At some point, you’ve probably all seen a video like the one below where the Pirates grounds crew is quickly overwhelmed by a full infield tarp. The recipe of strong winds ahead of an approaching thunderstorm can give a grounds crew quite the fit as they struggle to get the tarp on the field. Oftentimes, players and office staff must to rush in to help the grounds crew avoid serious injury. These incidents happen far too often when a grounds crew needs to pull tarp in these conditions. It can get downright scary!
So what is going on with these huge tarps?
To fans in the stands or watching on TV, these huge blowing tarps may seem semi-comical, but as I mentioned in a post about full tarps before, the job groundskeepers do in deploying and removing tarps can become very dangerous. When a crew member gets dragged, wrapped up or swallowed up by a tarp and gusty winds are involved, things can turn dangerous quickly as the wind has the torque to tightly wrap a crew member up in it quickly. There are numerous similar incidents at many different ballparks at many levels of the game chronicled on YouTube to prove just how dangerous it can be when wind takes control. Preventing field tarp injuries should be a top priority for softball and baseball teams at every level of the sport.
Laying tarp is job for trained crews in order to keep the risk of injury to a minimum. Today’s 
Probably the biggest problem is umpires waiting until rain starts falling to call for the tarp. By that time it can be too late to get the field covered safely. Wind will have already picked up and rain is intensifying. The other night in Pittsburgh, they put the tarp out early ahead of the rain but not ahead of the “gust front” of the storm. While I was not there in Pittsburgh to know the specifics of how the situation developed, if someone can keep a close eye on the radar and know what to look for, the umps can call for the tarps earlier and reduce the danger for the grounds crew.
Let’s move into the weather classroom for a minute. Mature thunderstorms create “outflow boundaries” or “gust fronts” ahead of the storm. The gust front is the rapid advancement of cool, rain chilled air that has been ejected from the thunderstorm cloud via the strong downdraft within the storm. (See the diagram) This gust front is the cooling you feel just ahead of a heavy rain shower or thunderstorm. Depending on the strength of the heavy shower or thunderstorms, these winds have the potential to become very strong. When that happens small dust particles, insects and other particulate is kicked up into the air. Since Doppler radar has come about late in the last century, we are able to see “outflow boundaries” or “gust fronts” on the radar screen. The Doppler is sensitive enough to pick up the dust / insect / particulate cloud that kicks up from the strong wind. Usually you will see it as a thin line emanating out from the storm activity on the radar screen (as seen on the sample radar picture). Just because you see this pattern doesn’t always mean you will see strong winds, but it’s a good possibility, especially if your ballfield is out in the wide open where there is little friction (houses / buildings / trees / etc) to slow the air movement down. The stronger the storm, the stronger the gust front can be. The farther away the gust front gets from the storm over time, the more likely it is to be weaker.
How do we as groundskeepers apply our knowledge for tarp deployment safety? Well, if I’m in the groundskeeping office monitoring incoming storms on my computer or phone, and I see an especially strong storm coming, I will look to see if there is any indication of an outflow boundary/gust front. If I see there is a gust front indicated by that thin line ahead of an approaching storm and the gust front is fairly close to the storm, I am likely going to advise to the umps to let the crew get the tarp on ahead of the gust front to avoid the risk of losing control of the tarp as the storm rolls in. The Doppler Radar is just as important a tool for us to do our jobs on the field as it is for weather forecasters to use for their prognostications.
