By Lizzy Snell
Media Intern
A brief lightning suspension hit the Schwan’s USA CUP Wednesday morning, but in tournament headquarters, everything was calm.
Minnesota is known for unpredictable and at times, dangerous weather. During SCHWAN’S USA CUP, presented by PUMA, the staff takes this into account and uses the latest technology to help monitor the weather in order to keep everyone safe.
“We use WeatherSentry to monitor the weather and see bad weather approaching,” said tournament scheduler Kara Radeke. “The system identifies cloud-to-ground lightning and cloud-to-cloud lighting along with storm speed and projected radar.”
Through WeatherSentry, Schwan’s USA CUP staff can select which types of weather they want to monitor – lightning, wind, rain – and have it appear on the radar on the computer screen.
Matt Koehn, also a tournament scheduler, said it is a collective decision when it comes to suspending play of games.
“Several of [tournament staff] meets together in person to hash it out,” he said. “We discuss what needs to be done, how to communicate it to everyone and how to proceed afterwards.”
A Weather Issues Decision Group monitors WeatherSentry, determines the status of games – if games are deemed complete or if they will restart – and then creates a printed public document that tournament staff follows to restart the tournament.
The public document will explain when the all clear was issued, what games are deemed complete, what games will re-start and if there are any field changes.
“Lightning is the most common reason to suspend games,” Radeke said. “It averages about once [during the tournament] but in a 10-day span it will happen at least once.”
Koehn explained that once a decision is made to suspend play, field managers are utilized to help inform everyone on what to do.
“We use them to communicate to teams, referees and fans,” Koehn said. “We will use the radios to communicate to everyone and every channel – concessions, maintenance, headquarters, medical, security…everyone. The same thing is done when the all clear call is made.”
Schwan’s USA CUP tournament director Teri Vogt said the combination of people spotting weather along with technology has served to be very reliable.
“We suspend games when there is a lightning strike within 10 miles,” she said. “Then we wait until 30 minutes after the expiration of the last strike to resume games.”
Yesterday morning, games were suspended for about 20 minutes after two lightning strikes were seen simultaneously.
Sometimes visual sightings of lightning are not a reliable measure of a storm’s threat.
“If people didn’t see those two strikes, it seemed like [the suspension] was for nothing,” Vogt said.
Vogt said the safety and well-being of the entire event needs to be taken into consideration. 
Left: As storm clouds threaten on the edge of the National Sports Center Campus, the team from the Higher Ground Academy, in Minnesota waits for the game to start. Play was suspended later.
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