U.S.A. vs. Ghana Gameday Forecast

The much anticipated World Cup match-up between the United States and Ghana is set to start at 5pm CST/6pm EST tonight. That means the game will start at 7pm local time in Natal, Brazil. Let’s take a look at the forecast for tonight’s match.

Currently, winds are coming out of the ESE off the Atlantic Ocean. These winds are advecting some moisture onto the coast. Check out the visible satellite imagery from earlier this morning showing an area of clouds embedded with some showers and storms along the Brazilian coast over Natal.

GOES114520141671E2j5Q — GOES Visible Satellite Imagery valid at 8:45 local time. (Courtesy: NASA)

This is pretty common for Natal as they usually see a pretty persistent fetch of moisture off of the Atlantic this time of year. On Friday and Saturday, Natal received a combined 154 mm (~6 inches) of rain.

It doesn’t look like we’ll see any rainfall numbers like that today, but there will be a few showers around the area. Here is the latest run of the GFS model showing some precipitation along the coast this evening:

gfs_samer_009_precip_p03 — 12Z GFS 3-hour precipitation valid at 6pm local time. (Courtesy: NOAA)

In summary, expect a mix of sun & clouds in Natal today with a high temperature hovering around 80 degrees. There could be a few showers around game time but these will be isolated in nature. Dew points will be in the 70s so players will have to deal with some oppressive humidity, but overall it looks like the weather should cooperate with tonight’s World Cup matchup. Lets just hope the passion of Japan’s fans carry over to those of the USA!

TURN DOWN FOR WHAT!?!