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Many of you love fantasy sports, especially football. I mean, heck, 41.5 million people played it this year alone. With respect to all other sports, lets face it, fantasy football is the real fantasy sport.
Even I get it. The two years I did it, I enjoyed it and it took up little of my time (even though I was incredibly bad). Well, with the fantasy football playoffs beginning this week for many leagues, we here at Wx Or Not have decided to begin a Fantasy Football forecast! Hopefully many of your players play in domes, or at least know how to prepare for the conditions.
What I will do is give the game, the time and then a bit of commentary on the game itself. The link that is within the game title itself is a link to the nfl.com preview. Then I will give a brief overview of why I made the forecast I did. The gametime forecast will then follow, and I will have scale of 1-10 on the odds that the weather significantly impacts your players (1 being the least and 10 the most).
Saturday, December 20th
Philadelphia @ Washington; 3:30 PM CST: Okay, maybe I overestimated the Eagle. Or maybe not. I am not sure. All I know is that because the Eagles didn’t play well, my dad is now in the championship of his fantasy league. Yahoo predicted he would go 1-12. Hahahaha. He is 9-4.
By gametime Saturday, it is looking rather chilly for the Philadelphia area as they are looking to be under the influence of a high pressure system. This will put winds out of the north, but they’ll be next to calm as the pressure gradient looks weak. Clouds look to be in and out, with temps in the mid to upper 30s.
Gametime Forecast: 38ºF, and partly cloudy. Winds out of the north calm-5 mph. Precip looks unlikely, but pigskin is guaranteed. Look for the Eagles to unleash their fury on the Redskins. Weather Impact: 1/10.
San Diego @ San Fransisco; 7:25 PM CST: Well, this game looked good, oh say, a few weeks ago. The niners have fallen face first into a deep chasm and there is no hope. Heck, Jim Harbaugh (I almost spelled that right the first attempt (!)) is getting bank offered to him at Michigan apparently! The wheels are off the niners train, and San Diego isn’t going down with them. Unless they do, and then that is their problem.
(h/t giphy.com)
San Fran will be sandwiched between a strong low pressure to the north and a high pressure to the south, creating some stronger onshore flow. Thus, I think temps may be a bit higher than the models show, and clouds will be on the increase across the bay area. Precip doesn’t look likely in the area, despite the influx of moisture off the pacific.
Gametime Forecast: 59ºF and mostly cloudy. Winds shouldn’t be higher than 5-10 mph. Expect angry fans, and Jim Harbaugh screaming at some point. Weather impact: 2/10.
Sunday, December 21st
Baltimore @ Houston; 12 PM CST: Okay, okat. I get it. JJ Watt can’t necessarily destroy the world. But Andrew Luck and the Colts are a better team than the Baltimore Ravens, and the Texans almost* beat them. Also: THIS IS IN A DOME. Dome teams can do anything they put their minds to (as long as the groundkeeping crew is up for it).
The forecast for this game is simple. So I am gonna make it fun. Maybe I should do a tailgate forecast for this, but discussing what could go on within a dome is much better. Maybe this week Houston will test out the use of Chemtrails** or maybe they will chuck hailstones at the Ravens. Who knows. The possibilities are endless!
Gametime Forecast: Lasers. Lots of Lasers. I really don’t know how anyone makes it out. Maybe any early appearance of Santa in the stadium? Weather Impact: n/a.
*almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades
**Chemtrails are as real as the Illuminati. Take that as you will.
Cleveland @ Carolina; 12 PM CST: Hey, Cleveland is finally playing a road game! Good for them. They have to feel pretty golden getting out of town for a weekend, and going down to play a team that is part of the football equivalent of what the city of Cleveland is to the US. The NFC South = Cleveland. Knowing Cleveland’s luck, though, they’ll start Manzel and will be bad again. Go Panthers.
By Sunday, Charlotte, NC will be seeing a very weak area of low pressure move to the south east of it, and this will do very little in the way of precip. However, it is looking like they are gonna get stuck within a wedge of colder air, and this (along with mostly cloudy skies) will help keep temps in the upper 40s.
Gametime Forecast: 49ºF under partly cloudy skies. Winds light out of the north and northeast. Precip unlikely, but the tears of Cleveland fans are already gracing my nostrils. Weather Impact: 1/10.
