Super Bowl visitors — and regular Minnesotans — are getting a taste of the "Bold North" as bitterly cold air settles in right through Sunday's game.
With temperatures in the single digits below zero — and windchills even lower — expected to last through the weekend, the Super Bowl Host Committee is keeping a watch on conditions and said it will issue weather-related announcements about closings or postponements via traditional and social media, and on the Super Bowl website.
Until then, it's business as usual as the full slate of outdoor concerts and festivities on Nicollet Mall are still on as scheduled.
"We have been planning for the cold from the beginning," said Host Committee spokesman Michael Howard. He said there was no threshold at which events would be canceled.
Opportunities to warm up include warming benches up and down Nicollet Mall and the former Dayton's/Macy's store at 8th Street and Nicollet Mall. Howard also encouraged those needing shelter to take advantage of the downtown skyways. Another warm place is the Minneapolis Convention Center, where the Super Bowl Experience is taking place.
"It's ridiculous," former football running back Rashad Jennings said of the cold Thursday as he squeezed his way through a media throng at the Mall of America.
"I'm just going between the car and the buildings," he said. "I hear it's nice here in the summer, so I may try to come then. But right now I'm not participating in any outdoor activities."
Derrion Thomas said, "It's cold; that's your first impression. It just kind of punches you in the face."
