Heavy Rain & Lightning Cancel Florida Football Game

The Florida Gators were poised to kickoff their 2014 football season by playing Idaho at home last night. Unfortunately, just before the scheduled 7 p.m. kickoff, a thunderstorm approached Gainesville and multiple lightning strikes were seen within an eight-mile radius of their stadium, “The Swamp.” College football rules state that a game must be suspended for thirty minutes after each lightning strike.

After the game was delayed, The Swamp lived up to its name as slow moving thunderstorms continued to pound the stadium. 1.81″ of rainfall was recorded at the Gainesville Airport and a Tampa meteorologist estimates that around three inches of rain fell at the stadium itself.

Lightning strikes delayed the game for 2 hours 48 minutes, and the game was actually allowed to kick off at 9:50pm EST. Check out this video of the opening kickoff on a very muddy field:

This would be the only play of the game last night, as another lightning strike delayed the game again when the offense was getting ready to take their first snap. 40 minutes later, the game was cancelled due to additional lightning strikes and poor field conditions. Officials made a good call as thunderstorms continued until nearly midnight last night. Had the game been played on the waterlogged field, players would have risked injury and significant damage would have been done to the field.

It’s not often that the weather causes a Division I football game to get cancelled and the last time the Florida Gators saw this happen was in 2004, when Hurricane Frances cancelled their home game against MTSU. University officials will make a call later this week in determining if the Florida vs. Idaho game will be rescheduled or not.