With Super Bowl LVIII recently taking place in New Orleans under a climate-controlled dome, the impact of rising temperatures on football wasn’t clearly evident.
However, if you watched the San Francisco 49ers take on the Arizona Cardinals at Levi’s Stadium on October 6, 2024, the 98°F game-time temperature might have made you forget football is a fall and winter sport.
Climate data shows NFL cities are heating up, and the effects are becoming harder to ignore.
A Climate Central analysis of NOAA data found temperatures during the football season have risen by an average of 2.8°F across all 30 NFL cities since 1970. Some cities, like Las Vegas (5.1°F) and Minneapolis (5°F), have seen even sharper increases, while Los Angeles had the smallest rise at 0.4°F.
Northern cities, including Green Bay (4.4°F) and Buffalo (3.2°F), have led to extreme weather, such as stronger lake-effect snowstorms. That is because the Great Lakes aren’t freezing, which are caused when the atmosphere picks up moisture from open water and then dumps it back on land in the form of snow.
Meanwhile, it’s no surprise sun belt cities are experiencing things especially intensely. Already hot cities like Phoenix (4.4°F) and Houston (3.5°F) are facing even more extreme conditions, dangerously increasing the risks of heat-related health issues for players.
NFL cities now experience an average of 14 more extremely hot days (91°F or higher) each year than in the 1970s, making both games and training camps more dangerous. So, although this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans was indoors, the rising global temperatures show no industry is immune to climate change’s impact.
Within our .earth tribe, there are several .earth organizations highlighting how professional sports have been impacted by climate change:
- Rewriting.Earth: This member organization wrote an article on the future of “green-tertainment” which also includes sports. Learn more here.
- 2050.Earth: This is a site about the future as seen through the eyes of futurologists and scientists, and they wrote an article on the future of American football. Learn more here.
- Green.Earth: This .earth member highlighted an article on the carbon footprint of the Super Bowl. Learn more here.
Does your organization work with issues pertaining to sports and climate change? The .earth web domain is ideal for enhancing your brands and communicating your mission of creating a safer planet through platforms for social and environmental activism.
To learn more about the .earth domain, visit Voices.Earth. In addition, many organizations and individuals are sharing their voices about the benefits of a .earth domain in our Voices.Earth podcast series.
