Heat wave prompts cancellation of local sports

While Sudbury and North Bay youths play on, West Nipissing errs on the side of caution.

West Nipissing has been under a heat wave over the last few days. Environment Canada has issued heat warnings for most of Ontario and Quebec since Monday. Locally, temperatures hit 29 degrees on Monday and 31 degrees yesterday. We are expecting a high of 30 degrees this afternoon.

While measuring the humidex, the Weather Network claims it could sometimes feel like 37 to 40 degrees over this heat wave. However the humidex does not take into account wind speed and as many have pointed out the breeze has drastically alleviated the heat this week.* West Nipissing saw afternoon wind speeds of over 20km/h Monday and Tuesday. Winds will reach 38km/h Wednesday afternoon.

In what appears to be an unprecedented move, local sports organizations have kept kids off the field due to the heat. West Nipissing Soccer announced yesterday that all games would be cancelled. West Nipissing Baseball cancelled all its activities from Monday through Wednesday.

West Nipissing Soccer’s President advised me in a comment that the board took it upon themselves to cancel games for the time being while they work on a formal action plan to deal with higher temperatures.

He added that “We have limited time for our summer sports and canceling because a beautiful sunny day is not ideal.”

Neighbouring communities play through the heat

In neighbouring Sudbury and North Bay, it appears all youth sports went ahead as scheduled. Sudbury’s minor soccer and baseball clubs played their normal schedule this week while advising players to make sure to stay hydrated. Sudbury saw even hotter weather than we did with highs surpassing 30 both days so far this week.

Heat may limit an already short season

While local clubs are drafting official plans to deal with summer heat, they have to take into account the fact that in Northern Ontario summer doesn’t last forever. This was the first week for most summer sports and the seasons generally wrap up by mid-August. This leaves 8 weeks of play. Soccer games are already cancelled when there are risks of thunderstorms which normally takes away at least one or two days per year.

Considering almost every past summer of the past has seen three to four heat waves per year where temperatures reach 30 degrees, the clubs may have their hands tied.

If the threshold is 29 degrees, then kids may not be on the field very often.

In most cities in Mexico, the average high is 32 degrees for the entire summer with almost every day topping 30 degrees. But childrens sports run regularly in southern countries.

It’s also worth noting that the region suffered through heat waves much worse than the one we have seen this week. July 2015 saw 8 days of heat warning with temperatures over 27 degrees in West Nipissing. With the proposed threshold, 2015 would have seen a mostly cancelled soccer and baseball season.

*The uniquely Canadian Humidex which the Weather Network claims is the “feels like factor” combines the temperatures, humidity level and the dew point. For reference, the internationally used “heat index” as listed on Weather.com indicates that it only “feels like” 32 degrees in Sturgeon Falls this afternoon compared to 38 which the Canadian measurement indicates.

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