Will rain and cold play a role in the CFL’s first round of playoff games Sunday?

The CFL's long been a league known for games in unusual weather, from the Mud Bowl to the Fog Bowl to the Snow Bowl, and Sunday's playoff games (live chat here) might add further entries to that. The East semifinal between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Montreal Alouettes takes place in Guelph, Ontario at 1 p.m. Eastern, and that one could be weird for reasons beyond weather, but there's also the chance of the elements playing a role. Guelph was seeing plenty of rain Sunday morning:

Things appear to have gotten a little better during the teams' warmups, but the Yahoo! Weather forecast is still for light rain and wind this afternoon, which could make the passing game difficult for both teams. The wind is already having an effect:

It's not going to be warm, either; half an hour before kickoff, the Guelph temperature was just four degrees Celsius, and it could go as low as one degree Celsius today. Rain might be the most concerning, though, considering how we've already seen at least one downpour in Guelph this year. We'll see how that affects things for those in the press box, too; last time around, that experience was described as "like trying to watch a game in a submarine." On the field itself, things could get slippery, and that might make for odd bounces that could determine the game's outcome.

The afternoon's second game also could have some weather-related effects, as the West semifinal between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and B.C. Lions (4:30 p.m. Eastern) is expected to be a cold one. As of 12:30 p.m. Eastern, Yahoo! Weather has Regina at cloudy and -11 degrees Celsius, with 20 kilometre-an-hour wind added into the equation. There's a low of -17 expected, and that could make things really interesting. On the surface, that cold might seem to favour the Roughriders; they're used to playing outside, after all, unlike the dome-housed Lions, and they have a run-focused offence. B.C.'s offence has been just as good if not better on the ground recently since adding Stefan Logan, though, and their rushing defence has been more solid this season than Saskatchewan's. The Lions didn't sound intimidated by the weather before this, either, with veteran defensive back Dante Marsh telling Rod Pedersen, "If we've got to play at two in the morning on the Moon, Jupiter, Neptune ... then that's where we've got to play.''

Something else that could make a difference is how the weather's affected ticket sales. There were still tickets available as of Saturday, highly unusual for a playoff game in Saskatchewan. Rider fans are tough, and plenty of them will certainly be out there, but three-plus hours standing in -10 or worse temperatures doesn't always sound all that appetizing compared to sitting in front of the TV and the fireplace. If Mosaic Stadium doesn't have its traditional level of intimidating crowd noise, that could make things easier for the Lions' offence than you often see in Regina. It's tough to say things are all that easy when the offensive players can't feel their hands, though. While the conditions don't sound great for the players in either Regina or Guelph, they could make for memorable games, and they'll definitely be worth watching.