Weather and abort criteria card
The decision to interrupt an event is badly made at four in the afternoon with a black sky and three hundred people on site. It is made beforehand, calmly, and written on a card that hangs in the crew tent.
This tool produces that card: thresholds and measures per stage, filtered to your site and your structures, plus the alarm chain — who watches, who decides, how the warning goes out, where people go.
The abort criteria from here belong verbatim in the safety concept you build in the Safety concept assistant. How much medical cover heat needs is in the Medical services calculator.
Still open: Who watches the forecast?, Who decides on interruption and clearing?, Assembly point, Shelter nearby (buildings, vehicles, hall). They appear as gaps on the card.
Weather card
Wind
- No structure has a rated operating wind entered. Without that figure there is no defensible wind threshold — ask the hire company for the inspection log.
Thunderstorm
- Under 30 seconds between lightning and thunder: take cover (buildings, vehicles)
- Avoid open ground, lone trees, metal poles, stages and water
- Return no earlier than 30 minutes after the last thunder
- Stage and sound equipment off the mains
Heat
- From 32 °C perceived: free and visible drinking water, shade, announced drink breaks
- From 38 °C perceived: cancel or move physically demanding parts of the programme
- Brief the medics on heat exhaustion, set up somewhere to cool down
- Keep the middle of the day free of programme
UV radiation
- From index 3: recommend shade, head covering and sun protection
- From index 6: provide shaded places, mention it in announcements
- From index 8: limit time in the sun, move the programme into shade
Heavy rain
- Electrics raised and splash-proof, distribution boards covered
- Check paths for slipping, close off slippery spots
- Name alternative areas and buildings
Night cold
- Name a heated place to warm up, even in summer
- Tell people beforehand about sleeping bag ratings and mats
- Shorten the night programme in the cold, crew walk the camp
Heat in costume and armour
- Gambesons and armour trap heat: schedule combat breaks, do not merely offer them
- Water points inside the play area, not only in camp
- Anyone wanting to stay in character is taken out anyway — that is not a negotiation
- Marshals watch for the signs, not the players themselves
Alarm chain
- [Who watches the forecast?] checks the forecast morning, midday and evening
- [Who decides on interruption and clearing?] decides on interruption and clearing; a deputy is named
- Warning via an agreed signal — horn, announcement, radio group
- Assembly point: [Assembly point] · shelter: [Shelter nearby (buildings, vehicles, hall)]
- After the warning there is a head count; only then is the site clear
How this is calculated
The wind thresholds are the notable part, because they are not fixed numbers. IGVW SQP5 works in shares of each structure's rated operating wind, which is in its inspection log: inform from 70 %, stand by from 85 %, cease operation and clear from 95 %. A marquee rated for 80 km/h and a pavilion rated for 40 km/h have completely different afternoons in the same wind.
Across the site the lowest clearing threshold governs. Once one structure has to be cleared, the wind is not a local problem any more.
Heat follows the DWD warning levels for perceived temperature: strong heat stress from about 32 °C, extreme from 38 °C. Thunderstorms follow the 30/30 rule: take cover when thunder follows lightning within 30 seconds, and return no earlier than 30 minutes after the last thunder.
The card carries only what applies to you. Flash floods appear if you are on a slope, falling branches in woodland, night cold where people sleep on site. A card with everything on it is one nobody reads on the day.
- Wind: IGVW SQP5; rated operating wind from the structure's inspection log (DIN EN 13782 / 13814)
- Heat: DWD heat warning levels · UV: German Federal Office for Radiation Protection
- Thunderstorms: the 30/30 rule of general lightning safety practice
Every figure with its source and review date is in the metrics register — including when it was last checked against the regulation.
Common questions
It is in the inspection log or the assembly instructions — ask the hire company before the tent goes up. Without that figure there is no defensible wind threshold, and the card says so rather than inventing one. Temporary structures over 75 m² need an inspection log anyway.
Because an automatic warning is a promise we cannot keep — and because a human makes the decision anyway. The card says who checks the forecast and how often. Less convenient, considerably more reliable.
The thresholds are triggers, not automation. More important than the exact figure is that it is settled beforehand who decides and where people go — and that this person is reachable and not simultaneously running the game.
It belongs in it. The card complements the emergency card from the safety concept assistant; weather abort criteria are their own hazards there (B-01 to B-05).
Organiser briefing
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Related tools
- Safety concept assistantA guided seven-step risk assessment, with hazard catalogue, measures plan and emergency card.
- Medical services calculatorThe Maurer scheme and the Cologne algorithm side by side — helpers, vehicles, physicians, patrol districts.
- Countdown task planFrom twelve months out to four weeks afterwards — with deadlines, owners and a link to the right tool.
Orientation value. This calculator is no substitute for talking to the licensing authority, the building inspectorate, the fire service or a qualified planner. The German states each adapt the model regulation, so what binds your event is your state's version plus the conditions in your own permit.
Figures as of: 1.0 · last reviewed: 2026-09-18