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September 2026 · Weather Records

The Wettest Kickoffs We've Ever Recorded

Some games are played in "a little drizzle." These were not those games. Out of the 1,757 games in our archive with any measurable rain or snow, these five got absolutely drenched, measured by how much actually fell in the four hours after kickoff, not "it rained somewhere in the state that day." A few turned into exactly the mud-bowl you'd picture. A couple did not, and that's the fun part.

The short version: the wettest kickoff on record dumped 4.3 inches of rain on Blacksburg, Virginia. That's more rain in one afternoon than some places get in a month. Heads up: this whole list changed after we found and fixed a timing bug in how the site measured weather (the story's in the research post), so every game here is different from what used to top it.
Wettest kickoff on record4.31 in
Games with measurable rain/snow1,757
Passing yards lost, per inch~61
Effect on who winsNone found
The outside of Lane Stadium at Virginia Tech on a sunny day, with a big VT logo on the grass.
Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium on a much drier day. On Sept. 9, 2023, it hosted the soggiest kickoff in our records. Photo: Smash the Iron Cage, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The 5 wettest kickoffs on record

Rain and snow added together, in the four hours after kickoff. Games under a roof don't count, no matter what the sky was doing outside. The rain never reached the field.

Date Matchup Score Precip Venue
Sep 9, 2023 Purdue @ Virginia Tech 24–17 4.31 in rain Lane Stadium, VA
Oct 8, 2016 Notre Dame @ NC State 3–10 3.67 in rain Carter-Finley Stadium, NC
Nov 12, 2011 Wyoming @ Air Force 25–17 3.42 in rain Falcon Stadium, CO
Sep 8, 2018 Indiana State @ Louisville 7–31 2.43 in rain L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium, KY
Sep 3, 2026 UAlbany @ Buffalo 17–21 2.43 in rain UB Stadium, NY

Some turned into total slop

Game #2 is the poster child: Notre Dame and NC State combined for just 95 passing yards in 3.7 inches of rain and 24 mph wind, and the final was 3–10. That's about as "rain ruined the passing game" as it gets. Game #3 is even wilder: Air Force finished with negative one passing yard against Wyoming, in 41.9 mph wind on top of the rain. To be fair to the weather, though, Air Force runs the triple option and barely throws the ball on a sunny day either.

Heavy rain falling over a packed Michigan Stadium, seen from high in the stands.
Heavy rain during Western Michigan at Michigan in 2011. If you've ever wondered what "sheets of rain" looks like from the cheap seats, here you go. Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The other three? They just… played football. Purdue and Virginia Tech threw for more than 500 yards combined in the wettest game on record (4.31 inches!), and UAlbany and Buffalo did the same in a more recent downpour. Weather sets the stage, but it doesn't decide the game. And five games aren't a study anyway. The real proof that rain hurts passing comes from looking at thousands of games at once and adjusting for how good the teams are, which is what the full weather research does. This list is the fun part, not the proof.

See the full top 50 on the Rankings page, or check this week's forecast for rain heading into upcoming games.