Looking at MSU Weather History: 2001 Football vs Troy
While this may be painful to remember, we’re going to take a walk down memory lane to October 13, 2001. Now the reason why I chose this day is because of the fact that weather played such a massive role in that game. It was the Troy vs Mississippi State game that saw the Bulldogs lose in a sloppy 21-9 battle. Trying to recollect on this game is hard, but the weather part of it is quite interesting to look at. Let’s take a look at the this interesting piece of MSU weather history.
Starting well before the game, the radar in Columbus, MS was full of green and yellow, indicating light to moderate rain over the Starkville area. Best part about having a Meteorologist on your staff at a website, you know exactly where to pull old radar data. So let’s take a look at the radar, shall we?
Now as you can see, there was a large spread of rain over the Golden Triangle at 10 AM that morning, which in October can be quite common in Mississippi. Temperatures usually start driving lower, but the rain comes down just a little bit harder on these days. This continued until 11:58 AM CDT when the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK issued Tornado Watch #787. This watch included the Starkville area and the wording of this watch was quite strong.
"LINE OF SEVERE STORMS CONTINUES TO MOVE EWD AT 25 KTAS ISOLATED STRONG STORMS DEVELOP ACROSS SERN MS/SWRN AL AHEAD OFLINE. MODERATE INSTABILITY AND STRONG SHEAR WILL BE FAVORABLE FORSTORMS WITH WIND DAMAGE AND ISOLATED TORNADOES THROUGH MUCH OF THEAFTERNOON."
Good thing they issued that watch, because the threat would be much more real in less than an hour from that watch. On the 12:49 PM CDT radar scan from Columbus, you can see a small bit of rotation in the radar scan. As the scans continue, the rotation becomes stronger and stronger until we see a clear gate-to-gate rotation in northern Oktibbeha County. Now let’s take a look at the storm-relative velocity scan which purely show rotation in a storm.
Now green means moving away from the radar, while red means moving towards the radar. When red and green are right beside each other, that is what we call gate-to-gate rotation, a sign of a radar-indicated tornado. Now from what I remember, this coincides with a tornado warning issued for the area that caused an evacuation of Davis-Wade Stadium at Scott Field that day. That’s truly a scary case for someone to have to deal with when all they want to do is go to a football game.
As the game went on, the rain came in sheets. That is until 2:18 PM CDT when a squall line came through the area, most likely associated with a frontal boundary. The line came and went, bringing in heavy winds and rain, making efforts MUCH more difficult for the Bulldogs and Bulldog fans. Estimated winds of 35-40 MPH, the line may have also caused some damage in the Junction if tailgaters weren’t prepared for it.
Luckily, no one at the game was harmed due to the rotation or storm. But, the Bulldogs still suffered a devastating loss that day, with a kickoff of 1:30 PM CDT. The Trojans jumped out to a quick 21-0 lead in the second quarter before Wayne Madkin led a drive in which the Bulldogs scored the Touchdown, but missed the try. Halftime came and went with the Bulldogs trailing 21-6. It took just as long for the Bulldogs to add their final points of the game with a John Michael Marlin field goal from 24 yards out. The final score ended as 21-9, but some Bulldog fans felt pretty darn lucky to have avoided what was pretty close.
So remember, Bulldog fans, be safe this football season as you go out tailgating. Also, remember to stay tuned tomorrow as I will release my forecast for this weekend’s game against Troy. For a little preview, I don’t think we’ll have ANYTHING close to October 13, 2001. But let’s just make sure tomorrow, shall we?