[ozzy6900]

Our HS association says that any of the umpires on the game can stop the game due dangerous conditions. Lightning sighted is an automatic 20 minute delay. If another bolt is sighted, the clock starts from the time of the sighting. Upon the first sighting, we are to inform the coaches that we are suspending the game and how it will work. We then inform them that we are going to shelter or out cars and suggest that they do the same. We then leave the field together.

I also check the weather before I leave home. If there are impending storms, I will check the radar on my cell phone just before my partner(s) and I lock up the cars. If something is coming, I inform the coaches when we get to the field and ask them to help us keep an eye out.

Now I still get arguments about daytime storms from coaches. "Yeah Blue, we heard the thunder but we didn't see any lightning so why are we stopping the game?" Even after I explain that lightning is what generates thunder and it's just too bright to see the lightning yet, they still ask "why are we stopping the game?"