Support and answers.

Lightning strike activity, heat and Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), UV index, and official National Weather Service alerts for each field location you add. The app also shows hourly forecasts for WBGT, heat index, UV, and chance of rain.

No. Sports Safe is a monitoring aid that supports the person making the call. It never replaces official warnings, your emergency action plan, or on-site judgment. Always follow your local safety authorities.

Each field has a clear-the-field radius you choose, anywhere from 6 to 15 miles (10 unless you change it). A strike inside that radius sends a clear-the-field alert. The all clear comes only after 30 minutes with no strikes inside the radius, and any new strike inside it restarts the 30 minutes. The field shows the earliest time you can return while you wait. During a field's alert schedule, strikes are checked about every 5 minutes whenever storms are expected nearby, and about every 3 minutes once lightning is within 20 miles.

Purple means lightning inside your field's radius: clear the field. Red means lightning between your radius and 20 miles: be ready to clear. Orange means lightning 20 to 35 miles out: stay alert. Yellow means storms are possible and we're watching for strikes, and green means no storms are expected nearby. Lightning beyond 20 miles shows on the map and in the app but never sets off an alert on its own.

The 30-30 rule is a widely used lightning guideline for outdoor sports. It began as a flash to bang count: if thunder follows a lightning flash by 30 seconds or less, get to shelter. Today NOAA and the National Weather Service teach a simpler and safer rule: when thunder roars, go indoors. If you can hear thunder at all, you are close enough to be struck. Then wait at least 30 minutes after the last lightning or thunder before going back out. Sports Safe applies the waiting half automatically: each field's all clear comes only after 30 minutes with no strikes inside its radius, and any new strike restarts the clock.

On iPhone, clear-the-field lightning alerts can sound even when your phone is on silent or in Do Not Disturb. They're on by default once you allow them, and you can turn them off under Settings, Notifications in the app. Other alerts, like heat and UV, arrive as normal notifications.

Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) estimates heat stress on a body working in direct sunlight. It combines air temperature, humidity, wind, and sunlight, while the heat index only uses temperature and humidity in the shade. That is why many state athletic associations base their heat policies, such as practice length, rest breaks, and equipment limits, on WBGT.

Sports Safe estimates WBGT for each field from current weather: temperature, humidity, wind, and sun. It's an estimate, not a meter reading, so a sheltered field or one far from the nearest weather station can read differently. Each field can be corrected: set your own correction in the field's settings, or on the Organization plan let Sports Safe learn one from the meter readings you log. A correction only ever raises the number, never lowers it.

Your state athletic association's heat chart wherever Sports Safe has one, including the right region or classification within the state. Some states share another state's chart. Everywhere else, the app uses a general guideline and says so. You can pick a different chart for any field under Heat safety chart in its settings.

See the heat policy charts by state

It depends on your plan. Free includes 2 saved locations you can check in the app, but none of them are monitored, so no hazard alerts are sent for them. You can still receive notifications from a team you've joined. Paid plans add monitored locations with push alerts; see the Pricing page for the full breakdown.

First, confirm the location is monitored (not just saved) on a plan that includes push alerts, that it's inside its alert schedule, and that it isn't snoozed. Then open Settings, Notifications in the app and check that alerts are on for the hazard you expected. UV alerts are off by default. Finally, check that notifications are allowed for Sports Safe in your phone's settings, and that you're signed in to the same account on the device you expect alerts on.

Yes. Team and Organization plans include admin seats: you invite a coach by email from the Admins page on the website, they sign in with their own login, and they see and manage the same fields you do. Everyone on the account shares one field list and one set of monitoring slots, and each coach chooses their own alerts. See Pricing for admin limits by tier.

On the Team and Organization plans, create a team in the app or on the website and share its join code or QR code. Anyone can join and receive your messages for free, without a paid plan of their own. Send a quick update like a cancelled practice to everyone at once.

If you subscribed on the website, open your account page and choose "Change or cancel plan." That covers upgrades, downgrades, and cancellation. Changes are prorated automatically. If you cancel, your plan stays active until the end of the billing period. Monitoring continues until then and you simply aren't billed again. If you subscribed in the app through the App Store, manage or cancel it in your Apple ID's subscription settings instead.

Yes. On any paid plan, "Monitor my current location" in the app watches wherever you're standing for three hours. This is especially useful for an away game or a scrimmage at a field you'll never visit again. It doesn't use up one of your plan's monitored field slots, and it ends on its own so nothing is left running. Every admin seat has their own Current Location ability.

Yes, and you should. Each field can carry an alert schedule, the days and times it should be watched. Outside those hours the field shows as Scheduled and won't send hazard alerts. A good rule is to start the window about an hour before you arrive and end it an hour after you leave, so conditions are already being tracked when your athletes show up. No one wants a lightning alert in the middle of the night.

Yes. Add a Sports Safe widget to your Home Screen, on iPhone or Android, for a single field or several at once. On iPhone, you can also add a Lock Screen widget that shows lightning, WBGT, heat index, or UV for the field you choose. On the website, your dashboard shows live lightning, WBGT, heat index, and UV for every monitored field.

Yes. On the Organization plan, a coach can log a WBGT reading right from the dashboard. The app's estimate is filled in, with room for a meter reading, who took it, and notes, and a reminder can prompt the next check. Each entry is timestamped and locked once saved. A correction is recorded as a new entry, not an edit to the old one. The full history exports as a CSV. It's called compliance logging in the app, and it's a straightforward paper trail if you're ever asked to show that your program followed its heat policy.

Yes. Field locations are tied to your account and are not shared publicly. See our Privacy Policy for full details on what we collect and how it's used.