Indiana State Fair Tragedy

[CycloneDaddy]

Did Sugarland go on stage tonight at the Iowa State Fair?

This morning they said the show was canceled and weren't sure if there was going to be a make up date.

[edr247]

I know that it probably wasn't what happened in Indiana, but you can have some powerful downdrafts called microbursts. I think a microburst is what caused the Dallas Cowboys practice facility collapse, if you guys remember that from a couple years ago.

Severe weather and large outdoor events are tricky beasts. Even if you have a severe weather plan in place, aside from sheer unpredictability of the weather, you have to contend with unpredictability of people. Sure, you can force people to leave, but people dawdle, people stand around to take pictures, etc.

I remember when I was younger, my family and I were at Valley Fair in Minnesota. We were at the water park and we were getting ready to leave, so we went into the locker room to change. In the maybe 10-15 minutes we were getting everything put away, etc, we came out to find the park pretty much deserted. But the clouds were this beautiful greenish clouds. Turns out there was severe weather heading our way and they were evacuating the park. Before we could make it to our car, however, the park was hit with severe weather. Strong winds, pouring rain, lighting, everything. We wanted to wait under one of the kiosks, but had to leave as the park employees were afraid it would topple over. (Actually a few did). Tree branches were coming down, portions of the park were flash flooding...it was horrible. We ended up staying in the employee lounge for an hour or so before the weather cleared the area (and we weren't the only park visitors stranded. Must have been at least 50 people).

That's not even my worst story dealing with severe weather. When I was a Scout, we were at the Minnesota State Fair for the Scout Fair (forget what it was called). On the last night or maybe the second to last night, the clouds turned an angry red color. We had warning that a storm was headed our way, and being Scouts, we (as in pretty much every one of the hundreds or thousands of people) knew where to go if the sirens sounded. We were prepared, so we'd be fine. Well, we weren't. I still remember running from the tent to the 4H building in pouring rain and strong winds. A falling teepee that one of the troops had set up nearly took out one of my friends as it came down.

[SvrWxCy]

I know that it probably wasn't what happened in Indiana, but you can have some powerful downdrafts called microbursts. I think a microburst is what caused the Dallas Cowboys practice facility collapse, if you guys remember that from a couple years ago.

Severe weather and large outdoor events are tricky beasts. Even if you have a severe weather plan in place, aside from sheer unpredictability of the weather, you have to contend with unpredictability of people. Sure, you can force people to leave, but people dawdle, people stand around to take pictures, etc.

You are correct in that it was not a microburst, a localized strong downdraft from within a thunderstorm, that occurred at the Indiana State Fair. What occurred was a gust front that could be seen with high resolution radar data, that covered a large swath of the county with gusty winds, some severe.

Yes the weather is unpredictable, however at the same time we on most occasions have enough predictability to account for severe weather with at least some lead time. People are of course another story, but like I have mentioned before the difference there is that if you tell them they have to take shelter and they don't it becomes their personal choice to stay within harms way.