The boy's state high school basketball tournament is underway, and another tournament storm seems likely in 2005. "Tournament storms" are legendary in Minnesota -- but, it turns out, they aren't much more than that…legends.
Only eight boys' tournaments of the past ninety have seen significant snowfall on a game day.
MARK SEELEY: It was March of 1975, and the storm total back then was 6.2 inches. I'm sure it made travel difficult for, of course, all those tournament teams and fans that come to the Twin Cities for what's probably the highlight of their winter season. We did have a near-miss back in 1996-- now, that's not quite so long ago-- when we had nearly 7 inches of snow fall on the day after the champions were crowned.
So that probably did present a few problems for those families that were heading for home the day after the tournament ended. But that's the last close call we've had.
STEPHEN: So this so-called tournament storm has become almost a thing of folklore. The data doesn't necessarily back it up, but why do you suppose it got started?
MARK SEELEY: I think it really got started post-World War II, Stephen. I think that the high school athletics started to beef up, if you will, and become very much community events, very closely followed. The state tournament was a wonderful venue for all the kids around Minnesota to come into the Twin Cities and probably, actually, in those days didn't make too many trips into the metropolitan area.
And then, lo and behold, 1952 whammo, 14 inches of snow nearly, and I think it really caused great impact to the travel plans back then and stranded a lot of people for that particular tournament. And then the other real significant one with great memories for most Minnesotans is the 11.5 inches of snow in the 1966 storm that was precisely coincident with the boys' basketball tournament, and that, too, stranded a lot of people.
And I think when things of this nature and magnitude happen, they tend to live on in memories and probably stay in the memories even beyond one generation.
STEPHEN: Well, also, there are a lot of tournaments in the month of March, so even though it might not be a boys' basketball tournament weekend storm, according to the Minnesota High School League, 39% of the days in March are taken up by tournaments. So I suppose chances are pretty good if you get a snowstorm in March in Minnesota, it's going to land during a tourney.
MARK SEELEY: Oh, absolutely. Well, if you superimpose that statistic, Stephen, with the climatology, that suggests that we have six to seven measurable snowfalls on average during the month of March, we tend to have some of these, as we're going to have, by the way, in the next two days, with mixed precipitation, which I think even presents trickier travel problems. That is when you have rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, and the whole mix of things.
And we get precipitation about one out of every three days in March. So when you superimpose those climate statistics on the breadth of the tournament season that goes on now in the month of March, yes, indeed, we certainly have raised the risk for having some kind of disruption by the weather.
STEPHEN: And from what we're seeing on radar and all the rest this coming snowstorm, do you think we're going to add one more to that number?
MARK SEELEY: It certainly holds the potential for that, Stephen, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if it adds to the list, the historic list, of memorable tournament storms.
STEPHEN: Mark Seeley, thank you.
MARK SEELEY: Thank you, Stephen.
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