Like 2013, this year’s Illinois high school football season started out with weather issues across the state, resulting in the suspension of several football games Friday night. Most of the games will be made up or resumed on Saturday, Aug 30.
Among the suspended games listed by the Peoria Journal-Star were
- Illinois Valley Central at Canton
- Champaign Centennial at Morton
- Bloomington Central Catholic at Washington
Our football listings can be found here.
Teams are required to suspend play and take shelter if thunder is heard or lightning can be seen striking the ground. According to the Illinois High School Association, “The NSSL (National Severe Storms Laboratory) recommends that everyone should wait at least 30 minutes after the last flash of lightning or sound of thunder before returning to the field or activity.”
Lightning can strike up to 10 miles away from the parent thunderstorm, the National Weather Service has said.
According to NWS radar, a line of thunderstorms was moving quickly through Illinois on Saturday afternoon. The central Illinois area had already received a little more than an inch of rain, with some small patches receiving more than five inches in the storm:
But it wasn’t the rain as much as the lightning that kept teams off the field, at least for a while, this year.
Things were about the same in the Chicago area, as lightning halted play while bleachers and sidelines could be evacuated. For example, after the Vernon Hills Cougars traveled to DeKalb, lightning suspended the game until after 10 PM Friday night. When the teams finally took the field, DeKalb scored 27 points in the first quarter. Vernon Hills never recovered, losing 33-14.
