USA lightning guidelines

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Manny A

I work USA tournaments in a sports complex that uses a weather system to track storms. There have been a couple of times where a storm will approach with visible lightning, and the siren that can be heard throughout the complex will not sound.

One time as BU, I saw a bolt of lightning and then less than 20 seconds later heard the thunder, but again, no siren. I cleared the field, but none of the other three fields in our cloverleaf were leaving. As the teams on our field were moving out of their dugouts and my partner and I were heading for the scorer's building, a tournament director shouted at us to get the teams back onto the field because the siren had not sounded. I told him what I saw and heard, and he didn't care.

We returned to the field, and I saw a couple of more bolts and heard more thunder. Finally about four or five minutes later, the siren finally sounded, but not before the winds picked up as the storm was practically on top of us.

The policy in that complex is to wait until the "resume" siren sounds. I have no idea if the system waits any amount of time before the siren sounds, or if it is simply based upon the distance of any detected lightning strikes. All I do know is that we've been sent back to the fields at various different times after the storm passes.

I just don't have a warm fuzzy on the reliability of that automated system. It causes tournament staff to blow off the "if you see/hear it, clear it" mindset, even when it's obvious that the time between lightning and thunder indicates the storm is much less than ten miles away. I think we should assume the system may not be working properly, and err on the side of caution.

I would've headed to my car, not back to the field. TD's motivations aren't always based on what's best for the teams/people involved.

NFHS has changed their guidance somewhat this year. Now lightning in the distance after dark that isn't cloud to ground and doesn't have audible thunder can be left to the judgment of those in charge. Good change, IMO. But I won't consider shortening the 30 minute interval once we come off, no matter how much someone else stomps his feet.