Super Bowl Weather no Longer Whether or Not

Fears that Super Bowl XLVIII would be done in by bad weather seem to have blown away.

(Photo: Mark Humphrey, AP)

Saturday's temperatures were in the mid-40s in New Jersey near the site of Sunday's Super Bowl.
That could be the same at kickoff Sunday, with winds also far less fierce than predicted.
Weather shouldn't be a factor at the next three Super Bowls, in Arizona, California and Texas.

NEW YORK -- With about 24 hours until kickoff of Super Bowl XLVIII, the only vortex happening in midtown Manhattan proved to be of the human variety.

With temperatures peaking in the mid-40s on Saturday, a giant mass of football fans swirled around the attractions in Times Square's Super Bowl Boulevard, many forgoing coats and wearing the jerseys of their favorite teams over bulky sweatshirts.

For all of the hype about the NFL's first cold weather Super Bowl bringing potential blizzard conditions or a continuation of the east coast's recent bout of polar temperatures, the weather at MetLife Stadium on Sunday could have about as much influence on the game as the players on the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos practice squads.

Weather.com predicts the temperature at kickoff around 6:30 p.m. ET will be 43 degrees, with minimal west to northwest winds of 5 miles per hour. By the time the game ends around 10:30 p.m., the temperature is expected to have dropped 5 degrees, with any potential snow holding off until Monday morning.

The next three Super Bowl venues are lined up in Glendale, Ariz., Santa Clara, Calif. and Houston, none likely vulnerable to game-altering seasonal elements. The finalists for Super Bowl LII -- the host determined in May -- include New Orleans and two cold-weather cities with domed stadiums: Indianapolis and Minneapolis. This means that the earliest we could see another outdoor Super Bowl in a traditionally cold-weather market is February 2019.

When asked about the possibility of that happening, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell explained that the choice of future host cities comes down more to existing infrastructure than climate.

"We know there's interest in other communities hosting the Super Bowl," Goodell said Friday. "We'll all sit back and review that when we're done, but we have a very aggressive process in how to select cities.

"The ability to host a Super Bowl is more and more complicated, more and more complex, because of the size of the event and the number of events. So, the infrastructure's incredibly important. We're well over 30,000 hotel rooms needed even to host the Super Bowl. So, there's some communities that may not even be able to do it from an infrastructure standpoint, but we know the passion's there."

------------

WATCH: Athletes and celebrities' Super Bowl predictions