▲ Water cannons are sprayed toward the stands to cool off the heat during the professional baseball game between the Kiwoom Heroes and LG Twins at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on the 29th.
As record-breaking heatwaves continue, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) has decided to operate professional baseball games flexibly starting today.
The KBO announced that it will first monitor real-time weather conditions and forecasts in regions where games are held, making decisions on whether to proceed with games while placing top priority on the safety of spectators and players.
Accordingly, except for the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, the country's only dome stadium, game start times across all other stadiums can be delayed by up to one hour from the scheduled time through consultations between KBO game operations committee members and club game managers.
Particularly in regions where a severe heatwave warning has been issued, safety considerations will be taken into account to actively review not only delayed starts but also potential cancellations.
As its first decision, the KBO immediately canceled the games between the Samsung Lions and Lotte Giants in Busan, and the KIA Tigers and NC Dinos in Changin, where heatwave advisories were in effect today.
The KBO office explained that severe heatwave warnings had been issued for the Busan and Changwon areas starting yesterday, and the cancellations were decided based on forecasts that temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius (99°F) or higher would persist even at the scheduled game times.
The KBO league regulations stipulate that decisions on whether to cancel games should be made based on weather conditions such as strong winds, heatwaves, fog, fine dust, and yellow dust.
Looking specifically at the heatwave provisions, an advisory is issued when a daily high temperature of 33 degrees Celsius (91°F) or higher is expected to persist for two or more days, while a warning is issued when a daily high temperature of 35 degrees Celsius (95°F) or higher is expected to persist for two or more days.
When a weather warning or higher is issued, the KBO game operations committee member before the game starts, or the umpire after the game begins, checks with the Korea Meteorological Administration to decide whether to cancel the game.
The severe heatwave warning newly established by the Korea Meteorological Administration this year is issued in areas where the highest sensible temperature remains at 35 degrees Celsius (95°F) or higher for two consecutive days, and either the highest sensible temperature reaches 38 degrees Celsius (100°F) or higher or the highest temperature reaches 39 degrees Celsius (102°F) or higher.
Heatwave warnings are currently in effect across all regions of Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongsangnam-do, and a severe heatwave warning has been issued for Changwon in particular since July 30.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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