Scott Sistek 
Lumen Field in Seattle. (Photo by Zoshua Colah on Unsplash.)
It’s Super Bowl week — that time when the NFL finds some warm, cozy place to house the world and decide its championship.
“Warm” and “cozy” usually do NOT describe the February weather in Seattle (Wednesday’s highs in low 60s not withstanding!) and thus, Seattle has never had the honor of hosting a Super Bowl.
Some of that is logistics like hotels and whatnot, but I gather a large reason why Seattle gets skipped over is concerns about the weather in our outdoor stadium.
Are they valid?
I went back and looked at the weather on every Super Bowl date since Lumen Field opened to find out what would have happened had the game been in Seattle?
And… OK, they have a point.
Of the 24 Super Bowls through last year, Seattle has had measurable rain at Boeing Field (not far from Lumen Field) on 14 of them — 58%. Three of those days were total washouts; another four of them had enough rain to make it more like a typical Seattle rainy day.
The other seven dates had minimal rainfall of less than 0.10, plus there were five others that had a trace of rain. So that means only 5 out of the past 24 Super Bowls have been totally dry in Seattle.
Eek.
But then again, the NFL has taken chances before. We need to look no further than Super Bowl XLVIII that the Seahawks won at the Meadowlands outside of New York. That was an outdoor game in New York area on Feb. 2.
They cheated danger and got the game in with mild conditions, only to have a snowstorm hit that night and wreak havoc on the regional travel as everyone tried to get home the next day.
The warmest Super Bowl date is a misnomer at 60 degrees in 2003 but it was Pineapple Express warmth with heavy rain. In 2022, it was 58 and dry. Coldest date was 2008 with temps in the 30s all day, ekeing to 40 for a high.
They’ve played other games in the North, but in domed stadiums. Then again, it’s rained during Super Bowls played in Florida so being in the South doesn’t guarantee sunshine.
And look how fortuitous the Seahawks have been this year with their playoff run. Both home playoff games they’ve won this year have been dry and mild with minimal weather impact. Their luck continues in Santa Clara which is expecting highs in the mid 60s.
Then again, had the Super Bowl been here in Seattle this Sunday?
Rain and mid 40s.
I suspect that Seattle would need to have a new stadium with a dome or retractable roof built before the NFL would consider hosting a Super Bowl here. While there are currently no plans for such a staidum, it is definitley something that should be considered when the time comes to replace Lumen Field.