The Worst Weather Scenarios for Fans at the Super Bowl

Each weekday between now and Super Bowl Sunday The Big Lead will run a post on the predicted weather for Seahawks-Broncos. We’ll try to make this as painless as possible.

As you may have already heard by now, the Super Bowl is being held at MetLife Stadium just outside of New York next Sunday. As you also may have heard by now, it can be cold or snowy — or both — this time of year, which would purportedly spell bad news for those in attendance. Right now, the weather forecast from AccuWeather.com (and that’s obviously tenuous) calls for a high of 36, low of 24, and a 30% chance of precipitation on the day.

Provided it’s not a certain type of unwanted precipitation (more on that later), that doesn’t seem so terrible. What awful scenarios would be the biggest disaster?

5. 40 Degrees and No Precipitation

Stop it. That’d be more than fine. Ain’t nobody got NOTHING to say about a 40-degree day.

4. Snow

The general tone seems to be that snow is the Armageddon scenario, but being outside when it’s snowing is actually awesome. It always strangely feels sorta warm out, people are in a good mood, and there aren’t many things in the world that are more aesthetically beautiful than thick falling snowflakes.

People hate the idea of snow more for what it inevitably becomes, especially in cities where Sunday’s fresh white blanket brings Monday’s icy/slushy/salty/muddy mess; an accidental step into the wrong puddle means wet socks for the rest of the day. Shoveling and traffic aren’t wonderful either, but it’s not like most of the attendees will be using the roads to get home.

All that being said, snow football is the greatest:

3. Colder

15-30 degrees is bad and all, but you can layer up. If it’s 20 degrees and folks are acting like it’s Ice Age 2 out there they really need some perspective in their lives.

2. Coldest

The coldest day on record for East Rutherford on February 2nd had a low of -8 degrees. That’s certainly not ideal, but I went to Lambeau in similar conditions a few weeks ago and miraculously lived to tell about it. There are worse things.

1. Heavy Sleet and/or Freezing Rain

No matter how low the temperature drops, you can always add another layer. There’s nothing you can do if you’re outside for four or five hours and the sky is just pouring buckets of ice on your face. That’s just miserable, and everyone who gripes about having to endure it would be well within their right.

[Photos by @JosinaAnderson/Twitter; Kyle Grantham/Delaware Online; Mike McGinnis/Getty Images]