Check Six

Weather is such a huge part of living in the midwest.  Average folks with no interest in climate change, hydrology or anything that resembles science subscribe to 3 or 4 weather sites, follow a meteorologist like a religious guru, have NWS or Weather.com on their phone, and know the minute of multiple radio or TV forecasts.
Only in the upper midwest will you find people who know about derechos, dew points, wall clouds, uplift, and who can read a radar plot and base their activities on what's coming.

And so there we were - out on the lake for a leisurely set of level 4 intervals with 10 athletes.  I knew the storm was supposed to hit the area, but looking at the radar, looking at the storm track, and at the ground speed, I figured we had until about 6:30 or maybe even 7:00 to get off the water...

Wrong...

Fighter pilots have an expression "check six" - meaning to look to see what's on your tail (the 6:00 position on a clock face).  It applies to any outdoor sport as well.  Look behind you, or move away from the shore to see what the sky may be bringing.  In our case, a quick look at our '6' suggested the storm had picked up speed as it moved toward the metro!

We started hearing thunder and seeing distant lightning at 5:30.  We were already off the water for a team meeting, so we weren't heading back out in any case.  Ten minutes later, the gust front hit, and raindrops started to fall.  Fortunately it wasn't really windy.  We caught a ride back to the cars, and came back down to pick up boats.  All the time, it was raining 1-2" per hour!  And just as a bonus, we had the K4 out on the water.  Hint - to transport a K-4 on top of a Suburban, use a long ladder as a rack extender. It still sticks out a couple of feet on either end (ok, more than a couple of feet), but it will get the job done for around the neighborhood.  And who says Mother Nature doesn't have a sense of humor?  We got everything put away, and as I headed home, the rain stopped, the storm had moved through, and the sun was thinking about making an appearance.

At the end of the day, I looked back at the process.  We stayed within our safety margins, took appropriate action to get athletes and equipment off the water *before* the squall hit, and executed a bailout plan.
What would have happened if we'd gotten caught out?  Always have a contingency plan.  We have half a dozen specific houses along the lake, plus two park buildings, that are 'safety points' for weather (or other) emergencies.  At worst, you'd have a bunch of paddlers huddled under the porch waiting for rain to stop.  Someone will usually have a phone you can use to call backup transport.  I should probably get a waterproof cell phone with a keypad.  My very smart android phone is just about useless with water on the faceplate.  And when all else fails, hunker down.  Midwest storms rarely last more than an hour.

And always - check six.