New Lightning Policy
 

Yesterday in reading the Points of Emphasis for 2009, I noticed the new lightning policy. It seems to be *extremely* stringent. Essentially, any time there is audible thunder or any sighting of lightning, a game must be delayed/suspended. For those of us in tropical climates, that would seem to have us delaying games all the time. I can live with the part about seeing lightning, but the thunder part is what concerns me - we have thunder and thunderstorms all the time (and many times w/o lightning).

Just wondering what others' opinions are.

I read that too. We have thunder quite a bit that doesn't have lightning during the summer and early fall.

What about what we called as a kid "heat lightning"? I can remember seeing lots of flashes at the beach that were not even close to being a storm.

Thunder is caused by lightning. You are not having thunder without lightning.

Heat lightning is just lightning. Just because it is not a rain storm does not mean that lightning cannot strike.

This is one area of the rules every official needs to know and adhere to. Whether you work Fed or NCAA, follow their guidelines to the letter. Contrary to what many think, we have very little liability exposure out on the field, but this is one area where we can get nailed if we aren't careful enough.

Don't let a coach talk you out of getting people off the field. Politely tell him he is welcome to stay, but everyone else is off and the game will be suspended.

I'm all for the additional safety and agree we need to follow guidelines closely. I also think the respective organizations would have better results putting this in the hands of the school.

With today's hand held lightning meters, web sites that show up to the minute lightning strikes and other technologies out there, I believe this would be better monitored by personnel off the field that would have access to electronic assistance.

Heck, I bet there are services that monitor and if the lightning is close, they will send electronic alerts.

Thunder and lightning are connected. You can have thunder and not see lightning and see lightning and not hear thunder. Just know with either there is a potential for a lightning strike. Remember, lightning moves faster than thunder because light travels faster than sound.

There was a player killed here a few years ago struck by lightning. It was not raining, there had been some thunder in the distance when the player was struck in the outfield.

When there is a potential I appoint someone in game management to watch for lightning or better still if they have instruments that can detect lightning to immediately signal me upon detection. To protect yourself have two officials witness that appointment.

And he can stick his finger in the air for all of our benefits. :D

I don’t want anyone to misinterpret what I’m about to say because I take lighting very seriously. We had a storm today and the first indication was a flash/boom milliseconds apart. The sun was still shining and it was right on top of us! About two minutes later it came a down pour!

In our part of the country, we have “pop-up” thunder storms in late August and September that locally can be extreme – but they virtually do not move. At night, the thunder head and lightning can be seen from 40 or 50 miles away, but the likelihood of it reaching you from that distance is slim to none. I foresee many contests being suspended for no valid reason other than our exposure to liability. I’m no lawyer, but I feel we are much more open to a lawsuit, perhaps even if nothing catastrophic occurs at the game site. The fact we didn’t suspend the game could be grounds enough. I’m not sure I like the change.

DR, I believe your state association may modify this policy. From the rule book:

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide a default policy to those
responsible for making decisions concerning the suspension and restarting
of contests based on the presence of lightning. The preferred sources
from which to request such a policy for your facility would include your
state high school association and the nearest office of the National
Weather Service.

The FED policy is the fallback if no other policy is in place.

Thanks Walt! Great point, it does appear to be an out if the State wants to assume the responsibility - we'll see how much backbone they have.

Just a quickie -

Do you have to have a cloud in order to have a lightening strike? In other words, if it is blue skies above, for miles all around, and one black cloud off in the distance, is it true that the lightening can only come from that cloud?

Man Killed by Bolt From Clear Blue Sky


Lightning Kills Man Tossing Football on Sunny Day at the Beach


A bolt of lightning came out of a blue sky Saturday, striking two beachgoers who were tossing around a football.

One of the young men was killed in what meteorologists said was a rare but not unprecedented weather event. Steven McCarthy, 22, of East Windsor, N.J., could not be revived with CPR or a defibrillator. He was pronounced dead at 2:15 p.m. His friend Daryl Kobeski, 23, of Princeton, was also struck but not severely injured.


Hot, Sunny Day


The two were enjoying the hot, sunny day when the lightning hit. It was a wild bolt thrown out by a storm a few miles off shore. Anthony Gigi, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Mount Holly, said lightning can strike even when skies are clear. "If you're close enough to hear thunder, then you're close enough to be struck by lightning," Gigi told The Sunday Asbury Park Press of Neptune. "That's pretty much the rule of thumb we follow."


‘It Sounded Like a Bomb’


At the time of the lightning strike, the park administrator was nearby in a patrol vehicle. "I thought it was an explosion. It sounded like a bomb" said park superintendent William Vibbert. "Then I saw Steven on the ground." National Weather Service meteorologist Dean Iovino told The Sunday Star-Ledger of Newark that there was nothing either the lightning strike victims or park officials could have done. The swimming area of the park was closed for the day after the fatality. Bob Marshall, who has worked at the park since the beach there opened in 1959, said this was the first time he's heard of lightning striking a person there. Lightning continued sporadically for the rest of the afternoon at the beach.



Man Killed by Bolt From Clear Blue Sky - ABC News




Similar stories can be found here. Scroll down the page a bit to see the lightning stories.

Lightning doesn't just strike directly below the cloud.

http://www.kidslightning.info/boltbl8.jpg

Does Alabama have a lightning policy in writing and do you know where I can read this?

In Ohio we followed the "any lightning or thunder = suspension" policy for many years. A couple years ago they allowed us to us a flash to bang policy, where you count the seconds from the flash of lightning until the bang of the thunder. If the time interval between the two was less than 45 seconds, the game would be suspended. This would eliminate the "heat lightning" where you can hear no thunder. With this point of emphasis, I bet it gets changed back.

Last night I sat on the deck of the house we are staying in on vacation and watched the most amazing display of lightning I've seen in a long time. The sky everywhere else was starfilled. I checked the radar: the storm was 75 miles away and moving away.

I can see a great game on a Friday night getting suspended in the 4th quarter because of this and making people really mad, but in the spirit of safety...

Oh yeah the lightning was visible from 9:30 until after midnight.

If you knew your weather facts, lightning does not come from the sky, it comes from the ground. The charges are at both ends, sky and ground, but it originates in the ground.

This is a little misleading I think.

Storm clouds in general become charged with a high concentration of negative charge at the bottom of the cloud. The ground builds up positive charge underneath the cloud (since opposite charges attract). As a result, there is an electric field between the ground and earth that can be quite substantial.

The air between the cloud and earth is initially non-conductive. Large electric fields can ionize the air creating positively charged ions and free electrons that make the air conductive.

Before lightning strikes, the air beneath the clouds starts to ionize forming what is called a step leader that attempts to find the path of least resistance towards the ground. As a result of this negative charged step leader, the ground becomes more positively charged underneath this step leader. The area is about the size of a football field and it is not evenly charged due to the surface being nonhomogeneous and the ground being resistive. The positive charge begins to rise from the ground forming streamers from areas of the ground with higher elevation (trees, buildings, people (on a football field with no trees or buildings), bleachers, etc.). Once contact is made between the leader and the streamers, you have lighting (caused by a large current ionizing the air around it) and thunder (caused by the air heating up and exploding).

The current (flows positive to negative) flows from the ground to the cloud. But it is the negative cloud that causes this large charge buildup in the ground.

Who knew we could learn science on an officiating forum?

@ppaltice

Can I just say, "Huh??" -- Just teasing you a little.