Tournament Blizzard? Not This Weekend

Many years, almost like clockwork, Minnesotans can usually rely on a hearty heaping of snow, ice, and wind during the March High School Tournament season. This weekend’s flirt with temperatures in the 60s would seem more appropriate for golf rather than hockey.

If you're heading to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul to cheer for Lakeville South in the hockey tournament on Saturday, you might want to bring a picnic basket and enjoy a pre-game meal down by the river.

Forecasters are calling for the unseasonable warm spell to continue at least through next week. Temperatures in Lakeville could even hit the mid-60s or beyond come mid-week. That would seem to eliminate a tournament blizzard for the girls’ basketball tournament next weekend. (Though this is Minnesota, so anything’s possible).

And there’s still the Boys’ Basketball Tournament to get past. Traditionally, that tournament is the most notorious for attracting winter’s last wrath, though the other tournaments have also seen they’re share. Here’s a quick look back at previous tournament blizzards using information compiled from Meteorologist Ron Trenda and the State Climatology Office:

10 times since 1913 we’ve had snowstorms of more than 4 inches during the Boys’ Basketball Tournament. That’s translates to about a 10 percent chance.

40 times (or roughly 40 percent) temperatures have hit the 50s during the Boys’ Basketball Tournament week. Seems we’re more on track to make it 41 in 2012.

Snowstorms that helped fuel the tournament blizzard lore include totals of 13.7 inches in 1952 and 11.4 inches in 1966.
The last time we’ve been hit with 4-plus inches during the tournaments shouldn’t be a surprise. We received 4.1 inches last year to help cap off a memorable winter. Prior to that was in 2005 when we received 5.3 inches at the Twin Cities International Airport.