Tundra Bowl? Vikes-Seahawks game likely top 10 coldest

NOAA

Dust off your favorite cold weather metaphors and taglines. The NFL may need them this weekend. I can just hear the broadcasters opening call for the game now.

“You’re looking live at the frozen tundra of TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.” 

 

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TCF-Bank-Stadium
MPR News

Somebody call Bud Grant.

Sunday's Vikings-Seahawks game at TCF Bank Stadium looks more than just plain cold. It looks like it will likely go down as one of the top 10 coldest games in NFL history.

As arctic air settles in over Minnesota this weekend, temperatures will struggle to reach the zero mark in the Twin Cities Sunday. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts  model is cranking out a kickoff temperatures of -3 degrees at noon Sunday for the Twin Cities.

Toss in a wind speed around 9 mph and you get a toasty game time wind chill around -19 degrees.

200 via sea euro
Weatherspark ECMWF data

6th to 10th coldest NFL game ever?

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration models advertise a high temperature around 0 degrees Sunday. If the European Centre forecast of -3 degrees at kickoff is right, that would be the 6th coldest NFL game in history.

If temperatures manage to stagger to 0 degrees at kickoff, Sunday's Vikings-Seahawks game will tie for the 7th coldest. Two above is a tie for 10th place.

Here's a look at the top 15 coldest NFL games ever from the National Weather Service.

vikes sea sun2
NOAA

Wind Chill, Temperature, and the Coldest Games in NFL History

Let's briefly take a look at some of the coldest games in NFL History with respect to temperature and wind chill values.

The chart (above) shows the top 15 coldest NFL games based on the actual air temperature (degrees F) around game time.  As you can see, based on the actual air temperature, the top two coldest games were the 1967 Ice Bowl(Cowboys vs Packers) and the 1982 Freezer Bowl (Chargers vs Bengals).

Ice Bowl still coldest ever?

Two NFL games stand out as the most brutal on record. The 1967 Ice Bowl in Green Bay, and the 1982 Freezer Bowl in Cincinnati. Both games were a like an extreme cold weather test lab for player and fan endurance. Here's a good analysis of why the Ice Bowl still reigns supreme as the coldest NFL game ever.

 Although the 1967 Ice Bowl was colder based on the actual temperature, some have argued that the 1982 Freezer Bowl was actually the colder of the two games because the winds were stronger during the game, thereby creating lower windchill values.  Let's take a closer look at these two nasty weather playoff games with respect to temperature and wind chill.

The chart on the lower left below is a comparison of the actual air temperature between the Ice Bowl and Freezer Bowl around the time the game was played (Noon to ~ 4 pm). The actual air temperature for the Ice Bowl (blue line) ranged from 5 to 8 degrees colder than the Freezer Bowl (red line).

ice bowl temp_compare
National Weather Service

The chart on the lower right is a comparison of the winds speeds (top portion of image on lower right) and wind chill (bottom portion of image on the lower right values for both games.

Note that although the wind speeds around the time of the Freezer Bowl (red line) were nearly double that of the Ice Bowl (green line), the wind chill values were actually lower (colder) during the Ice Bowl (green line in the lower half of the image on the right below) .

Ice bowl WCI_compare
NOAA

Going back to our comparison of the 1967 Ice Bowl and the 1982 Freezer Bowl, the image below simply compares the

average conditions

during both games.   When considering

both

the actual air temperature and the wind chill values (based on the new wind chill equation), the 1967 Ice Bowl was actually the "colder" of the two games.

ice freezer bowl
NOAA

If Sunday's Vikings-Seahawks game cracks the top 10 coldest NFL games as expected, the numbers on the thermometer  may be remembered far past the numbers on the scoreboard.