First some mood music.  This song by the Harry Simeone “Songsters” open the Chicago Cubs radio broadcasts I heard as a kid on WGN with Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau.  The song also opened for the Dodgers radio broadcasts and it does mention Kalamazoo.  The weather was perfect for the Tigers opener Thurs. afternoon…sunshine and mid 50s (light jacket and the baseball cap)…maybe a little sunscreen for the fair-skinned.  Tigers win in the bottom of the 9th!  Great game!  Tigers are going places this year!  The Whitecaps started tonight in Dayton, was a cool and pleasant evening with mostly clear skies.  The Whitecaps open at home next Monday.  The weather looks breezy and cool Monday with temperatures in the  mid 40′s.   Matt is trading me Saturday for Monday, so I’ll have Monday evening off and I’ll have to think about heading to 5th/3rd Park.  Here’s the Whitecaps schedule and the Tigers schedule.  Congratulations to Ferris St. for an AWESOME win over Union.  They are in the finals!  I remember my senior year of college traveling to Boston for the NCAA Hockey Finals.  Wisconsin beat Denver 4-2 at the Boston Gardens.

   It’s time for the Big Game, which you can see on WOOD, TV-8.  The game starts around 6:30 PM, but all afternoon we’ll have coverage.  Indianapolis will get some rain tonight and Saturday, but it should be partly sunny and pleasant there on Sunday with temperatures in the low-mid 40s.  Last year if you remember, the Dallas area got 2-6″ of snow on the Friday before the game and they endured some of the coldest temperatures in 20 years.  Arlington with an average high temperature of 57 saw highs of 40, 20, 22 and 30 for the Tuesday to Friday leading up to the game.  It warmed to the low-mid 50s on Super Bowl Sunday, but they had scattered rain showers.   I think the game may come down to whether the Giants (with a decent pass rush) can rattle/pressure Brady.  The name “Super Bowl” came from a super ball (remember those little balls that bounced so high that you used to get out of the “Fun Machine” at Mr. Fables?) that Lamar Hunt’s 8-year old daughter was playing with.   Here’s some Super Bowl Trivia.   Here’s the dates, teams and weather for past Super Bowls.  Enjoy the game, and watch my latest forecast after the game on 24-Hour News 8.

  Michigan State game starting now on WOTV4 from Tampa.  The weather/snow threads continue below.  Here’s a summary of the Lions/Packers game.  Did anyone bet ahead of the season that the Packers only loss would be against Kansas City, a team with a losing record that only won one game by more than 7 points?  The Lions had a couple of bad calls go against them Sunday.   The secondary needs to ramp up.  The Packers back-up quarterback was 31 of 44 for 480 yards and 6 touchdowns with a 136.4 rating.   With protection, Drew Brees could have a fun game and we could see a lot of points on the scoreboard.  The Lions/Saints game is on WOOD-TV Saturday at 8 PM.   There are six bowl games today (Mon.) and five of them feature teams from the Big Ten.  Michigan State takes the field against Georgia in the Outback Bowl at 1 PM on WOTV4.  That should be a good game.  My alma mater (Wisconsin) is in the Rose Bowl for the 5th time since 1994 (they lost last year to TCU 21-19).   We’ll have local news/weather at 5 PM on WOTV4 and at 6 PM on WOOD, so flip over to us or split screen to get updated weather.  I’m working the evening shift M-F this week.  Oregon is a slight favorite in that game.  Michigan takes on Virginia Tech Tuesday night at 8:30 PM on ESPN.

