Hot Weather Policy

Hello Everybody

The summer is here and with it hotter weather. We recently had some very hot weather and concerns have been raised by some players regarding the safety of playing under conditions of extreme heat. It is well established that extreme heat can bring health problems that may not be obvious until it’s too late.  These effects do not affect everybody equally. However, like every other bad thing, they disproportionately impact the very young and seniors.

As you may already know, every Tuesday morning, bright and early, I do a weather check to see whether we have a substantial threat (or reality) of rain making it impossible or unsafe to play. If the conditions do not allow play, the League Secretary notifies the captains that the games are postponed and the captains pass the message on to their teams.

From now on, I will be considering the projected temperature and humidity when making the call as to whether we will play. I’ll also look at any air quality alerts for things like smoke and other pollutants.

The members of the Executive have proposed a standard where any time the projected high is above 30 degrees Celsius, or the Humidex exceeds 40 degrees, the schedule will change as follows. One of the 11:00 o’clock games will be moved to 9:30 at diamond 4 and the other will be postponed and rescheduled. We will also reduce the games played on those days to 5 innings instead of 7.

Moving the one later game to 9:30 is based on the principle that the earlier games are not likely to be subjected to the worst heat. We also are trying to minimize having a long backlog of games that otherwise would need to be rescheduled.

If you have any concerns regarding this proposal, please refer them to me or to your captain for forwarding to me.  Otherwise, we will implement this starting Tuesday, July 2.