Weather Policies

This policy is provided for member schools in order to meet the following objectives in relation to extreme weather conditions particularly in the case of hot weather, but also in other circumstances such as severe storms, electrical storms or extremely cold conditions.

1. To provide guidelines for members so that their duty of care responsibilities are acknowledged and addressed, but also to ensure that the Association has acted responsibly in these circumstances.
2. To establish structures and procedures to assist members in making decisions efficiently.
3. To establish consistency of practice.

If the temperature for the forthcoming SATURDAY is forecast at 38ºC on the Bureau of Meteorology’s web site at 9.00am on Friday, all secondary sport will be cancelled. For extreme circumstances where the forecast changes after 9.00am on the Friday to be above 38º an email will be sent to all school sport coordinators informing them of the cancellation of ALL Sport for the following morning. For MIDWEEK sport, if the temperature for the programmed day is forecast at 38ºC on the Bureau of Meteorology’s web site at 12.00pm the day of, ALL Sport (excluding water polo) is to be cancelled.

Water Polo - if the temperature for the programmed day is forecast at 38ºC on the Bureau of Meteorology’s web site at 12.00pm the day of, all games played in outdoor venues are to be cancelled. All games that are programmed to play at any indoor venues in a controlled environment shall continue unless unsafe to do so due to extreme conditions.

If the forecast temperature is less than 38ºC but conditions are considered as extreme, the SACSSGSA Executive Officer, in consultation with the Executive Committee will inform Coordinators of each school by either text message, the SACSSGSA Website or email if sport is to be cancelled. Coordinators will then be expected to communicate with students/coaches/parents/umpires in informing them of the situation.

A school may elect to cancel fixtures where the forecast temperatures are lower levels than those stated above where local conditions are more severe and poses an increased risk for student participation.

The SA Catholic Girls Executive Officer in consultation with the Executive Committee may issue a blanket cancellation where weather conditions across the metropolitan area are considered to be so extreme as to warrant such a cancellation.

In case of inclement weather an activity may need to be suspended due to hail, lightning, rain etc. The decision to suspend a game can be made by the Executive Officer, Referee, Venue Coordinator and/or by Coaches.

According to the well accepted flash-to-bang method:

• Count the seconds between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder.
• Divide the number by 3 to find out how many kilometres away the lightning is occurring.
• If within 10 kilometres (30 sec or less), stop the activity and seek shelter.
• Allow 30 minutes after last sound of thunder or lightning strike before resuming or commencing play.

It is recognised that local conditions (hail, lightning, rain etc.) are likely to have a greater impact and so host schools will have the discretion to cancel fixtures.

Where such cancellations are made it is the responsibility of the host school to inform all visiting schools and the SACSSGSA Executive Officer.

The Sports Medicine Australia Hot Weather Guidelines may be helpful to schools when making decisions to cancel sporting fixtures based on local conditions.