Detroit @ Chicago; 12 PM CST: Let me tell you this: Detroit is good. And right after I typed that, I saw that they only beat the Vikings by 2 points. Oh my, that is interesting. Matthew Stafford and Megatron are a pretty dynamic duo, tho. This should allow them to whoop the Bears, as the Bears really aren’t good. Anyways, there will be a real team that played there on Saturday:
Synoptically, Chicago will sit between a high pressure system to its east and a developing low to its west. This will induce south to southeasterly flow, which leads me to think that temps will be above the model guidance. Look for partly cloud skies, with temps approaching 40 for gametime.
Gametime Forecast: 40ºF, with partly cloudy skies. Winds southeast at 5-10 mph. Look for Bears fans to have random daydreams that it is 1984 only to realize it was just a dream. Weather Imapct: 2/10.
Green Bay @ Tampa Bay; 12 PM CST: This is the battle of the Bay’s, and they couldn’t be more different. We can’t think that Aaron Rodgers has two bad weeks in a row, so we will just assume that he doesn’t. Plus, can’t you tell how big of a Randall Cobb fan I am?
Weatherwise, it’ll end up being much like its Florida counterpart (Miami), only the result will likely be different. Green Bay is gonna win in some really good weather, as temps will likely be in the low to mid 70s under partly cloudy skies!
Gametime Forecast: 73ºF, with light winds and partly cloudy skies. The Pirates look to be hanging on by only a thread, but the weather doesn’t. Weather Impact: 0/10.
Kansas City @ Pittsburgh; 12 PM CST: You would think that people (me being one of them) comparing Patrick Towles to Ben Rothlisberger earlier this year would give him enough of a pride boost to be awesome. However, Kansas City and their good BBQ are coming to town. As John Calipari, a fellow from Pittsburgh, would say, “We all eat”. If Kansas City brings the BBQ, that will be true. Otherwise, only one team will really be eating by the end of the game: The Steelers.
Flow is looking to be weak from any direction, as Pittsburgh will begin to lie on the western side of an exiting high pressure system. This will begin to give light southwesterly flow, but I don’t think it’ll do too much. Clouds look be in and out, and there may be deck of higher clouds helping to keep temps controlled. If by controlled, I mean upper 30s and lower 40s.
Gametime Forecast: 37º, and mostly cloudy. Winds calm-5 mph. I would watch for the occasional drop of bar-b-que sauce or two from the KC fans, but other than that you should be good. Weather Imapct: 1/10. Food Imapct: TBA.
Minnesota @ Miami; 12 PM CST: Ahh, I haven’t forecasted for south Florida in a couple weeks. It’s nice to have that responsibility back! It’s almost like forecast for a dome outside. It will make this game fun for both teams, and likely very pleasant to attend. I mean, both teams are pretty mediocre. Why not just get tickets and go? Beats me! I have the Dolphins because of the fact that they are in South Florida.
Weatherwise, it won’t get much better than this. Light southeasterly winds keep skies partly cloudy, but temps rise into the lower to mid 70s as the game moves on. PLAY YOUR PLAYERS IN THIS GAME.
Gametime Forecast; 12 PM CST: 74ºF and partly cloudy. A wonderful day to play some football. Tailgating would be awesome here. Weather impact: essentially 0/10.
New England @ NYJ; 12 PM CST: They say anything can happen, especially when it comes to sports. I like to laugh when games like this come up. I guess I could bring up the fact that the Jets beat the Patriots to go to the AFC title game a few years ago (!!!!!) or that the Jets then had the butt fumble, but that doesn’t matter in this game.
The Patriots should hand Rex Ryan an early serving of Christmas Coal when Brady destroys them.
I actually think New York is gonna end up being relatively clear cloud wise, and I think this leads to higher temps across the area (upper 30s). They’ll be under the influence of a surface high, and this will suppress any real precip threat out of the way.
Gametime Forecast: 37ºF and mostly sunny skies. Winds and precip don’t look to be that significant of a threat to the game. Rex Ryan can heat up the temps by getting angry, so lets all go ahead an expect that. Weather Imapct: 2/10.
Atlanta @ New Orleans; 12 PM CST: Ahh, I have been waiting for this one. The battle of the NFC South “powers”. Yes, I have that in quotes. New Orleans leads the division at 6-8. There are no powers here. Just sadness. Sadness and confusion. As in, confusion as to why this division exists. They need an identity. However, they both are awful. And that is okay.
This is a dome game, and I love domes. Forecasting for them is like a piece of cake. So, therefore, I am forecasting cake for this game. Surely, somewhere, someone is having a Falcons themed birthday on Sunday.
Gametime Forecast: Some points. Some players. Some coaches. Some fans. Some announcers. Some other stuff. Some pizza after the game. Repeat next week.
