thunder/lightning/question

[WestMichBlue]

"I suspend game and within 5 minutes the field was flooded."

Sounds like you waited a little too long, but maybe that is due to a difference in storm patterns. (I had no excuse for the delay as noted in my earlier post.)

Here in West Michigan, unless we are on the shoreline, we do not have a long view of incoming storms. But we know that the lightning is on the leading edge of the storm and usually preceeds the rain. We know that sound travels .2 mi in 1 sec, so if we see the light and hear the thunder 5 seconds later, we know that bolt struck within a mile of us.

20 seconds before hearing thunder seems like a long time, but that lightning is only 4 miles away. When storms typically travel 50 - 60 mph, that lightning is going to be on us in four minutes!

So we don't wait. See - or hear - lightning - and stop the game right now. Send the teams to the cars.

What is supprising is that too many coaches - who should be responsible for the safety of the players while in their charge - do not know how to handle storms. At a tournament earlier this month I saw lightning; killed my game and sent the players packing. As we walked back to the parking lot we called out to other umpires and they stopped their games. By time we reached our cars, an announcement had been made and all the games were being stopped. I was putting away equipment and getting ready to settle in my car to wait it out when I saw a 14U team under awnings and umbrellas sitting by the backstop! A disaster waiting to happen. I ran over and shooed them out of there. Unbelievable that they had no clue.

WMB