In this article · 12 sections
A lightning policy is only useful if it can be followed in the few minutes when a storm is building and everyone is looking at the same person. The National Weather Service asks organisers of outdoor activities to have a lightning safety plan and to follow it without exception. This is how to write one that holds up.
Start from the guidance your venue answers to
You do not have to invent the rules. High schools work from the NFHS guideline (current version October 2024), which NFHS describes as a default policy; it points schools to their state association and nearest NWS office for a facility policy. Colleges work from the lightning guideline in the NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook. Athletic trainers work from the NATA position statement on lightning safety, which recommends a written, lightning-specific emergency action plan for each venue. Parks, golf courses and other facilities can build on the same documents. Our summary of the NFHS and NCAA lightning guidelines sets them side by side.
Your job is to turn that guidance into names, places, times and signals for your venues. NATA groups the essentials into five parts: lightning safety messages, a chain of command, a reliable way to monitor the weather, known safe locations, and written criteria to suspend and resume. The sections below follow that order and add what the other guidelines ask for.
1. Name who makes the call
Name a role, not a vague group, with the authority to stop activity, plus a backup for when that person is away. NFHS says the assigned staff member is not to be challenged; NATA asks for recognised, unchallengeable authority. Make that explicit in the policy and get the head coach, officials and administrators to sign it before the season.
Separate watching from deciding where you can. NATA recommends a designated weather watcher who looks for threatening weather and alerts the chain of command, and the NWS guidance for sports says the person monitoring lightning should not be the coach, umpire or referee, who are busy running the game.
2. Say how the weather is monitored
- Check the forecast every day before practice or competition, including NWS watches and warnings (NCAA).
- Name the tools the weather watcher uses during the event. NFHS says detection network data should be watched when it is available, with a 10-mile radius; NATA suggests considering a commercial real-time service that has been independently and objectively verified.
- State plainly that sight and sound override any device: if the sky looks threatening or thunder is heard, the plan acts regardless of what an app shows (NFHS).
3. Map safe and unsafe places for every venue
For each field, court, pool or course, name the nearest safe place and check it is open when you need it. NATA says access to those buildings must be guaranteed during outdoor activity, so a locked gym is not a shelter. For large events, make sure there is room for everyone, spectators included.
| Attribute | Safe | Not safe |
|---|---|---|
| Buildings | A substantial, fully enclosed building with plumbing and wiring that people live or work in: a school, gym, field house or library | Dugouts, picnic and rain shelters, pavilions, sheds, tents, press boxes, gazebos, refreshment stands and open garages |
| Vehicles | A fully enclosed hard-topped metal car, van or school bus with the windows shut | Convertibles, soft-tops, golf carts and other open-cab vehicles |
| Open ground | None: no place outside is safe when a thunderstorm is in the area | Under or near trees, light poles, towers and fences; high ground; pools and other water |
Safe
- Buildings
- A substantial, fully enclosed building with plumbing and wiring that people live or work in: a school, gym, field house or library
- Vehicles
- A fully enclosed hard-topped metal car, van or school bus with the windows shut
- Open ground
- None: no place outside is safe when a thunderstorm is in the area
Not safe
- Buildings
- Dugouts, picnic and rain shelters, pavilions, sheds, tents, press boxes, gazebos, refreshment stands and open garages
- Vehicles
- Convertibles, soft-tops, golf carts and other open-cab vehicles
- Open ground
- Under or near trees, light poles, towers and fences; high ground; pools and other water
Inside, stay away from showers, plumbing, wiring and electrical equipment while the storm is overhead; NATA notes injuries to people using plumbing or wiring indoors.
4. Measure how long it takes to clear each venue
NFHS, NCAA and NATA all ask you to know how long it takes to get everyone into the safe place. Walk it with a stopwatch at the start of the season: from the far corner of the field, from the top of the bleachers, from the farthest hole on the course. That number decides how much warning your plan needs, and it is usually longer than people expect once spectators, equipment and officials are involved.
Time to shelter
The plan works only if the warning is longer than the walk.
5. Write the criteria to stop and to restart
- Suspend when thunder is heard or lightning is seen, and move everyone to the safe place immediately (NFHS). If you use detection data, also suspend when lightning is within your radius; NFHS uses 10 miles.
