It was brought up in a thread to Mike Benjamin about the cancelation of games due to heat. Mike said that CSL uses referees to determine if it is too hot for the players to play the game.

My question to the referees is how hot is too hot? I doubt that this problem will occur in league (Sept. Oct. Nov.), but I want verify how hot before that situation arrives. Is there a number like 110 degrees, that is unsafe? Or is it more of a judgement call rather than a number?

Thanks Refs

I've done this in the past, usually at the Summer tournaments. Is there a magic number for me? No. When I'm on the field and it's really hot in my opinion, I speak to the coaches beforehand and let them know I'll be stopping the game at some point in each half to get the kids a quick water break (and I ask that they keep all the players on the pitch when doing so).

There is no magic temperature where physical activity becomes dangerous. It depends on a number of things besides temperature, including humidity, players hydration, and what temperatures the players have become "acclimatized" to. It can be perfectly safe to play soccer in the Arizona summer (118, low humidity) if the players have been excersizing in that environment and are properly hydrated. Likewise, it can be quite dangerous to play at lower temperatures (90-95) if humidity is high, the players had been acclimatized to lower temperatures or if they do not properly hydrate.

USSF published a white paper on this very topic just last June. It is interesting reading. http://images.ussoccer.com/Documents/cms/ussf/Heat_Hydration_Guidelines.pdf

YC, that's a great document from USSF. All coaches and parents should read it. The take away I got from it is an adult ref/coach/parent shouldn't use their own perception to determine if it's too hot to play - you should pay very close attention to the players and make allowances for the fact that children and teens cannot deal with heat as well as an adult. AND make allowances for the fact that we're sitting on our butts not doing anything and maybe even in the shade! ;-)

One more factor, as we have a bunch of these in my area, turf fields are like a giant oven - a merely hot day can become dangerous when playing on turf.

Thank you for your help, hopefully we do not reach the triple digits anymore during our games this year.