Hi everyone,

We are watching the weather for practice tonight (I write as I hear thunder) and will try to make a call regarding the 5PM practice by as close to 4PM as possible. We may call off both practices at the same time, or if there's hope we'll hang on until 5PM to make a call for the 6PM practice.

This is as good a time as any to review our weather policy. First, please be patient with us regarding cancellations. We do the best we can but it's safety first; every year, we get people telling us how they can see the thunderstorm moving away on radar or it doesn't look that bad, etc., etc. Keep in mind that lightning can strike from as far as 10 miles away, and we don't want to be the pool that had kids die because we were aggressive in getting practice in. Additionally, we ALWAYS defer to our management company regarding safety-based closings, so once Atlantic closes the pool, the argument is over. Even if we were inclined to do something different, our insurance wouldn't cover us if we did. Finally, we are not meteorologists, and even they get it wrong, so we can and will make mistakes on this. I actually pay extra to get real time, storm chaser radar, but we can only take our best guess.

Second, the policy: We practice rain or shine unless there's thunder (obviously, and the pool will be closed) or it's raining so hard we can't see the bottom of the pool (a safety requirement so we can actually see the swimmers), or unless there's a tornado warning (bad idea to be far from real shelter when a tornado is on the way).

Happy to answer questions, but otherwise stay tuned for updates.