This site reads a government forecast and computes a WBGT for your ZIP code. Whether that number may BE your state's reading is a different question from whether it is useful, and the answer changes at the state line. Here is what each of the twelve associations we have read actually says.
The VHSL writes the split into its guidelines, and it is the split this whole site is built on. On forecasting tools: Forecasting tools, including online resources and/or mobile “apps” can be used to better anticipate if/when activity modifications may be required. And then the line: While these services can provide guidance for planning purposes, they should never replace the “real-time” evaluation of environmental conditions on-site at the activity location. Its reason is the one every remote estimate has: Weather forecasts tend be generalized over a large area, can and do change frequently, and ultimately may not be specific for the athletic venue.
That is the honest description of what this page's number is for. It plans, it warns, it gets a conversation started the night before. In most of these states it is not the reading anyone signs.
| State | Can a web reading be the reading? |
|---|---|
| CA | A web reading is named |
| FL | The instrument decides |
| GA | The instrument decides |
| IA | On site is the named method |
| KY | The instrument decides |
| MA | The instrument decides |
| NC | On site is the named method |
| NY | On site is the named method |
| SC | The instrument decides |
| TN | On site is the named method |
| TX | A web reading is named |
| VA | On site is the named method |
Texas is the clearest. UIL treats the internet lane as a first-class method with the same cadence as a meter, and its FAQ says so plainly: Schools may utilize a scientifically approved on-site instrument or an approved internet-based WBGT forecasting resource. What UIL does NOT publish is a list of approved resources, or a definition of "approved" — so which resource satisfies it is still your district's call.
California is the other, and it is narrower than it looks. CIF requires a WBGT and then tells schools without one where to go: Schools without a WBGT should use the link below from the NOAA for a WBGT reading It names one specific NOAA page. That is a government map, not app readings in general, and not this page.
In these states the reading is an object at the venue. Georgia and South Carolina say so about phone apps in one flat sentence each; Massachusetts mandates the instrument "at each activity"; Florida's is statutory, and fixes not just the device but the place — the five variables must be measured at the site of the athletic activity. Nothing computed from a forecast satisfies any of them.
Iowa, Tennessee, North Carolina, New York and Virginia all describe a reading taken where the activity is, in the language of recommendation. They get there differently, and the differences matter. Iowa tells schools flatly that local forecasts and phone apps do not give an accurate temperature for their venue. Tennessee permits a phone app — but for heat index only, only at the site, and only as a last resort when no instrument is available; never for WBGT. North Carolina simply never offers a remote route: it names a scientifically approved device and stops. New York's WBGT chart is read with an indicator on the field. Virginia lets a forecast plan and forbids it from replacing the on-site evaluation. In none of them is a looked-up WBGT the reading the document means.
KHSAA's matrix is read column by column, and the columns disagree with each other. Anyone quoting one of these sentences as Kentucky's rule is quoting a third of it.
We file Kentucky under the strictest of the three, because that is the one a football program is held to and because guessing permissively is the failure this site exists to prevent.
NYSPHSAA is the one association here that tells schools to look a reading up remotely: Enter zip code or city and state in the location section of the app or on-line or determine the THI by using a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Indicator. Read quickly, that sounds like permission for a page like this one. It is not. The number WeatherBug returns there is a heat index, and the same bullet gives the WBGT alternative as an indicator on the field: Schools may also use a Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Indicator (see chart below) on the field that will be used. Two scales, two methods, one document. A WBGT threshold read with a heat index number is wrong in both directions, and this is the state where that mistake is easiest to make.
Thirty-eight states are not on this list, and for most of them we have not read a primary document. When the tool cannot match your state it falls back to the NATA position statement, which sets thresholds and names no measurement method at all. Treat that as unanswered rather than as a yes, and ask your association.
In two of these twelve states a web reading is something the association has written down. In the other ten, this site plans and communicates and the instrument decides. That is not a disclaimer bolted on the end — it is what the documents say, and it is why every flag on this site carries the same line about verifying on site.
Every sentence quoted above was read from the association's own document on the date shown, not from a summary of it.
wbgtcheck.com is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the UIL, GHSA, NFHS, NATA, or any state athletic association.
Associations revise these rules — if this page cites an edition that has been superseded, we want to know. Report a correction