{"id":8602,"date":"2026-05-10T09:07:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=8602"},"modified":"2026-05-10T09:17:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:17:49","slug":"blue-sky-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2026\/05\/10\/blue-sky-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Sky Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a part of the Sunday Story series – no politics today, just old track stories wrapped around the weather.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Any Language<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

They say the Intuit language (Eskimo) has dozens of words for what in English we call snow.  That makes a lot of sense.  Snow has a prime impact on their lives, near or above the Arctic Circle.  It even has an impact here.  Better to shovel \u201cpowder\u201d than \u201cslush\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in my \u201cside-profession\u201d of track officiating, we have a lot of words for rain.\u00a0\u00a0After all, outdoor track is a spring sport in Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0I have been drenched, frozen, and sunburned \u2013 all on the same Saturday.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So, on this, my first Saturday off in a while, I encountered another form of rain:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cblue sky rain\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is \u201cblue sky rain\u201d?  It\u2019s rain coming from the few random clouds that are scattered among the blue sky.  It doesn\u2019t look like a rain-day, in fact, it looks like a blue sky day.  But then, there\u2019s those pesky, adolescent clouds, primed to screw the whole thing up.  Thus, we have “blue sky rain”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracking Weather<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now the weather is a serious concern in Track and Field.  And, in this modern age, I have all the tools to keep abreast of what\u2019s going on.  There\u2019s the paid subscription to the Weather Channel on my phone, and the direct link to NBC4\u2019s viper radar.  I even have an app called \u201cMy Lightning Finder\u201d. (Though to be clear, I don\u2019t have lightning and I don\u2019t want lightning!!)  It will detect lightning in a specified area.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ohio High School Athletic Association defines ten miles as the \u201clightning zone\u201d when competition must be suspended.  So \u201cMy Lightning\u201d creates a ten mile circle of detection.  It goes off with a siren in my pocket, one that I can hear even during a tight finish of the 1600 meter run.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019ve been on the track since 1970, so I also have a \u201csense\u201d of what and when the weather will be.  Fifty-six years of getting soaked and frozen to the bone will do that to you.  My fastest 220 dash (yards back then, not meters) was in 1974, the day that Xenia got destroyed by tornadoes.  We were farther south at Reading High School in Cincinnati, but I remember having a \u201ctail wind\u201d all the way around the curve and down the straight.  That night, we watched eight different tornadoes dance up and down the hills of Cincinnati.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sat in a car in a parking lot at Bowling Green State University\u2019s track and watched lightning strike the light pole nearby. I stood near the woods at Watkins Memorial High School (out by the old discus pad) and heard a tornado building in the forest. That was when I yelled on the walkie-talkie \u2013 \u201cGet those people the Hell out of the bleachers!!\u201d It was the right sentiment, but my PA Announcer had the mike keyed up at the same time.  That dramatic announcement may well have induced a bit of panic in the crowd.  And then there was the tornado at the District meet in Dublin, when an assistant coach took the full brunt of the fold-up tent in her face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve seen the wall of a storm front moving in on a starting line of three hundred kids at the McGowan Cross Country meet. I even had the sense to cancel the race, before I sent them into the forest with the coming fifty mile an hour wind.\u00a0\u00a0So, I guess I know weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Run \u2018Em<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

And, it seems like for time in memorial, I\u2019ve had that conversation with old track coaches as we huddled around the edges of the concession stand, watching the rain whip sideways and backwards.  Someone always says:  \u201cWell, sometimes we run \u2018em in this, and sometimes we don\u2019t\u201d.  I even had it hail in inch in the middle of the 110 high hurdles, a dicey proposition at best.  So I know a cloudy day from a rainy day.   And I know the difference between threatening weather, and just wet weather where the kids can\u2019t hold onto their pole vault poles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But today was a \u201cblue sky rain\u201d day.\u00a0\u00a0The blue sky represented hope for reprieve, a day when maybe we might even stay warm.\u00a0\u00a0But, the \u201cadolescent clouds\u201d, like teenagers all stormed up, might throw a wrench in things. They well might get it together and ruin the whole day.\u00a0\u00a0So there\u2019s hope, and threat.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the promise of \u201cblue sky rain\u201d.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Story Series<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

2021<\/h4>\n\n\n\n