Is it too hot for practice?
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School sports heat policies by state
What your state’s school sports association says about heat, in plain words, with a link to its document where we could confirm one.
Two answers, and which one binds you
This is the part that trips people up. At the same reading, our guidance may say cancel while your association’s table lists a shorter, modified session. Both can be right: they answer different questions. Your state association publishes a policy for its member schools and its region’s athletes. Ours is a general heat-stress screening recommendation that doesn’t know your league.
So we show both. Where we have your state’s policy on file, the app shows it beside our reading, with the association’s own levels where it publishes a statewide table, and a link to its document. Follow the policy that binds you, and let the stricter number inform how carefully you run the session. Every state is summarized on one page: school sports heat policies by state.
Why athletic thresholds are regional
A single national cut-off would be wrong in both directions. Athletes in consistently hot regions are acclimatized in a way athletes in cooler ones are not, and the research behind the modern policies reflects that, which is why cancellation thresholds differ by several degrees of WBGT across states that all consider themselves cautious.
Our guidance therefore leads with the conservative case: it flags that cooler-region or unacclimatized athletes should stop earlier, and treats the Extreme tier as cancel-for-everyone. If your association publishes a threshold, that number is more specific to you than ours is.
Planning a session rather than reacting to one
Heat stress moves through the day in a predictable arc, so move the session to a cooler hour and ease what you run in it. The live map scrubs hour by hour so you can see when the window opens, and a custom report covers a tournament or a camp week in one shareable document.
What the number cannot see
In June 2026 the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee wrote that the recommended heat guidelines (WBGT scales, uniform reduction, acclimatization periods, hydration) have been “insufficient in preventing fatality,” because none of them account for how hard athletes are working or for the linemen most at risk. In the review behind that paper, every high school and college football heat stroke death from 1998 to 2018 happened during sustained, high-intensity conditioning, 97% of them in linemen, usually in the first week.
NFHS still says to keep using WBGT scales with practice modifications, and so do we: that is what this page is for. But read the number here as the environment you are working in, and treat the intensity of the session, especially for linemen in that first week, as the decision that matters more. See why exertion matters for linemen.
Not a substitute for your association’s policy or an on-site reading. Where a rule requires a measured WBGT, that measurement governs. Have an emergency action plan, cold-water immersion available, and treat suspected exertional heat stroke as an emergency.
What to do at each level
| Level | WBGT | Guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Low | Below 64.4°F | Normal practice: low risk. Normal practice, no restrictions; keep water available at all times. |
| Caution | 64.4 to under 73.4°F | Normal practice: hydrate, watch at-risk players. Normal practice; give 3+ rest/water breaks per hour (≥3 min) and watch unacclimatized players. |
| Moderate | 73.4 to under 82.4°F | Use discretion; add rest breaks. Use discretion for intense or prolonged exercise; 3–4 rest breaks per hour (≥4 min); watch at-risk athletes closely. |
| High | 82.4 to under 89.6°F | Shorten practice; strip heavy gear. Cap practice at 1–2 h; cut intensity and remove heavy or insulating gear; 4+ breaks/hour (~40 work / 20 rest). Football: helmet and shoulder pads only, then all pads off. Cooler-region or unacclimatized athletes should cancel, as low as ~87.8 °F. |
| Extreme | 89.6 to under 95°F | Cancel outdoor practice. Cancel outdoor practice: no workouts or walk-throughs. (All cooler regions have already canceled below this.) |
| Lethal | 95°F+ | All outdoor activity canceled. All outdoor activity canceled: no exceptions. |
Screening guidance shown for an acclimatized person at moderate workload. Add your own situation in the app for a personalized read: it only ever makes the guidance stricter, never looser.
Common questions
What WBGT is too hot for practice?
It depends on where you are, and that is not a hedge. Athletic heat policies are regional by design: a cooler-acclimatized region cancels at a WBGT that a hot-climate region still practices in, because the athletes are differently adapted. Many US states have their own high-school policy with specific thresholds, when we know yours, we show it beside our guidance rather than instead of it.
Why does your guidance differ from my state's policy?
Because they answer different questions. Ours is a general heat-stress screening recommendation drawn from sports-medicine guidance. Your state association publishes a policy for its member schools, and whatever your school, district or league has adopted from it is the rule you are actually held to. Follow the policy that binds you, and treat a stricter reading here as a reason for extra caution rather than a conflict.
Do I still need an on-site WBGT device?
If your state or association requires an on-site reading to set or modify activity, yes: that measurement is the one the rule rests on, and our modeled value does not substitute for it. Use this to plan the session, pick the time, and know what to expect before you get there.
Why is the start of the season the most dangerous part?
Because heat adaptation takes one to two weeks, and preseason arrives before anyone has it. Athletes are fit but not heat-adapted, and fitness is not a substitute. Football's heat-stroke deaths cluster almost entirely in sustained, high-intensity conditioning in that window, so run the acclimatization protocol and pace the conditioning itself.
What about football pads and other gear?
Equipment that covers skin blocks evaporation, which is the body's main cooling route, so the same conditions are harder in full pads than in shorts and a shirt. Most policies step gear down before they cancel outright: pads off, then helmets off, then practice shortened, then canceled. Linemen heat faster and cool slower, so ease their conditioning first.
Other audiences
Asphalt runs far hotter than the air. Check the ground temperature where you are before you walk.
Work/rest guidance from the live heat-stress reading, for crews, supervisors and safety officers.
Flag conditions and work/rest cycles from the live WBGT, for military and first-responder training.