State High School Basketball Tournament Snowstorm Lore 1913-2002

There has been a long-standing myth of the "Tournament Snowstorm." The myth goes that the Twin Cities will get a big snowstorm during tournament time. In particular, during the State High School Basketball Tournament. This myth has been around for many years. In 1975, Bruce Watson notes in his book: WCCO Weather Almanac 1975 that "The State Basketball Tournament Storm" is no myth. We simply get a lot of storms around the equinox, the general time of the tournament." Indeed, in the 25 years before 1975 there were several large snowstorms that occurred around the basketball tournament. Some of the most memorable were: 13.7 inches on March 22, 1952 and 11.4 inches on March 23, 1966. It was storms like these that perpetuated the myth.

How often does it snow 4 inches or more during the State High School Boy's Basketball Tournament? The tournament began in 1913 and in those days was 3 days long. Later the tournament expanded to cover 5 days by the 1990's. Snow events were looked at for each day of the tournament. The number of times 4 inches or more fell during the tournament were noted over the past 87 years. Meteorologist Ron Trenda provided the initial research through 1987 and the State Climatology Office continued the check through the year 2002. Here are the results:

From 1913-2002 8 years out of 89 had 4 inches or more of snow over "tourney time" (travel day plus the days of the tournament) This means that 9% of the tournaments had a "tournament snowstorm."

In addition, the chances of having a balmy day of at least 50 was looked at. Here are the results:

36 years out of 89 had at least one temperature of 50 or greater during "tourney time." This means that there is a 40% chance of seeing a 50 degree or warmer temperature during the tournament. It is four times likely to see 50 degrees than 4 inches or more of snow!

The Legend Continues. In the last 20 years or so, the legend has dropped the "basketball" part and is more commonly known as the "tournament snowstorm." This is because over the years, other tournaments have gained in popularity such as wrestling, girls basketball and boys and girls hockey. The tournament season now lasts over a month and has a much greater chance of seeing a heavy snow event. Thousands of people are affected if heavy snow falls and this makes the snowstorms stand out. What about the future? In order to have a "real" tournament snowstorm (in the old historic sense) it will have to fall during the basketball tournament. The tournament in 2003 is from March 18-22.

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URL: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/tournament.htm
Last modified: March 7, 2003