  Bowl lineup:  Michigan State plays Georgia in the Outback Bowl on Mon. 1/2 at 1 PM in Orlando.  Almost all the bowl games are on ESPN.  However, the Michigan State game will be on WOTV4, so make a note of that.  Michigan takes on Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl at the Superdome in New Orleans on Tues. January 3rd at 8:30 PM.   Western Michigan and Purdue will tangle in the Little Caesar’s Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit on Tues. Dec. 27th at 4:30 PM.  Notre Dame and Florida State meet in Orlando on Thurs. Dec. 29th in the Champs Sports Bowl at 5:30 PM.  Here’s the complete schedule of all 35 Bowl Games (yeah, all 35, including the Belk Bowl, the San Diego County Credit Union Bowl and the Idaho Famous Potato Bowl – even Illinois at 2-6 in the Big Ten gets in a bowl game).  Lions lose 31-17.    Lions had 109 yards of penalties and a turnover and only converted 2 of 10 3rd downs. Packers won on the last play of the game in NY to remain undefeated.    Wisconsin 42, MSU 39…Wisconsin gets to go “duck hunting” at the Rose Bowl.  It was a pretty even 2 games between MSU and Wisconsin…It’s nice they featured the  bands at halftime.   You probably heard that Ndamukong Suh crashed his 1970 car into a tree and pretty well totaled it?   The Redwings are HOT, winning 8 of their last 10 and near the top of the Western Conference.  I haven’t had a chance yet to congratulate both Zeeland West and Mendon for HUGE and LOPSIDED state football championships.  It looked to me like Zeeland West could have competed in Division One.  They were a machine this year.

  We’ have the big Lions/Packers match up on Thanksgiving Day (12:30 PM on FOX).  Unlike the last match-up in Detroit, this should be a high scoring game.  Greg Jennings has a bruised knee, but should be ready to play in his home state.   The 4:15 game on Thursday is Miami at Dallas.  There are 14 college games on Friday (you can watch live football for 14 consecutive hours), including Akron at Western Michigan at 1 PM.  If you’ve got some time off Fri. afternoon, think about going to the game.  The weather should be excellent.  Western has an exciting, explosive offense and one of the best ends in college football in Jordan White (14 touchdowns, 1389 yards this season so far – tops in the nation!).   On Friday you can see Iowa at Nebraska on WOTV4 at Noon, followed by Boston College at Miami.  The BIG game Friday is Arkansas at LSU at 2:30 PM.    Saturday is the big Ohio State-Michigan game in Ann Arbor (I think the rain holds off and it’ll be a relatively warm afternoon).  That game is at Noon on WOTV4.   Michigan State heads to Northwestern for a Noon match-up (Big Ten Network).  I can’t rule out a shower sneaking into Evanston, but the early start means they should get most of the game in before the rain, the way it looks now.   Penn St. comes to Madison for a showdown with my Badgers (who desperately want another shot at Michigan State).  Notre Dame at Stanford at 8 PM could be a great game, too.  That’s also on WOTV4.  Good luck to our area high school football teams in the state playoffs:  Lowell, Zeeland West, Constantine and Mendon.  Here’s the schedule for Friday’s games, which are being carried on Fox Sports-Detroit.

I’ll bet more people than usual check out the Penn St./Nebraska game. That’s two top twenty teams. That game is at Noon on ESPN. Michigan State at Iowa is on ESPN2, also at Noon. Michigan is at Illinois at 3:30 PM on ESPN and my Wisconsin Badgers travel to Minnesota for a 3:30 PM game on the Big Ten Network. In the evening, you can pick between Maryland/Notre Dame on NBC and the match-up of the day, Oregon at Stanford on WOTV4. The Lions have a big game at Soldier Field in Chicago Sunday afternoon at 4:15 PM. New England and the Jets is the Sunday Night Game on NBC. Monday Night Football on ESPN comes from Lambeau Field in Green Bay as the Vikings come to visit the Cheeseheads. We’ve also got several high school playoff games on Saturday, including home games for Rockford and Lowell…and a big matchup between East Grand Rapids and Holland.  It was dry for the MSU/NC basketball game in San Diego, but there were a few showers up past Los Angeles that I’m sure they were tracking.

Interesting game of the weekend:  Check out the video of halftime at the Army-Fordham football game…in a snowstorm…there’s hardly anyone there in the stands!  It’s only October.  There will be more of that in November.  Lions rolled, that was easy.  My Badgers lose another tough one on the road.  They still have Illinois and Penn St. coming up.  Tough loss for Michigan State.  Michigan thumps Purdue.

