Zap-Free Sports: UF Uses Lightning Detectors At Football Games

November 6, 2001

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Stopping a University of Florida football game because of lightning will no longer be a flash-in-the-pan decision, thanks to a new detection system that tracks the bolts before they reach the stadium.

Now game officials, using a regular desktop or laptop computer, can spot the precise location and path of lightning strikes as they happen on a customized map so detailed it reveals streets, lakes and other landmarks, said Martin Uman, professor and chairman of UF’s electrical and computer engineering department and an internationally recognized lightning expert.

“Lightning during a football game is a serious matter because, first of all, you don’t want to jeopardize the safety of the players and fans, and secondly it’s a big commercial enterprise,” he said. “But the athletic department has never had a systematic way of making a decision whether to stop a practice session or a game until now.”

The lightning detection system, operated by Global Atmospherics, Inc. in Tucson, Ariz., uses sensors throughout North America to map lightning’s location. It displays that information on the Internet as part of a scientific data bank that also goes directly to the National Weather Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Forest Service, most electrical utilities and other agencies, Uman said. An early version of that system was developed by Uman and Phillip Krider, a University of Arizona lightning expert, as part of their joint lightning research.

UF now uses the lightning detection network not only for its football games, but also for practice sessions for football, as well as soccer, golf and tennis, said Chip Howard, UF assistant athletic director for auxiliary services.

“We have an 18-hole golf course on campus that the athletic association owns and operates, for instance,” he said. “We wanted to better warn our golfers because there’s a lot of deaths on golf courses because of lightning.”

During a football game, if lightning strikes within 10 miles of the stadium and the lightning activity is moving toward the stadium, the athletic employees operating the system alert the head official, Howard said. He will pull the teams off the field and suspend the game if that storm advances to within a five-mile radius, he said.

The decision would be announced over the public address system, with fans allowed to leave the stadium and re-enter with their ticket stubs once the game restarts, he said.

The idea to put such a system in place came after the stadium staged a mock disaster that called for lightning hitting the upper south end zone, with simulated injuries and deaths. “We started thinking at that point, what happens if lightning really does strike?” Howard said.

In addition, at its game management meetings in Birmingham, Ala., this summer, the Southeastern Conference asked schools to make lightning detection a priority, he said.

Lightning is a common occurrence in Florida, killing an average of 15 people a year and injuring probably five to 10 times more, Uman said. The most strikes per square mile occur between Orlando and Fort Myers, but north Florida receives about two-thirds that amount.

“The good thing about football season is it is mostly in the fall, posing a danger for only the first couple of games, but a frontal system could come through later and there could be lightning, and you would want to take precautions,” Uman said. “And in the summer, all sorts of teams are practicing out in the field.”

After the disaster drill, UF athletic officials met with Uman and his staff and selected the Global Atmospherics lightning protection system, using it for the first home game this fall.

“It’s not enough to know there’s lightning 10 miles away,” Uman said. “You really need to know it’s coming in your direction.”

The traditional method of counting the number of seconds between the lightning flash and the thunder has its limitations, said Keith Rambo, director of advanced technology support services in UF’s electrical and computer engineering department who operated the new system at this year’s home football games.

Rambo has trained the athletic association staff on how to use the new system, which can zoom in on any latitude and longitude in the United States. During the four training sessions he also covered a variety of safety issues, along with statistics on injuries and casualties.

“Men are struck more frequently than women,” he said. The reason? Men work and play outdoors more than women, engaging in activities such as golfing more often, he said.