on Sunday in the Bay Area where the Ariona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers matchup. Showers continue around Seattle, too. It'll be an ideal Sunday afternoon at Mile High Stadium in Denver with sun and upper 70s.
Sunday Night Football on WTHR
Arguably some of the most comfortable weather this weekend for NFL games might be in Pittsburgh Sunday night. The stiff breeze from earlier in the day weakens and temperatures hover in the 60s for the game between the Dallas Cowboys and Steelers.
