Which Super Bowl Team Has Tougher Weather?

This year's Super Bowl will likely be played in comfortable weather in California, but it features two teams that often play home games in adverse weather conditions.

As a meteorologist, I'll steer away from making a prediction of who might take home the Vince Lombardi trophy. I'm just hoping for a close, compelling game.

But given the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks each play in regions of the country with notoriously challenging weather, it made me wonder whose weather is the toughest.

(MORE: Super Bowl Weather History)

How We Determined This

We examined the most recent 30-year average data from 1991 through 2020 for reporting stations closest to both teams' home stadiums from September through January, covering both the regular season and any playoff games prior to the Super Bowl.

For the Patriots, we used Walpole, Massachusetts, only 3 miles from Gillette Stadium. For the Seahawks, we used Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, about 10 miles south of Lumen Field.

The weather variables we considered covered rain, snow, cold, wind and heat. Specifically, we used the number of days a certain condition happens to get a better feel for how often these more challenging weather conditions occur in each location.

We then summed up the totals of all five metrics to determine which team typically plays in tougher weather at home.

Precipitation

Our first metric was the number of days with at least 0.10 inch of precipitation. By using this somewhat higher threshold, we're weeding out days with just a brief light shower or sprinkles.

While its reputation may be a bit misleading, Seattle easily wins, here, averaging over two weeks more wet days from September through January than the home of the Patriots.

- Seattle: 50.3 days

- New England (Walpole, Massachusetts): 34.7 days

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Snow

Here we used days with accumulating snow, at least 0.1 inch, as even light accumulations of falling snow can affect conditions on the field. Remember last month's AFC Championship in Denver?

This is where New England ate away at the Seahawks early lead.

Southeast Massachusetts averages over 10 more days of accumulating snow during an NFL season than Seattle.

This is because Pacific storms that soak Seattle usually bring warmer air into western Washington. Cold air is a more frequent visitor to New England, and it stays in place more often during a storm, leading to more snow in Foxborough.

- New England (Walpole, Massachusetts): 13.5 days

- Seattle: 2.9 days

(MORE: Top 10 Weather Games In NFL History)

Cold

Our metric, here, is the number of days where high temperatures don't rise above freezing. And once again, it's a rout for New England.

New England receives cold air from many parts of Canada, from Quebec to the Arctic to the Prairies to western Canada.

Seattle, meanwhile, typically gets its subfreezing air in just one limited scenario, when cold air squeezes through the Canadian Rockies or from British Columbia, then spills through the canyons and valleys of the Cascades into the Puget Sound region.

- New England (Walpole, Massachusetts): 15.7 days

Wind

For this metric, there's an asterisk, but it has nothing to do with "Spygate."

If Gillette Stadium was located in downtown Boston, instead of inland, it would have won the wind category hands down.

Boston's Logan Airport averages a September through January wind speed almost 5 mph higher than the closest wind observation to Gillette Stadium, taken in Norwood, Massachusetts.

For that reason, Seattle wins the wind category.

- Seattle: 8.1 mph

- New England (Norwood, Massachusetts): 7 mph

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Heat

For completeness, we have to include the potential for any early-season games to leave each team sweltering, even after training camp and the pre-season.

The metric we used was the average number of days in which high temperatures reach the 90s.

That doesn't happen all that often in either location from September onward, but southern New England edged out Seattle in that regard.

- New England (Walpole, Massachusetts): 0.8 days

- Seattle: 0.2 days

The Winner Is...

When we add all the metrics together, New England comes out on top for the toughest weather in a score just a wee bit higher than what's expected of these two defensive teams in the big game.

New England took three out of the five metrics: heat, cold and snow.

Seattle prevailed in rain and wind.

Road Game Weather

The stats above cover each team's home games.

But you may wonder who might play in tougher weather more often when also considering road games.

While a team's road opponents change each year, they always play one regular season game at each of their division opponents.

The Patriots have road games each year at Buffalo, Miami and the New Jersey Meadowlands. Depending on when in the season those games are, they may have to deal with snow, cold, wind, heat, rain, even thunderstorms in Buffalo and New Jersey, and heat, wind and rain or thunderstorms in South Florida.

The Seahawks, meanwhile, benefit by playing in one retractable roof stadium (State Farm Stadium in Arizona), a fixed-roof stadium (SoFi Stadium in Southern California) and the only other divisional outdoor stadium (Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, site of this year's Super Bowl).

Taking all that into account, the Patriots are typically more weather battle-tested each season.

(MORE: The NFL's Worst Weather Cities)

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.