A tale of two cities: will weather give West winner Grey Cup edge?

The CFL's West and East division finals will both be played Sunday, but in vastly different conditions. In Calgary, it's expected to be snowy, icy and cold (much like it was before last year's Grey Cup, when the above photo of Saskatchewan quarterback Darian Durant practicing in the snow at McMahon Stadium was taken). That could favour the Stampeders, given the strength of their running game, but the Riders have been practicing in chilly conditions themselves. This video gives you a pretty good look at what conditions in Calgary look like at the moment, and it seems likely they'll be similar on the weekend:

The Weather Network mentions that temperatures at McMahon Stadium hit -16 degrees Celsius today, which is more like -30 when you factor in the winds there. According to their report, things aren't expected to change much by Sunday. That might pose particular difficulties for the kickers and punters involved in the game, including CFL all-star Burke Dales:

Burke Dales is the punter of the Calgary Stampeders. He told The Weather Network that conditions were less than ideal for practicing.
"What we've experienced today is the worst because it's windy, it's cold, it's snowing. The balls turns into cinder-blocks, so they hurt the feet when you kick them. But again it's out of our control."
On Sunday, Calgary will once again be experiencing daytime highs in the mid teens, with lows into the minus twenties. Dales says it will be tough playing in the West Division Final against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in those conditions.

"It's all mental, and what I do is try to convince myself that I enjoy kicking in conditions like this," he says. "But at the end of the day I can't stand it. It's terrible!"

Of course, weather affecting the game is hardly new in the CFL. This is a league that's seen everything from the 1950 Mud Bowl to the 1962 Fog Bowl (which was oddly repeated in the NCAA this season) 1965 Wind Bowl to Russ Jackson and 1969's "Act of God" on the ice in Ottawa to the 1977 Staple Bowl and the 1984 Tundra Bowl. However, perhaps the most apt comparison comes from the coldest recorded Grey Cup in history, the 1975 clash between Edmonton and Montreal, which also took place in Calgary and featured a wind chill that pushed temperatures to close to -30 Celsius.

Here's how Edmonton quarterback Bruce Lemmerman described that game in Stephen Drake's terrific book, Weird Facts About Canadian Football: Strange, Wacky and Hilarious Stories:

"After we'd been out there about five minutes trying to warm up, I turned to the guys and said we might as well go in, this was a waste of time. The temperature was down to -25 degrees. There was no way we were going to get warm. I remember the big long tubes along the sidelines with the hot air blowing in. The players were sitting on them. You hated to get up and go on the field. I carried a charcoal hand-warmer the entire game." >

We don't know if things in Calgary will be quite that bad this week, but the forecast certainly isn't promising. At least Saskatchewan will be ready for that too, though; Murray McCormick's picture at right from yesterday's practice shows the blizzard conditions they've been working in this week.

Meanwhile, things in Montreal are going to be drastically different. The Alouettes are also preparing for considerably different conditions than the ones they experienced all season long, but not due to the weather. In fact, they're eliminating the weather as a factor entirely by playing the game under the Olympic Stadium dome rather than outside at Molson Stadium. That should create a familiar environment for the visiting Argonauts, the CFL's only team that regularly plays in a dome at the moment. Ticket sales are hot in Montreal and Olympic Stadium's increased size will allow more Alouettes fans to crowd in, so we'll see if the extra noise overcomes the familiar surroundings for the Argonauts.

The key question is how the different conditions of the semi-finals will affect the winners' preparations for the Grey Cup, however. It's expected to be pretty cold and snowy in Edmonton next week, so you'd think that a frigid West Final might prepare that division champion for a repeat performance in the Grey Cup. However, snowy and icy conditions also carry an increased chance of fluke injuries, and that could have dire consequences for whoever comes out of the West. We've recently seen one Grey Cup featuring a backup quarterback, Ryan Dinwiddie (who, oddly enough, is now Saskatchewan's backup), and that's evidence of just how much one crucial injury can affect a team. If the West winner can survive Sunday's game without too many injuries, the brutal conditions could help them prepare for the Grey Cup. If they take significant losses, though, they might be wishing they played in Montreal's dome.

Michelle Rodriguez Mena Suvari Georgina Grenville Michelle Trachtenberg Amanda Bynes