The forecast calls for a Whiteout.

As fans gathered at Portage and Main Thursday night to celebrate the Jets clinching a playoff spot, they were eager to load up on away jerseys.

The Jets don’t want to discuss it just yet, though they do own a trademark on the name.

The fans, though, have every intention of bringing their white clothing, and white noise, to support the team in the playoffs.

“It’s tradition. It’s our tradition. It’s playoff tradition. We can’t let that go,” Chris Green said at the Jets Gear store in St. Vital.

As a season ticket holder, Green gets a vote that counts and he put his money where his mouth was, “re-upping” with a white Dustin Byfuglien jersey to join the blue one he wears to home games.

The Whiteout began as a response to the Calgary Flames ‘C of Red’ when the teams met in the 1987 playoffs. It continued with the franchise when it relocated to Phoenix. That, combined with the fact the NHL switched to dark jerseys for the home team in the 2003-04 season, has some folks feeling it’s best left in the past. Mike Pallick is not one of those people.

“It’s like the Jets, when they were hemming and hawing on what to call them. How do you not call them the Jets? How do you not have a Whiteout?” Pallick asked at the Jets store, where a display of white team jerseys spans a full wall and there are few blue sweaters to be seen. “I think people have been itching to pull that white gear out again.”

Over at River City Sports on Dakota Street, Kevin Kerr said they’re definitely noticing a run on white jerseys.

“A lot of people love the nostalgia of the whiteout,” Kerr said.

Nick, a 27-year-old who declined to give his last name, was there shopping for a white jersey but couldn’t find one in his size. He, too, is anticipating Jets fans leaving the blues at home and donning white for the post-season.

“Everyone is going to buy white, too. It’ll happen whether it’s condoned or not.”

The regular season ends with Saturday afternoon’s game at MTS Centre against the Flames. There are some who’d like to see the Whiteout start that day, given the implications. Either way, Pallick expects the place to be a nuthouse.

“That game on Saturday? That place is coming down.”