Thunderstorms and Football

Saturday night August 25 and I'm filling in for the vacationing Tony Pann. It seems that every time Tony takes off, there is some major weather event. One time this winter, we had heavy snow one Sunday morning and I ended up working from 6 AM until Midnight.

This Saturday night, the Redskins were playing the Ravens at FedEx field and WUSA was carrying the game. We aired a Redskins pregame show that was supposed to go on from 7:30 to 8:00 PM. AS we are getting ready to air, a tremendous thunderstorm hits FedEx Field. Our on-field show was quickly moved to an interior location as stadium officials, wisely, evacuated everyone out of the bowl and under cover of the stadium. With the storm roaring outside, and lightning everywhere, the 8:00 start time was initially pushed back about 15 minutes.

But the storm continued and the delays grew. Initially, we would have finished our pre-game show at 8:00 PM and then go to the Redskins broadcast. But, the storm caused havoc at the stadium and we ended up filling an extra hour.

Brett Haber and Sarah Walsh did a great job at FedEx Field grabbing players and holding impromptu interviews. In the studio I was giving weather updates and tossing it around with Levan Reid. Levan's a great guy and a fellow Long Islander, so it was a pleasure having him in the trenches with me.

We've been crying about drought all summer. This week we've had over 3 inches in spots and the US Drought Monitor showed a much smaller area of severe drought. Now, moderate drought is the primary area and the trend is positive.

It's almost midnight and we're now in another lightning delay. If they play the second half, which is just over 3 minutes old. I figure we'll be on between 1:30 and 2 :00 A.M.

Thanks a lot Tony Pann!