Football 

The purpose of this appendix is to provide information to those responsible for making decisions about suspendingand restarting games based on the presence of lightning.

1. National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) staff strongly recommend that all individuals should have left the game site and reached a safe structure or location by the time the person monitoring the weather obtains a flash-to-bang (lightning-to-thunder) count of 30 seconds equivalent to lightning being six miles away). This recommendation was developed as a practical way to make a judgment in situationswhere other resources such as technology and instrumentation are not available.

In addition, a smaller, but still real, risk exists with the presence of lightning at greater distances. Unfortunately, current science cannotpredict where within the radius the next strike will occur.

2. The existence of blue sky and the absence of rain are not protection from lightning. Lightning can, and does, strike as far as 10 miles awayfrom the rain shaft. It does not have to be raining for lightning to strike.

3. When considering resumption of a game, NSSL staff recommends that everyone ideally should wait at least 30 minutes after the lastflash of lightning or sound of thunder before returning to the field of activity.

4. If available, electronic detection devices should be used as additional tools to determine the severity of the weather. However, such devicesshould not be used as the sole source when considering terminating play.

Information taken from the NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook and NCAA Championships Severe Weather Policy

(7/19/05)