NFL Week 1 Weather Could Include Thunderstorms, Lightning Delays In The East

 Jonathan Erdman

Published: September 9, 2023

The NFL's opening slate could include a number of games with thunderstorms and lightning delays in the East.

The 104th season of the National Football League features 14 games on Sunday plus the Monday night game, following Thursday night's opener. While five of those will be played in climate-controlled stadiums, eight of the 10 games played outdoors Sunday and Monday may have some weather headaches to deal with.

Those are mostly in the Northeast. Showers and thunderstorms are a good bet across much of the Northeast Sunday.

As luck would have it, t​hat could impact up to five games, including:

-​ Houston at Baltimore (1 p.m. EDT kickoff)

-​ San Francisco at Pittsburgh (1 p.m. EDT kickoff)

-​ Arizona at Washington (1 p.m. EDT kickoff)

-​ Philadelphia at New England (4:25 p.m. EDT kickoff)

-​ Dallas at New York Giants (8:20 p.m. EDT kickoff)

Rain and thunderstorm chances are at least moderate, if not high at some point Sunday.

S​cattered thunderstorms are also possible for the opener Sunday afternoon in Denver between the Las Vegas Raiders and Denver Broncos.

I​f that's not enough, some lingering showers, perhaps a rumble of thunder, are possible for the Monday night game between the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets, featuring the debut of Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. So the drama of that matchup may also involve the weather.

T​his doesn't mean the entire game will necessarily be a washout. But it does mean there could be showers and storms near or over the stadium at times during the game.

In college football on Saturday, t​hunderstorms caused the Notre Dame - North Carolina State game to be suspended early Saturday afternoon during the second quarter. Play was stalled when lightning entered the 8-mile radius surrounding Carter-Finley Stadium.

Heavy storms hit the Raleigh area in the morning, and ominous clouds lingered about two hours before kickoff. Those appeared to break in the first quarter before returning and leading to the game’s pause shortly before 1 p.m.

L​ightning struck near the campus and the stadium's scoreboard shorted out simultaneously. The new scoreboard was seen malfunctioning.

T​hunderstorms also stopped play at Georgia Tech in Atlanta Saturday afternoon.

Here's w​hat you should do if you're headed to the game. Last weekend, lightning delayed college football games in Laramie, Wyoming, and Tempe, Arizona.

W​hile you'll probably bring rain gear to the stadium, you also need to be aware of the danger of lightning.

H​eed all alerts from stadium officials to move from your seats into substantial shelter if lightning is near. If you can't find substantial shelter below the stadium bowl, and have enough time to get there before the storm, seek shelter in your vehicle or in another nearby building.

Do not return to your seat until the all clear has been given by stadium officials.

B​ut you don't have to wait for officials to act. If you hear thunder, you're in danger from lightning. Move to substantial shelter immediately.

O​n The Weather Channel app, you can turn on alerts for lightning strikes and rain to give you advance notice of thunderstorms moving in.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. His lifelong love of meteorology began with a close encounter from a tornado as a child in Wisconsin. He studied physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then completed his Master's degree working with dual-polarization radar and lightning data at Colorado State University. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on X/Twitter, Facebook and Threads. 

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.