How will Hurricane Helene affect the game?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers host the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 4, with both teams hoping to avoid a dip to .500. The Bucs won their first two games, took care of business against the Commanders and upset the Lions before being defeated at home by the Broncos in Week 3. The Eagles won in Week 1, then lost to the Falcons in Week 2 before rebounding with a road win at New Orleans.

In non-football news, Hurricane Helene is a storyline that may be worth keeping an eye on heading into the Bucs/Eagles game. Helene is expected to make landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida on Thursday, and according to The Weather Channel, “Hurricane Helene is intensifying and will likely be a major hurricane when it makes landfall in Florida (Thursday night) and cause catastrophic, potentially record-breaking consequences: storm surges, damaging winds and flooding rainfall.”

What impact could Hurricane Helene have on the Bucs/Eagles game?

The hurricane should have passed when the Bucs and Eagles kick off at 1:00 p.m. EST on Sunday. According to NFL Weather, there is still a chance of thunderstorms during the game and the temperature at kickoff will be 87 degrees and feel like 96 degrees with humidity. There won’t be much wind, with winds of 7 mph coming from the southwest and gusts of 10 mph.

The risk of thunderstorms will remain throughout the game and it will only get hotter as the game progresses. The temperature will rise to as high as 88 degrees, but by the fourth quarter it will feel like a whopping 99 degrees outside. If there’s one game where the Bucs want to rock their white jerseys and get the visitors to wear their dark home jerseys, it’s this one.