Let's Start the Game!

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Here is the radar at 6:50pm MDT. Mile High's location indicated by the arrow.

This was a fairly strong thunderstorm 20 minutes ago and it dropped a downburst (indicated by the commentary on the field). But now, the cloud tops have come down and they need to get the game started.

Comments

  1. BrianSeptember 6, 2013 at 8:57 AM

    Wow Mike for someone who is constantly preaching about safety this has to be one of the more poorly worded blog posts I've read on this otherwise excellent blog.

    I cannot comment for NFL, but our youth sports lightening rules are very specific and objective - no lightening strikes in a 6 mile radius for 30 min. Period. We don't "need to get the game started" due to cloud tops coming down. I've had 2 Varsity soccer games affected by this rule this week - we've had some weird pop up storms this week in Denver metro.

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  2. Mike SmithSeptember 6, 2013 at 12:05 PM

    Hi Brian,

    I am very focused on safety.

    Being a meteorologist, I know quite a bit about how lightning forms. In this case, cloud-to-ground lightning occurs when there is sufficient charge separation between the upper reaches of the cloud and the ground. When the tops of the clouds are too low, that charge separation cannot occur -- and lightning cannot occur. This forecast was correct: no lightning occurred after this post was written.

    This technique is too complex and too technical for youth soccer, thus the simpler rule you reference which is quite effective.

    Mike

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