Earliest Opening Day in MLB History Is Here - What Does Mother Nature Have to Say?

Baseball is back! Fans of Major League Baseball (MLB) have been waiting for months for the start of the new season. This is officially the earliest start to the season in history, excluding isolated openers that happened overseas. What will the early start mean for the weather?

Opening Day Often Thwarted by Mother Nature

MLB officials are rolling the dice by opening the season at the end of March, a month known for its wild weather. The 2026 season will get started on Wednesday night in San Francisco when the Giants host the New York Yankees. Thursday will feature 11 games across the country from coast to coast.

With March being a transitional month of weather, it is hard to know what to expect when the first pitch is thrown. The northern tier of the U.S. typically still sees readings in the 40s and 50s at the end of March. The majority of the baseball stadiums in the Northeast and the Midwest generally see highs in the 50s, while the southern cities are most likely to enjoy pleasant temperatures in the 70s and even some low 80s.

What distinguishes March from other months is the wind. The month is the windiest of the year up and down the East Coast and across the South. While wind is not likely to cancel a game, it can make for difficult playing conditions.

Lastly, the final snow of the season typically happens in either March or early April for several baseball cities in the Rockies, the Plains, the Midwest, and the Northeast. All of this means that MLB is taking a chance by progressively starting the season earlier and earlier each year.
 
Opening Day of 2025 went off mostly without a hitch. Only one game was delayed by the weather last year, a 90-minute postponement due to rain when the St. Louis Cardinals hosted the Minnesota Twins.  However, that has not always been the case over the years.

Opening Day of 2018 saw rainouts in both Cincinnati and Detroit. Just a few days later, the Yankees' home opener in the Bronx was postponed due to snow when 5.5 inches of the white stuff piled up in the Big Apple. The start to the season did not get much better in the following weeks. There were a total of 28 postponements over the first three and a half weeks of the season, including games in Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Kansas City.

The opening week of 2007 was also particularly brutal for Cleveland. The team's home opener on April 6 was cut short when the Seattle Mariners lobbied for the game to be suspended on account of snow. The entire season was ruined after the snow and cold hung on for days.