Coors Field Now StormReady
Warning coordination meteorologist Robert Glancy will present a StormReady plaque and certificates to the Colorado Rockies at their April 13 game.
Sunday, June 3, at 1:10 p.m. local time will be the only day during this year's ASSE Safety 2012 conference and expo in Denver for fans of the Colorado Rockies to see a game at Coors Field. Members of ASSE's Colorado Chapter and Rockies fans generally should be pleased to know that Coors Field is now a National Weather Service-designated StormReady® facility.
NWS announced this April 11, adding that warning coordination meteorologist Robert Glancy will present a StormReady plaque and certificates to the Rockies at their April 13 game starting at 6:40 p.m. local time against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Coors Field became the fourth Major League Baseball park to earn the StormReady designation. (The others are the Minnesota Twins' Target Field, the Cincinnati Reds' Great American Ballpark, and the St. Louis Cardinals' Busch Stadium.)
NWS said Rockies officials worked with it and with local emergency management to adopt a rigorous set of detection and warning criteria to provide protection from thunderstorms and other severe weather. "The StormReady program is designed to help communities improve communication and safety skills needed to save lives before, during, and after a severe weather event," said Nezette Rydell, meteorologist in charge of the NWS office in Boulder. "The procedures Rockies officials implemented to become StormReady will help protect fans, players, and staff from threatening weather."
The voluntary program began in 1999 with seven communities in the Tulsa, Okla. Area, and nearly 1,900 sites nationwide now participate in it. To be recognized as StormReady, a community or organization must:
- Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center
- Have more than one way to receive severe weather forecasts and warnings and to alert the public
- Create a system that monitors local weather conditions
- Promote the importance of public readiness through community seminars
- Develop a formal hazardous weather plan that includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises
"The mission of NOAA's National Weather Service is to reduce the loss of life and property from storms, and StormReady has helped to create better prepared communities across the country," Rydell said. "Just like communities and ballparks, families need to be storm ready by having an emergency plan before severe weather strikes."