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Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) throws a pass during warmups before facing the Bears last season. Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

It’s Packers-Bears, And the Weather’s Almost Perfect

Originally posted on Green Bay Packers on SI
By Bill Huber | Last updated Dec 7, 2025 12:50 PM ET

When the Green Bay Packers host the Chicago Bears on Sunday, it will be the biggest matchup in the rivalry since 2013.

The weather will help set the mood.

It was nothing but sunshine on Sunday morning, with the temperature supposed to max out around 17 degrees, according to WBAY-TV Channel 2 in Green Bay. However, the game will start at 3:25 p.m. and the sun will set at 4:12 p.m., so the mercury will drop quickly.

By halftime, it will be about 12. By the end of the game, it will be about 9.

Fortunately for the 78,000 fans expected to fill Lambeau Field for the first-place showdown, the wind will be relatively negligible. With a north-northwest wind of 10 mph, the wind-chill index will be 5 degrees at kickoff. With the wind tapering to 7 mph, the wind chill will be minus-2 by the end of the game.

“I think it’s critical,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said of practicing outside as the weather turned unseasonably cold for the first time this year. “Our ability to get outside and get on the grass, I think that’s crucial. I think it’s more of an advantage when the other team can’t practice in it. It’s negligible this week. It doesn’t really matter because Chicago is in the same environment.

“But I do think it’s critical because everything feels just a little bit different. You got to get used to that.”

There was snow in Green Bay overnight on Saturday and more is scheduled on Monday night and Tuesday night, but it will be dry for the game.

“The weather’s the weather,” defensive end Micah Parsons said. “You can’t really control Mother Nature but I think I can play in any condition. That don’t really change anything. It’s all mindset. We used to play in superb heat; still got to play. Can play in superb cold; still got to play. I don’t really care about the conditions.

“And I went to a cold school. Penn State was cold as hell. And I’m from Pennsylvania. Played in a state championship game. It’s cold. We don’t got no heated benches. This is bougie now. Like, I tell guys all the time, this is the good life. When you raise up in the East Coast, there’s no heated benches. We’ve got it so good. Heaters, oxygen. Sh**, it’s sweet. The only time it gets real cold and it’s tough to play is times where you see Buffalo and they’re playing in like 3 inches of snow and it’s like snow everywhere, but just cold is not really cold. This is OK.”

Pro Football Reference has weather data going back to at least 1963. If that 17-degree prediction is correct, this will tie for the 10th-coldest game in the rivalry. It was 16 at kickoff when the Bears beat the Packers at Lambeau last year.

“I think it’s always a factor,” quarterback Jordan Love said. “It’s something that you got to go out there and just be mentally tough, mentally strong, and find ways to tough it out, play through some of the cold.

Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“But cold, wind, rain, snow, those things are all factors, especially in the pass game, but some of those things where you practice it every day, you kind of build a callous, I’d say, to it. But, yes, it’s different than playing in an indoor [stadium] where you don’t have to worry about none of that stuff. But it’s things you just got to whatever it takes, find ways to play through it and come out with the goal of getting a win.”

Running games tend to take center stage when the weather gets cold. It’s hard to say which team will have the edge in that regard. The Bears’ have an elite rushing attack but one of the worst run defenses.

“It gets colder in the season, people don’t want to hit you as much. That’s usually how it goes,” running back Josh Jacobs said.

In the cold, it’s harder to grip the ball to throw it and catch it. It’s harder to secure it when defenders are pulling at it and punching it. And it’s harder to kick.

“We haven’t played real cold weather yet, but we’ve played in crazy wind conditions this year, and that’s always problematic,” special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia said. “But I think it’s always been how far it can travel in the cold environment.

“Usually, in the past, the ball wouldn’t travel as far as you’d like it to in a cold environment, but I do remember last year here against Chicago, Brandon (McManus) hit a 55-yarder. It was pretty cold that day. My first year here, I think Mason (Crosby) hit a 56 late in the year, as well.”

The Packers will play at the Denver Broncos next week. The weather will be a nonfactor with sunny skies and a high of 46. The Packers and Broncos will meet again at Soldier Field on Saturday night, Dec. 20. It will be much more moderate, according to the extended forecast, with a low temperature of 24 – right at the daily average – with only a slight chance of precipitation, according to AccuWeather.

“I’m definitely just used to being out there and playing in the cold, but I definitely don’t like it that much,” receiver Christian Watson said. “But it’s just part of it. Once you’re out there and you’re warm and you’re running around, I don’t think it affects much. It’s not really a factor for me. I’m not really thinking about the cold when I’m out there.”

The coldest Packers-Bears game was played on Dec. 18, 1983. It was 1 degree at kickoff with a wind-chill of minus-17, with the Bears winning 23-21 on Bob Thomas’ last-second field goal.

This article first appeared on Green Bay Packers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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