Seasonable, sizzling, or sauna: A look at Aggie home openers over the years

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – There’s plenty to look forward to around this time of year.

Kids go back to school, Dove Season begins, seasonal beverages are released, cooler (ha, ha) weather returns, and most important of all: Fightin’ Texas Aggie Football returns.

Like any good tradition, there’s a phrase we recite the very second the kick-off times are released earlier in the year: Start hydrating now, Aggies. And for good reason, because it’s almost always a steamy one. Since the early 00′s, we’ve managed to reach the 90s on gameday 75% of the time on gameday (early September brings “average” highs in the mid 90s).

High temperatures have reached 100 before a couple times on gameday, but we’ll likely exceed the century mark this coming Saturday.

A disclaimer: The temperatures above are the recorded highs at Easterwood Airport for the DAY OF, not necessarily the temperatures that were seen throughout the game. This simple graphic also doesn’t take until account the humidity on each of these days. Most of our home openers have been in the evening, but there are a couple notable exceptions like Florida in ‘12 and Rice in ‘13 (more on that one in a moment). We managed to get all the way through the new millennium without any weather delays until the infamous sun-shiny thunderstorm game where the teams ran out the tunnel and immediately went back indoors for a delay that lasted, seemingly, all afternoon. Though we’ve had days with rain since, we managed to ward off any delays until this most recent season, where a drought-denting deluge rolled through around halftime and delayed the third quarter by a couple hours.

It is also worth noting that even deep into September, home games often reached well into the 90s. Though not the home openers, the Brazos Valley has seen some HOT home games in September. The two most often brought up around the weather center being 2007 Fresno State and 2011 Oklahoma State, both were afternoon kickoffs, one with a stifling 75° dewpoint, full-sunshine-after-downpour overtime game, and the other during one of the worst droughts the state of Texas has ever seen. The Fresno State game at least brought some good memories of a great migration for each overtime period and a Fightin’ Texas Aggie win.

Factoring in time of day and added humidity, Rice 2013 looks like it will be hard to beat. We had a high noon kickoff with temperatures building throughout the game, likely bringing heat index values at or above 105 through the games entirety. Things got a little heated on the field, too.

Pic: Johnny Manziel directs Rice player to scoreboard. pic.twitter.com/F929zCrrSu

— Alex Friedman (@afriedmanagent) August 31, 2013

That same year when Alabama rolled into town, temperatures soared into the upper 90s around kick-off at 2:30, but the setting sun along with clouds rolling in for the remainder of the game brought a little relief. Plus, some other stuff went down that day, too.

#PlayOfTheDay (2013): Johnny Manziel finds Mike Evans from his own endzone and Evans does the rest against the Alabama secondary. pic.twitter.com/Ys1v8PhJ5A

— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) December 7, 2020

THIS GAMEDAY

High temperatures have reached 100 before a couple times on gameday, but we’ll likely exceed the century mark this coming Saturday.

Calendar may say September, but Texas does NOT care. We’ll jump up to the triple digit mark Saturday afternoon, and likely still be at or above that mark by kickoff. The good news: Sunset is at 7:47pm, which should equate to halftime or a little earlier. While the entire west side of the stadium will likely be in the shade at game’s start, there may be a few in the student section and eastern side still in the sun to start the game.

To elaborate from way above: Make sure you mix in a water this weekend. This won’t be MUCH hotter than what we typically see the first couple games, but it may well be the hottest gameday of the past 25 years at least. BTHO New Mexico and BTHO dehydration!