FINAL:  Wisconsin 31, Michigan State 37.  Michigan State and Wisconsin WAS the game of the day!  Sparty got lucky.  It was the right call, ultimately.  I may have to live 3 lifetimes to see Wisconsin in the BCS final.  I have to do the 6 PM and 11 PM news today (Sunday).   We use green for a chroma-key background color, so I can’t wear green.  I could wear black.  Eh…not my style to mourn.  When I came to Badgerland, the team hadn’t won a game in over two years!  The previous year (1968), they only scored 85 points ALL SEASON.  So I guess I should be thrilled with the improvement they’ve made.  The game turned when Wisconsin was pinned by a punt at their own five and called the obvious running play that MSU was anticipating.    My alma mater (Wisconsin) had five home games against mostly weak opponents and the one away game against N. Illinois at Soldier Field was kind of a home game, because there were more Badger fans than Husky fans in the stands.   Now, Wisconsin is on the road for four of the next five Saturdays.  The Badgers lead the nation with an average of 50.2 points per game.  They won’t get that against a tougher Michigan State defense.  Wisconsin will have to run the “Ball” to win the game and convert on 3rd downs.   Michigan State is without William Gholston (deservedly so, IMO – not just for the punch, but for twisting the helmet of Denard Robinson).  Michigan State won the match-up last year 34-24.  The Badgers haven’t won at East Lansing since 2002.   You’ll see two good quarterbacks in Kirk Cousins and Russell Wilson.  The game is on ESPN at 8 PM.  The Wolverines have a bye this weekend.  Western and Central both had close losses today.   After three very close losses, Grand Valley has put a total of 173 points on the board in their last three games.  It’s the West Michigan showdown with the Lakers hosting Ferris State.  The Lions have a challenge against Atlanta in a 1 PM match-up Sunday at Ford Field.  I should also note the Chicago Bears/Tampa Bay game is being played at Wembley Stadium in London, England (a spot of tea at halftime?).   Saturday, I’ll spend some time working on the winter forecast at home with papers and folders spread out on the table.  Sunday, I’m doing the evening shift on TV.   The weather looks good this weekend…some frost Sat. AM, a passing shower Sunday evening.  Enjoy, and thanks for checking my blog.

“The worst of the storm hit just after midnight which made bolts of lightning our only light source.  As the wind built, our tack line exploded; we were knocked down immediately and stayed horizontal from winds of 54 knots for about 15 minutes!  Shortly after being knocked down, with no steerage, lightning flashed and another boat, without sails was planing right towards us! Thankfully, they managed to alter course and avoid a collision.  Once the winds calmed a bit, lights shined on our boat followed by the release of an emergency flare….” Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Dramatic-Footage-of-Mackinac-Race-Storm–125837798.html#ixzz1SgzMhIw9 The picture is from a video at the link that was shot by Greg Alm during the storm from his helmet-cam.  The light in the picture and video is from nearly continuous lightning and the picture is a still frame, illuminated by lightning of that video.     I also received this story from several different viewers asking about the authenticity of the +100-knot (115 mph winds) recorded by one boat during the storm.   The first boat to finish was Windquest (the DeVos Family from Grand Rapids) and the adjusted winner was “Windancer” from the Muskegon Yacht Club.  Here’s the race results. ‘Regarding the 100 knot winds, I got this reply from the Meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Gaylord: Bill…We have also heard about 100 kt winds with this storm.  This magnitude is significantly higher than any other observation we received, and radar didn’t indicate anything close to this magnitude.  However, given that we’re talking about convection, it’s possible this could have happened on a scale smaller than could be detected by observation or radar.  Hard to know for sure.        Bruce Smith  MIC NWS Gaylord MI Radar picture from the National Weather Service in Gaylord at the time of  the strong winds. Winds on the 0.5 deg Base Velocity were around 60 knots at 3000 ft near the accident area.  Near the surface of the water, of course, higher winds were possible.

<–click to enlarge.  They had egg-size hail at Target Field in Minneapolis!   People were trying to catch it with their mitts!  There was a Tornado Watch for eastern Minnesota.  Some of the hail reported around Minneapolis was the size of baseballs!   There’ was a Severe T-Storm Watch up as far north as  southern Lake Michigan and the Michigan-Indiana border.  They have had several of very large hail, up to 3″ in diameter south and southeast of Fort Wayne.  Looking at the models, the European dries us out the fastest, bringing us a sunny Sunday. The Canadian might have us become partly sunny during Sunday. The Japanese and GFS hold the clouds and showers in Michigan on Sunday.  Wow, the heat wasn’t too far away this afternoon.  It was 90 at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, 91 at Midway Airport and 95 out in Macomb, IL.      Also, here’s the latest on global temperatures from NASA, courtesy of Phil Gentry.  Note they are using the new 1981-2010 averages:  (more…)