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Max Weather Conditions for Ride Operation?

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Nick P

Mega Poster
Based on your own experiences at amusement parks, what's the worst weather conditions you've experienced where they still allowed ride operations for all coasters? (e.g.: Extreme downpour, light drizzle, hail, tornado, ect.)
From what I know, it varies from park to park, but I'm just curious since I'll most likely be experiencing some not so friendly weather Thursday at Kings Dominion.
 
When i was at Holiday Park in Germany last year they were running all the other rides in torrential rain and at one point i think it was hailing. It was pretty nasty riding EGF in the heavy rain
 
Onetime I went to SFNE on a wet and gross day. It was lightly drizzling throughout out most of our time their, and everything was still open. The rain started to come down a little harder some time before we left (hard enough where it kills your eyes when you're on Flashback).
 
The halting of operations in bad rain differs park to park. It usually worst impacts coasters with multiple trains. From that I conclude that it is concern with them going too fast, causing the blocks to have technical difficulties? I presume there's a standard amount of time they should take to get between sections, and if something is wrong the ride shuts down. So it's a precaution to prevent the ride breaking down and leaving guests stuck in the pouring rain, maybe. Some parks do the one train operation thing in the rain.

Seems that most manufacturers say that 4c is the lowest temp coasters should be operated at, but my guess would be that is considerably higher than the actual danger zone to allow for "well, it's ONLY .5 degrees under..." logic.

As for personal experiences... I've been on Oblivion in a lightning storm and Big One in the snow and ridiculous rain.
 
I was planning on going to KD this thursday too, but since it was scheduled for thunderstorms, which will surely shut down the rides, we rescheduled for later...
 
^ Since I'm going with a small camp group I can't reschedule. The good thing is, we will be there two days giving us Friday to mop up the creds.
 
^ also, not trying to rain on your parade (pun intended) but according to screamscape, Intimidator 305 has been closed since monday because the cable lift malfunctioned ... hopefully the weather turns out for you guys and they get I305 back up and running though!
 
****. I hope I get lucky. Even though I already have the cred, I was really looking forward to riding it again just so I can more accurately compare it to Skyrush and MF.
 
Yeah, I've done Expedition GE Force in bad rain and it was horriblefantastic. I don't think I've ever been at a UK park where they've closed rides due to extreme weather.

They do for thunderstorms though and while I was at KD, there was a storm came over and that closed the park for about 2 hours I think. Or an hour and then it took them a while to reopen everything. Something like that, we certainly had a lot of sitting around time. It was nice to see staff cleaning the trains on Grizzly and stuff though instead of just sitting around smoking and texting. That's the major difference between the UK closed rides in a thunderstorm and the US ;)
 
Intimidator is still stuck near the top of the lift. Fantastic...Let hope they fix it by tomorrow. I highly doubt it though.
 
Scarefest 2011 was ruined by torrential downpours. I don't recall Alton closing any of the coasters that evening, either. One thing I will say, Rita is bloody horrible in the rain. Never again!
 
Like Joey said, rides can operate in just about anything. The biggest concern is having enough friction on brakes to stop the train, especially in multi-train operation where blocking requires trains stop at certain points on the track.

Case in point - In the midst of a firm down pour, Magnum XL-200 slid through a brake run on Maverick's Opening Day in 2007, lightly colliding with the train ahead.

With the introduction of magnetic braking, one would imagine that operation in a downpour would be safer, as friction is no longer required. However, during OSU Day at Cedar Point this year, Cedar Point kept GateKeeper at 1 train operation through rain, just to minimize the chance of the final friction brakes/tires not stopping the train.

As for how far theme park operators are willing to go with weather, lightning is the cut off here in the U.S. Many parks will operate through a down pour, such as Six Flags. Cedar Point is notorious for ceasing operations at the spot of rain, however they have paradoxically ran all rides through rain if they know the forecast will not improve. That was the case during a Halloweekends last year, when rain was predicted for the entire day - and I finally got my trimless ride on Mean Streak!

Most severe weather I've experienced while riding would either be riding Millennium Force at that same Halloweekends - rain actually doesn't feel that great on your face going 70+ mph - or Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer when I cleverly turned a poncho around to act as a windscreen for my face.
 
Spite is the word of the day. :/ I caught a short glimpse of two workers under the lift right outside of the station next to the cable lift system. This was at approximately 1:00 PM. They were gone by 3:30-4:00. They weren't in a a rush to fix the damn thing. That's for certain. Yesterday there was no one on site. Rain wasn't an issue both days, so they shouldn't of had any work delays. This must be a pretty big problem if you ask me. The ride ops at the entrance were extremely vague. They didn't know any details except: "It's closed for the day. Are you blind? Look at the lift hill." I'm talking about i305 if you didn't know.

As for the forum topic, the worst weather I've been in where they allowed the ride to operate was torrential downpour on the Great Bear @ Hershey. This was one of the only rides operating at the time. I managed to get a ton of grease on my shirt too.
 
Nick P said:
Spite is the word of the day. :/ I caught a short glimpse of two workers under the lift right outside of the station next to the cable lift system. This was at approximately 1:00 PM. They were gone by 3:30-4:00. They weren't in a a rush to fix the damn thing. That's for certain. Yesterday there was no one on site. Rain wasn't an issue both days, so they shouldn't of had any work delays. This must be a pretty big problem if you ask me. The ride ops at the entrance were extremely vague. They didn't know any details except: "It's closed for the day. Are you blind? Look at the lift hill." I'm talking about i305 if you didn't know.

As for the forum topic, the worst weather I've been in where they allowed the ride to operate was torrential downpour on the Great Bear @ Hershey. This was one of the only rides operating at the time. I managed to get a ton of grease on my shirt too.
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that sucks...hopefully they get it fixed soon. i plan on going soon, so they better get workin!
 
I was on V2 in a drizzle once, which was bat **** crazy because I was so scared of electrocution. :lol:
 
With the introduction of magnetic braking, one would imagine that operation in a downpour would be safer, as friction is no longer required. However, during OSU Day at Cedar Point this year, Cedar Point kept GateKeeper at 1 train operation through rain, just to minimize the chance of the final friction brakes/tires not stopping the train.
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My guess is that this is more a corperate/legal "we are doing something to ensure the safety of our guests" thing than a genuine concern. So that, in the event of something happening, they can show from their records that they did everything in their power to prevent such a thing. And post incidents, they need to make it look like they've done something to prevent it happening again to those in the know, I guess?

Some parks introduce procedures directly post accidents that then fade away and get forgotten about, because the parks know full well it's stupid over-caution for a freak occurrence.

It's like that whole no more duelling on Universal's dragons thing. If that was a legitimate concern then their duelling coaster in Singapore would no longer duel. And it's the same with Cedar Fair. Apparently, only at Cedar Point is there a risk of the rare possibility of a train sliding through the breaks! At neighbouring Kings Island, it's impossible!

Speaking of which... I spent two days at CP when I went. It drizzled a bit. They closed several rides and put everything on one train. I asked an attendant at Maverick, because at the time I was genuinely oblivious, why it was down expecting them to just say "technical difficulties"... He said "cuz of the weather". It wasn't even raining, at all, at the time. I went to guest services to look for an explanation and they told me that the manufacturer guidelines state that Maverick cannot run in the rain and it MIGHT rain... I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The following day we went to Kings Island. It poured in the morning and then was drizzly, dark storm-cloud cover all day. Everything running as normal.
 
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