Dublin Memorial Park Updated Weather Policy

Good afternoon,

As many of us now know, The City of Madison has updated the weather alert system for Dublin Memorial Park. Click Here for more information

We are excited that The City of Madison has found a proactive way to mitigate our athletes' risk in cases of lightning and other weather phenomenons. I firmly believe this is a step in the right direction to help keep our families and athletes out of harm's way.

This appears to be a much less subjective and reactive approach than the previous ways of making decisions such as the “30-30 Rule,” “10-second Rule,” and the “10/15 miles—30 minutes” which was in place beforehand.

This will also allow us to potentially get back in the water sooner than the older ways allowed (30 minutes after the last strike inside a 10/15 mile radius).

That being said, it does make it more difficult to make calls on cancellation or trying to wait it out. In these cases, decisions will be based on the best judgment and final decision being made by the MSA Board President and MSA Head Coach.

If you would like to stay “in the know” on how decisions are made and what the alerts are showing, you are welcome to download the “Thor Alert” App (code 150).

It is my understanding that the system will sound once it reaches a Dynamic Index (DI) of 2.4 and will be indicated with one “long” 15-second warning. Once the DI drops to 1.0 it should sound three “short” 5-second blasts giving the all-clear.

Thank you all for being patient with us as we navigate these new technologies and systems. Please understand we want athletes to be in the water as we have programmed the different groups, but athlete safety will always be our top priority.

See you at the pool,

Mark Richard