NYG @ St. Louis; 3:05 PM CST: Well, my Rams lost last week. I am not afraid to be biased in these posts, and I will not lie about rooting for the Rams. They played really good defense against a good Arizona team last week. I mean, hey, they only allowed field goals, even in the loss. It’s the little progress. NYG is 5-9, as opposed to St. Louis’ 6-8 record. Plus, you gotta think Eli is gonna save his arm for their 1-4 start next year, only to win the super bowl.
Weatherwise, it’ll be as ideal as ever. There will be no weather in the dome. The only weather in there will be on the phones of the 60,000 fans attending the game. That weather isn’t even accurate 9/10 times. Oh, built in weather apps. I despise them.
Gametime Forecast: Pleasant and calm. No winds, no nothing. Just two teams full of friends, just trying to do something good. Outside of concussions, of course. Other than that, yeah. Good stuff.
Buffalo @ Oakland; 3:25 PM CST: I just got a glance at the name of Oakland’s stadium, and it made me want to rip them even more. They are so awful. They just are. Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to sell naming rights of a stadium to O.co?? I don’t even care about their football team. A pack of Wolves would be better than them, and the Bills should obliterate them. But come on, Oakland. You’re better than “O.co Coliseum”. Why aren’t you in, LA again?
Oakland is essentially in the same boat as San Fransisco. They have some onshore flow while being sandwiched between a low to their north, and a high to their southwest. This will lead to warmer temps, and a nice game. Partly to mostly sunny skies will allow temps to rise into the upper 50s and lower 60s.
Gametime Forecast: 61ºF, with partly sunny skies. Winds light out of the west-northwest. Precip chances look low, as do Raiders hopes for any sort of tangible football progress. Maybe if they win, they’ll get a movie about them and the inspiration their interm coach gave. Weather Impact: 1/10.
Indianapolis @ Dallas; 3:25 PM CST: It is no secret that I dislike the Cowboys. A lot. Though, I don’t dislike them more than a team about 60 miles west of Lexington, KY. However, they are so good. Dallas is a legit super bowl contender, and I am legitly surprised by it. DeMarco Murry went to arguably the best meteorology school in the country, tho! Holla!
This is again in a dome!
Domes are getting old. 2/3 my last three games are in domes, and it is a lot like last week when I had about 70 thousand eastern US games in a row to forecast, and it just got so old. So old. However, I can have much more fun with these.
Gametime Forecast: The floor caves in (no one hurt), and they go into a 5th dimension. The temperature there is approximately 17º Kelvin, which is really, really cold. This prompts ESPN to run an 18 week long segment on the issues of cold environments in football.
Seattle @ Arizona; 7:30 PM CST: We are really gonna find out a lot about both defenses in this game. Both are top 10 in the league, and will likely have one awesome battle upfront on bot sides of the ball. Seattle is still my go-to pick for the Super Bowl, so I am gonna keep it that way! Plus, its Seattle. How could you not root for the city that produced Starbucks. But, they did produce Macklemore….
Anyways, the Arizona dome will likely be warm. Maybe they could make it like a desert. OR they could make it a social mediaologist’s daydream.
Gametime Forecast: A derecho-superstorm with supercell-like polar vortices that drop feet of snow on top of a big city in Cuba. You get the weather bomb in there, and then they turn the temp up to freak out some global warming folks. All of this occurs within the dome, during the game. Good luck.
Monday, December 22nd
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL!!! This is a last Hoorah! for many fantasy leagues, as this will make or break many Championship games. Who do we have up to play?
Denver @ Cincinnati; 7:30 PM CST: Choose wisely in this one. If you have the Bengal’s defense, I would think twice. Even if it is good, Peyton Manning is probably a little bit better. Maybe. I mean, one player can’t exactly win a game in football, but he probably comes close. Maybe if Andy Dalton would become him….
I finally have something to forecast! It has felt like forever. It is looking as if the Ohio Valley will begin to take influence from a low pressure system over the northern Plains, and this will draw deeper moisture out ahead of it. While I think temps warm a good bit in this warm sector, clouds may hold that down significantly. Plus, precip is looking fairly likely heading into the Monday night game. If you can avoid playing guys in this one, I would recommend it.
Gametime Forecast: 47ºF and cloud, with isolated to scattered rain showers across the area. Winds south at 5-10 mph. Weather impact: 6/10 because of rain.
Overall, this week doesn’t look bad at all forecast wise. Many games are in domes (at the end, it felt like they all were), and almost all games had a low weather impact. Temps will likely be relatively cool in almost all of the games, but other than the Monday night game, there are really no significant weather games to note! Good luck to those in the playoffs!