Historically cold temperatures forecast for Seahawks-Chiefs game

The Seattle Seahawks’ final road game of the 2022 regular season is a daunting trip to the Kansas City Chiefs, who’ve lost just once at home all season and have historically had their way with the Seahawks in Kansas City. Seattle is trying to remain in the playoff hunt in the NFC, while the Chiefs are aiming for the #1 seed currently occupied by the Buffalo Bills.

As if the actual game wasn’t difficult enough, it is expected that the weather will be extremely frigid on Saturday.

Starting on Thursday it’s going to be extraordinarily and dangerously cold in the Kansas City metropolitan area. I’m no meteorologist, so I’ll defer to FOX 4 meteorologist Joe Lauria on the week ahead:

Wind chills.

This will be brutal. Let’s assume temperatures do drop to minus 5 degrees by sunset Thursday with 20-30 mph sustained winds (higher gusts). This will send wind chills down to near minus 30 degrees and as temperatures drop more overnight into Friday, the wind chills may approach minus 35 degrees in KC. That is rare(!) and very dangerous. Frostbite can occur in 10-30 minutes time.

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Temperatures.

So how low can they get? This will be a function of clouds on Thursday night. If we clear out by Friday morning, minus 10 degrees is certainly on the table (the winds too may play a role in mixing the air keeping that extreme number from being attained). Minus 5 degrees though is VERY much on the table… at least.

Then Saturday morning we may be primed with clear weather, lighter winds, and snowpack. Minus 10 degrees on the table for the metro (some colder?).

The Weather Channel currently has Saturday’s high at 11 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly -12 degrees Celsius) with winds swirling at 10-15 MPH. Considering this is a 12 PM local time kickoff it figures that this game will essentially be played in single digit temperatures, with potential sub-zero wind chill. On the plus side, it’s supposed to be sunny.

If the temperatures hold up as accurate this will be the coldest Seahawks regular season game ever played, and second coldest behind the playoff victory over the Minnesota Vikings in January 2016.

You may recall that the Seahawks’ last trip to KC in 2014 was also a cold one. Temperatures were in the low 20s and the wind chill brought the “feels like” temperature into the teens. Seattle lost that game 24-20 and actually dropped out of a playoff spot as a result of this defeat, but ran the table and returned to the Super Bowl.

To anyone who resides in or around the Kansas City area or intends to travel to KC for this game: bundle up and be safe out there!