The Weather Stop-vs-Go Decision Tree

Why this matters

Weather kills field workers every year, and almost always when someone decided the job was worth pushing through it. Lightning, heat, ice, and wind do not care about your schedule. The conservative call is the right call: when the weather crosses a safety line, you stop, and you do not restart until it clears. A delayed job is recoverable. A lightning strike or a heat collapse is not. This is the tree for the calls that come up most.

Start here: is anyone exposed to a serious weather hazard right now?

Run the worst case first. If conditions are dangerous, you stop now and sort out the schedule later. You never bargain with weather while people are exposed. When in doubt on any branch below, the answer is stop.

If there is lightning or it is building

Lightning is the clearest stop call there is, and the one people fudge the most because the storm "is not here yet."

• If you hear thunder, the storm is already close enough to strike. Get off roofs, ladders, and elevated work, away from metal and water, and into a substantial building or a hard-topped vehicle.
• Wait out the full all-clear after the last thunder before going back up. The strikes at the edge of a storm, before it arrives and after it seems to pass, are the ones that get people.
• Do not finish "just this last bit" on a roof with a storm coming. That sentence is in too many incident reports.

There is no version of roof or elevated work that is worth a lightning risk. None.

If it is extreme heat

Heat does not announce itself with a bang, which is why it sneaks up and drops people.

• Know the early signs in yourself and the crew: heavy sweating then clammy skin, headache, dizziness, nausea, cramps, or someone getting quiet and sloppy.
• Build in water and shade breaks before anyone is struggling, not after. Hydrate ahead of the heat, not in response to it.
• If someone shows signs of heat illness, stop them, cool them, get fluids in. If they stop sweating, get confused, or pass out, that is a medical emergency: call for help and cool them aggressively. That is heat stroke and it can kill fast.
• On the worst days, shift heavy work to the cool hours or stop. Pacing is a safety tool, not weakness.

If it is cold, ice, or snow

• Ice turns every surface into a fall hazard, especially ladders, roofs, and steps. If footing is not reliable, elevated work waits.
• Watch the crew for cold injury: numb or white fingers and toes, shivering that will not stop, confusion. Get them warm.
• Frozen ground and hidden ice under snow are tripping and slipping traps with a load in your hands. Clear the path or pick a different one.

If it is high wind

• Wind plus height is a stop. A gust can take a person off a ladder or roof and can turn sheet material into a sail.
• Stop work involving anything large and flat, anything overhead that could blow loose, and anything where balance at height matters.
• Lower and secure ladders and gear before they become projectiles.

If it is "borderline" and you are tempted to push

This is where most bad calls live: not the obvious storm, but the marginal day where stopping feels like overreacting.

• Default to caution. The cost of stopping early is a little lost time. The cost of guessing wrong on weather can be a life.
• Take the conservative read of the forecast, not the hopeful one. Watch the sky yourself; forecasts lag reality.
• If any one person on the crew is genuinely uneasy about the conditions, that is enough to pause and look. Honor it.
• Tell the customer plainly: weather makes this unsafe right now, we will be back. A good customer gets it. Their job is not worth your crew.

The lines that never bend

• Thunder means off the roof and out of the open, full stop.
• Heat-stroke signs are a medical emergency, not a tough-it-out moment.
• Unreliable footing means no elevated work.
• Wind plus height means stop.
• Borderline gets the cautious call, every time.

References

• OSHA guidance on heat illness prevention and outdoor work hazards
• National Weather Service lightning safety guidance (when-thunder-roars practice)
• Trade-standard cold-stress and high-wind work-stoppage practice
• See related: The Unfamiliar Jobsite Hazard Walk; Reporting an Injury: Do It Now