CROMWELL, Conn. — A five day golf event in New England like this week's Travelers Championship rarely goes off without some type of weather disruption.
Given it’s an entirely outdoor event, like all golf tournaments, severe weather is always top of mind for organizers. That’s where Joe Halvorson, a meteorologist for DTN Weather consulting the PGA Tour, comes in.
“When I first became a meteorologist, I never knew this type of role even existed,” Halvorson said.
Halvorson is the on-site meteorologist this week. He’s forecasted from more than 200 tournaments over 10 years.
“Full time for us is 26 full weeks. That’s flying in on Monday and flying home either the next Monday, or to another tournament,” Halvorson said.
Lightning is usually the biggest threat to an outdoor sporting event. Major League Baseball likely confronts the most lightning issues of any professional sport, given the frequency of games.
For the PGA Tour, lightning within eight miles is enough to trigger a delay, but it depends on the speed and intensity of an approaching storm.
Traveling with the meteorologist on the tour each week is an important piece of equipment, called an electric field meter. It measures the electric field charge in the atmosphere, and can give a hint for potential lightning before strikes develop.
Halvorson will be in the office consulting the officials through the duration of the event.
While tracking severe weather is an important part of the job, officials also use the day-to-day forecasts to decide how the course will be set up for play.
The wind speed and direction predicted can impact where tees set up on some holes.
Rain is another factor.
“If I forecast heavy rain, which we have the potential here in the next few days, the rules officials that are setting up the golf course may not put the hole on a low-lying spot of the green, just because we know there’s the potential for flooding should we get a heavy downpour,” he added.
While the heat has the attention of fans planning to attend, the players are generally used to encountering days when the heat index approaches 100 degrees.
The information Halvorson provides does help the Travelers Championship plan for the need for water, cooling stations and more to make the experience as positive as possible for the tens of thousands in attendance.
Once the Travelers Championship wraps up for Halvorson and the DTN Weather meteorologists, it’s on to the next event, in another city and state with an entirely different climate.
Ryan Breton is a meteorologist at FOX61 News. He can be reached at rbreton@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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