Lightning discussion

[RadioBlue]

When you consider cloud tops of thunderstorms can top 50,000 feet, it is possible to see reflections of lightning in those cloud tops up to 100 miles away. Thunder sound waves do not travel nearly as far (only 10 to 20 miles). "Heat lightning" is just lightning so far away you cannot hear the thunder.

From a technical aspect, you were probably wrong to not delay (see lightning or hear thunder, wait 30 minutes). From a practical aspect, you probably did not endanger yourself or the participants.

Lightning can travel horizontally over 10 miles away. We had a HS track athlete killed in southern Illinois several years ago from a strike originating more than 10 miles away. It was sunny at the track meet. If the meet had happened at night, the lightning would have been seen approaching and the meet would have probably been delayed.

I was working the championship game at a 14U ASA/USA one year and we delayed the Championship due to a thunderstorm in the area, and rightfully so. The problem was, we delayed for 3.5 hours because we could still "see" lightning. In actuality, we were seeing the reflection of lightning in cloud tops which were over 100 miles away (and moving further away) after hour 2.5 of the delay...let alone 3.5! In the end, we finished the last 1.1 innings starting at 12:05 a.m. on Monday. Ugh!

So common sense says you did the right thing, but you did the incorrect thing "by the book." As for me, if it's a night game and I have reliable radar data, I'll wait until that storm is 50+ miles away and then restart. Otherwise, I'm going to delay. I like my house and my car.