- Aim to have everyone fully inside before the storm arrives, not as it arrives. NATA sets that point at the storm edge reaching about 5 nautical miles, roughly 6 statute miles.
- Resume only 30 minutes after the last thunder or lightning, and restart the count on any new thunder or lightning (NFHS, NATA). The rain stopping does not start the clock.
- Spell out who announces the all-clear and how, so people do not drift back out on their own.
6. Decide the signals and who hears them
The NCAA guideline asks for planned instructions for participants and spectators, defined warning and all-clear signals, and signage. For large venues NATA adds announcements, safety information in programmes, ushers who help move the crowd, entrances that double as exits, and a way to keep spectators from coming in while play is suspended. Write down the exact signal, such as a horn pattern or a PA script, and the backup if the primary fails.
NATA also says everyone has the right to leave an outdoor area for a safe place if they feel in danger, without penalty. Put that sentence in your policy.
7. Plan the first aid
- Rescuers protect themselves first: an active storm is still a hazard to anyone going onto the field (NATA).
- Call emergency services. People struck by lightning carry no electrical charge, so they are safe to touch and CPR is safe for the responder (NCAA).
- Move the casualty to a safer place if needed, then check breathing and pulse first, followed by consciousness, possible spinal injury and hypothermia (NATA).
- Use an AED on anyone who appears unconscious, pulseless or not breathing, but never delay CPR while one is found (NATA, NCAA).
- Keep CPR and first-aid certifications current for the staff responsible for participants (NATA).
8. Review it, rehearse it and tell people
NFHS asks for an annual review with administrators, coaches and game personnel, training for everyone involved, and a briefing for athletes and parents at the start of each season. NATA asks for the plan to be rehearsed every year with everyone who has a part in it. Keep a dated copy of each version so you can show which rules applied on a given day.
A one-page outline you can adapt
- Scope: the venues, activities and seasons the policy covers, and the guidance it follows (state association, NFHS, NCAA or NATA).
- Chain of command: the decision-maker and backup by role, and the weather watcher.
- Monitoring: daily forecast check, the tools used during activity, and the rule that sight and sound come first.
- Venues: for each one, the safe place, who unlocks it, its capacity, and the measured time to reach it.
- Suspension: the triggers, including your radius if you use detection or prediction data.
- Resumption: 30 minutes after the last thunder or lightning, reset on any new activity, and who announces the all-clear.
- Signals: the warning and all-clear signals, PA scripts, signage, and the backup method.
- First aid: emergency numbers, AED locations, and staff with current CPR certification.
- Training and review: annual review date, rehearsal, and the athlete and parent briefing.
- Records: where each decision and all-clear is logged.
Where Flash fits in the plan
Most plans fail on time: the walk to shelter is longer than the warning. Flash Lightning Prediction forecasts strikes up to 60 minutes ahead for each 1×1 km cell, so the weather watcher can start staging before thunder is audible. Each site carries its own thresholds, including the alert radius, lead time and who is told, and the return-to-play timer starts from the last strike and resets itself if another lands.
For signals, horn and strobe controllers fire from the same alert as SMS, email and the app, and you decide whether the all-clear is automatic or has to be acknowledged by a named person; the Flash Weather Shield is a solar-powered, cellular horn and strobe for courses, fields and pools. For records, the alert log stores the prediction, when it was issued, who received and acknowledged it, and when the all-clear went out. If you want help writing the policy itself, a Flash consulting meteorologist can write your site policy or run a season review.
Frequently asked
A named decision-maker and weather watcher, how the weather is monitored, safe and unsafe places for each venue with the time to reach them, criteria to suspend and resume, warning and all-clear signals, first aid, and an annual review.
One named person or role with authority that cannot be overruled, plus a backup. NWS guidance says the person monitoring lightning should not be the coach, umpire or referee.
No. Open-sided shelters, dugouts, sheds, tents and press boxes are not safe. Use a substantial building with plumbing and wiring, or a fully enclosed hard-topped metal vehicle.
At least once a year. NFHS asks for an annual review and training for staff, and a briefing for athletes and parents each season; NATA asks for the plan to be rehearsed annually.