On-site meteorologist was busy Friday, with two separate delays

STILLWATER — The storms that hit Karsten Creek Golf Club early Friday causing two delays were no surprise to Renny Vandewege.

Vandewege, the senior vice president of business development for Weather Decision Technologies in Norman, is the on-site meteorologist, a position in which Karsten Creek was required to hire in order to host the NCAA men’s and women’s golf championships.

Tucked away in the T. Boone Pickens lodge, Vandewege is constantly watching the weather and staying nearly a day ahead of what could happen. The NCAA started requiring courses to have a meteorologist available in 2014 to help assist with weather decisions.

Here’s what he had to say about what goes into blowing the weather horn.

The Oklahoman: How do you track the weather?

Vandewege: What we do when we track weather for an outdoor venue, or really any venue, and particularly with lightning, we set up range rings that start to notify us when lightning is within certain distances of the course. In Karsten Creek’s case, we took a ride around the golf course and realized there’s quite a bit of distance from the clubhouse and shelters to the farthest parts of the golf course, so we set the range ring at 12 miles. Under normal circumstances, like at a baseball stadium, we might do an 8-mile ring. (NCAA associate director) Donnie Johnson and I chat about that. We want to make sure that we can provide ample time to get the players and coaches in but also staff and patrons to a safe spot if lightning were to get close to the course.

What’s the procedure that happens when you decide to blow the weather horn?

We’re starting a solid 20-30 minutes before that even happens. We’re keeping track of where the threat is well before it actually gets inside that ring. The scariest thing that can happen to us is to have a storm form right over the course. What we will do in that case is use some pretty advanced meteorological tools before they ever show up on a normal weather radar you would look at on television or on your phone app. We’re measuring in the clouds, we’re looking for signs of new development over the course at all times. If a storm is moving in, we’re meeting 30 minutes before and trying to get estimates of when we will blow the horn.

Who makes the final decision on blowing the horn?

Donnie. The meteorologist’s role in this is just to provide information. I can strongly recommend something, but I’m not going to ever make that call.

Do you have to wait 30 minutes from the latest lightning strike to send players back out?

There’s a new suggestion in the National Weather Service lightning safety tool kit for outdoor events that says if a large, outdoor venue has hired a meteorologist as a consultant, they can make the recommendation if they believe a number of factors suggest that there is no more threat before the 30 minutes is up, you can actually resume play before that 30-minute time. We have taken advantage of that twice in this tournament as storms were decaying and lightning threat had ceased, we actually got started about 10 minutes before. It’s a strong recommendation that comes from the meteorologists. That decision is put with safety first. We have a five-step checklist that determines there’s no lightning threat. If we need to wait 30 minutes, we will.