College Football stoppages. Did I miss something?

[BigDaddyFin]

So as a long beleaguered fan of the Fighting Irish I got to see something unusual that I hadn't seen in a very long time.  No it wasn't 5 Notre Dame turnovers and a loss to a less flashy opponent.  I saw a game stopped twice.

This wasn't the only game to suffer the fate of being dragged out.  Now it's not unusual for a football game to be delayed because of a lightning strike.  Stopping a game played in a large and open area due to massive bolts of random static electricity that tend to strike at the tallest available object is quite obvious.  But these games were being stopped for lightning strikes several miles away. 

Are we just stopping games now because wind and rain make the NCAA sad now?  This is getting out of control.  If this is a reaction to an earlier case of injury, I'm dying to hear the story.  It's a poor reaction at best. 

[Landshark]

NCAA rules require a mandatory evacuation if there are lightning strikes in the area.

[MikeO]

Some guy in West Virginia got struck by lightening yesterday

[mecadonzilla]

Didn't someone get hurt at a Notre Dame game last year due to weather?

[fyo]

Courtesy of the National Weather Service:

Normally, you can hear thunder about 10 miles from a lightning strike. Since lightning can strike outward 10 miles from a thunderstorm, if you hear thunder, you are likely within striking distance of the storm.

(link)

[shamrock]

I think Notre Dame is being especially careful since that student was killed last year while filming football practice on one of those scissor lifts.The university got sued and settled out of court for millions,I would guess.The delays were very frustrating(especially the second one when it looked like the Irish had finally found some life)but if it saves even one person from getting hurt or killed they made the right call.

[Tenshot13]

There was more than one still shot taking during the ND/USF game that showed lightning hitting the stadium, so I have no issue with them delaying the game.

[Phishfan]

Seriously we are complaining about lightning strikes causing delays? I know it was a pain in the ass but the fact that someone was struck at the WVU game should be proof positive that the right decision to evacuate was made (there should have been a better job of ensuring evacuation it appears).

From what I gathered this wasn't a decision Notre Dame or WVU had any part in anyway. The stadiums have a weather monitoring service that goes off when lightning is within a six mile radius. If it goes off, the stadium gets emptied. There is no decision making in the process from what I gathered.

[BigDaddyFin]

^^^^^
No we're not complaining about delays because lightning hit the stadium. 

We're complaining because we're stopping games because lightning "might be in the area."  I might have brought my civil war collection to the area. 

I didn't.  SO THERE'S NO REASON TO STOP THE GAME FOR IT. 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

^^^^^
No we're not complaining about delays because lightning hit the stadium. 

We're complaining because we're stopping games because lightning "might be in the area."  I might have brought my civil war collection to the area. 

I didn't.  SO THERE'S NO REASON TO STOP THE GAME FOR IT. 

Hmm....Not really into preventive measures are you? 

You want to wait until lighting actually hits the stadium?

Yeah, that's a good plan.  We wait until some one is struck and then try order an evacuation while EMTs try to fight the panicking crowd trying to exit while the EMTs try to get to the injured.   Brilliant. 
 

[BigDaddyFin]

What exactly is it that we're preventing?  Some dude fell off a scissor lift from a height in high wind and rain.  A tragedy, certainly and probably preventable especially since we have these things called tripods and camera booms. 

Whether you realize it or not, at any athletic event, there are EMT's all over the place.  You don't usually see them, but they're there.

And I'm not complaining about the situation where I see lightning in the distance, please stop the game.  That makes perfect sense.  But they stopped ND/USF and at least one other one because there MIGHT HAVE BEEN lightning in the area, then held up restarting it until the whole storm actually passed. 

Knute Rockne might have come out of his grave and started gnawing on the mural of Touchdown Jesus om nom nom nom.  He didn't, so there's no reason to stop the game. 

[Phishfan]

^^^^^
No we're not complaining about delays because lightning hit the stadium. 

We're complaining because we're stopping games because lightning "might be in the area."  I might have brought my civil war collection to the area. 

I didn't.  SO THERE'S NO REASON TO STOP THE GAME FOR IT. 

They didn't stop it because lightning "might be in the area". They stopped it because lightning WAS in the area.

I'm speaking clearly on the WVU game. I was watching the ND game in a bar, so I didn't have volume. I don't know how well they explained it during the ND game, but the way I heard the story is that there is a weather alert system inside the stadiums that measure the electric activity. Within six miles, evacuate stadium. It is a clear cut decision and there is no judgement call on it.

[CF DolFan]

They didn't stop it because lightning "might be in the area". They stopped it because lightning WAS in the area.

I'm speaking clearly on the WVU game. I was watching the ND game in a bar, so I didn't have volume. I don't know how well they explained it during the ND game, but the way I heard the story is that there is a weather alert system inside the stadiums that measure the electric activity. Within six miles, evacuate stadium. It is a clear cut decision and there is no judgement call on it.

We have a Thor-Guard lightning detector at my soccer club. It detects lightning but that is not what sets it off. It detects the atmospheric conditions for lightning. When the conditions are right for lightning within 2 miles it will blast a horn and sets off the lights. It reads 10 miles around so we can see lightning happening and it records the strikes, but it will not go off until that 2 mile barrior changes. It only takes 10 minutes to reset once conditions gets better.