It never rains in Tiger Stadium — but drops may fall during Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt.With an 80 percent chance of rain forecast to grace Tiger Stadium, weather is not likely to affect fan turnout, according to Michael Bonnette, sports information director.”This being the home opener … people are excited to see LSU play,” Bonnette said. “I would hope it wouldn’t affect attendance much.”Lightning has delayed the start of past games, but Bonnette said he doesn’t recall any games being canceled because of rain — and the rain rarely depresses fan turnout.Games with rain in recent years include the game against South Carolina in 2007 and the Fresno State game in 2006. Hunter Geisman, ticket operations coordinator, said the rain-soaked South Carolina game had 12,109 attendees in the student section. The average number of student attendees  at each game for the 2007 season was 8,963.And the sun-sparse the Fresno State game had 4,138 attendees in the student section, while the average attendance for each game during 2006 was 8,372, Geisman said. “The Fresno game was at 8 p.m. [with] terrible weather before the game, cooler temperatures and the kickoff was delayed over an hour,” Geisman said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille. “South Carolina was a 2 p.m. kickoff … It was warmer since it was in September, and there was no delay.”The South Carolina game was an SEC game, whereas the Fresno State game was against an unranked non-SEC opponent, Geisman said. Jules Robicheaux, biological sciences sophomore, said he is actively searching for tickets to Saturday’s game — despite the possibility of a downpour.”It’s LSU football,” Robicheaux said. “There’s no denying that Tiger spirit.”Danielle Manning, National Weather Service meteorologist, said rain is expected during the weekend and into early next week.”It looks like a wet weekend,” Manning said. “[The rains] will be scattered by the time the game is supposed to start, so hopefully [Tiger Stadium] will be in one of the clearer areas.”Nothing short of a hurricane will postpone Saturday’s football game, Bonnette said.There are no current hurricane threats to the Gulf Coast, said Barry Keim, Louisiana state climatologist.Hurricane Fred, which reached peak winds of 120 mph Wednesday, is expected to stay in the Atlantic Ocean, and Tropical Storm Linda in the Pacific Ocean, Keim said.Thursday marked the exact midpoint of the 2009 Hurricane Season, but Keim said forecasts predict another four to six named storms to form in the Atlantic. In past seasons, Louisiana has seen hurricanes in the latter half of the season, including Hurricane Rita in 2005. “We still can get them through the end of October,” Keim said. “[After that] we should be home free.”The 2008 season opener against Appalachian State was moved to 10 a.m. from its original time in the early evening because of Hurricane Gustav.————Contact Lindsey Meaux at [email protected]