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Rain falls outside Raymond James Stadium on Thursday.
What does Sunday's forecast hold for the Super Bowl this
year? Image courtesy AP. Check out our slide show below
of some of the Super Bowl week events.
The biggest sporting event of the year is of course the Super Bowl and no doubt this year’s matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals is sure to be no different. Super Bowl XLIII will be held in Tampa Bay, Florida and the weather forecast is looking to be just about perfect – see our game day forecast below.
What about Super Bowl’s in the past? Was there ever any notable weather during the big game? You bet there was. Here are some fun facts (courtesy wx-man.com):
- 17 of 42 Super Bowls played indoors
- 16 of 42 Super Bowls had a trace or more of rain nearby
- 2 Super Bowls had snow on game day (1982,2006)
- 1 Super Bowl played during an ice storm (2000)
- Warmest high temperature of 82° (1973,2003)
- Coldest high temp for dome game 16° (1982)
- Coldest high temp for non-dome game 49° (1985)
- Wettest Super Bowl .92 inches (2007)
- Outside games with high wind gust (1980, 1984, 1989,2007)
You will notice there isn't really any mention of severe weather in those statistics. The NFL has been pretty fortunate on that front with nothing particularly notable – rain always seems to be the biggest threat.
But here is an interesting tidbit to contemplate – historically February is the deadliest tornado month in Florida by far. The graphic at the right shows you a month by month breakdown of deadly twisters in the state. Granted February 1st, the day the game is played this year, is at the beginning of the month and the chances are pretty miniscule of a tornado hitting a stadium on any given day but it is interesting to note.
As for Tampa and Hillsborough County specifically, according to the Tornado History Project no tornadoes have been recorded in the area on February 1st but there have been seven twisters in the month of February in the area from 1950 to 2007 (see image at right). Further, two of those occurred on February 2nd, the day after this year’s game – one in 1981 and one in 1983.
The forecast for this year looks to be pretty calm. I don’t expect a tornado is going to send mass panic throughout the stadium. The weather in fact looks just about perfect for football as we are forecasting 58 degrees at kickoff under partly cloudy skies. By the time the game ends the temperature will have dropped just slightly to 56 degrees. There is a very slight chance for showers during the game, maybe 10%.
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