About DelayClock
When a game stops for lightning, everyone asks the same thing: when does it come back? The scoreboard apps just say "Delayed." DelayClock works out the earliest possible answer and counts down to it.
The rule we're timing
College football's lightning policy is mechanical. Play stops when lightning is detected within about 8 miles of the stadium, and it can't resume until 30 minutes have passed with no new strike inside that circle. Every new strike resets the 30 minutes. So the earliest restart isn't a judgment call — it follows from where and when the lightning struck, and that information is public.
Where the data comes from
NOAA's GOES weather satellites carry an instrument called the Geostationary Lightning Mapper, which records every lightning flash over the Americas and publishes it every 20 seconds. We read those files as they land — typically within half a minute — and measure each flash's distance from the stadium. GOES-East covers most of the country; GOES-West covers the Pacific and mountain states.
For every outdoor FBS game, from two hours before kickoff until the final whistle, we run a clock:
• A flash inside 8 miles starts a 30-minute hold. Another one restarts it.
• Flashes between 8 and 15 miles show as a storm nearby, but don't move the clock.
• Thirty minutes with nothing inside 8 miles is our all-clear.
ESPN's feed tells us which games are on, when one is marked delayed, when a new kickoff time is announced, and when play resumes. It never says why a game is delayed or when it will restart, which is the gap this site fills.
How accurate is it?
Closer than we expected, and not perfect. Both are worth knowing.
North Carolina at Clemson, September 19, 2026. The satellite placed strikes 7.3, 6.7 and 4.5 miles from Memorial Stadium between 2:54 and 2:57 PM. Play stopped at 2:58. The storm sat over the stadium for two hours; the last strike inside 8 miles came at 4:56:46 PM, putting our all-clear at 5:26:46. The first snap after the delay was at 5:27:04 — 18 seconds later, after a 149-minute delay.
The same afternoon at South Carolina, officials cleared the game about six minutes before our clock ran out. The last strike we counted was 5.9 miles away by our measurement; their sensors evidently put it outside the circle, or didn't count it at all.
That second case is the honest limit. Stadiums use ground-based lightning networks that locate cloud-to-ground strikes to within a few hundred yards. A satellite sees all flashes, including ones that stay inside the cloud, and locates them to within a few miles. So treat our time as "about," expect it to be off by a strike either way now and then, and know that officials make the call, not us.
After the all-clear
What happens next depends on whether the game had started.
Mid-game delay: teams usually come back out and warm up while the clock runs down, and play resumes right as it expires — at Clemson, within seconds. If you're in the concourse, the moment to head back is before the clock hits zero.
Delayed kickoff: a new start time gets announced, well after the all-clear. On September 19 the two we tracked kicked off 36 and 70 minutes later. We show the announced time as soon as it's set.
What it can't tell you
• Whether it is safe to be outside. DelayClock is not a safety tool. Follow stadium staff and officials, always.
• Delays for rain, wind, or anything that isn't lightning. If a game is delayed and we show no lightning, that's why.
• Whether a game will be postponed or called. That's a decision, not a measurement.
• Games in domed stadiums (we skip them) or outside the Americas (the satellites can't see them).
Text alerts
Coming soon: for $1, texts for one delayed game — when the clock resets, 10 minutes before the all-clear, at the all-clear, and when play resumes. No subscription. The site itself is free and stays free.
Common questions
The clock was almost at zero and jumped back to 30:00. Why? A new strike landed inside 8 miles. The chart on the game's page shows each one, and how far away it was.
ESPN says delayed, but you show "Clear." Either the delay isn't for lightning, or the all-clear has passed and the teams are warming up.
You show a lightning hold, but the game is still being played. Our 8-mile line and the officials' aren't in exactly the same place. A hold on our board means a delay is likely, not certain.
Do you cover the NFL, baseball, high school? Not yet — college football's top division for now. The same rule and the same satellites apply elsewhere, so it's a matter of time.
Do you track me? No cookies, no ad trackers, no accounts. We count page views. Privacy.
Is this connected to betting? No. No odds, no picks, no sportsbook links.
Who makes it
DelayClock was built on September 19, 2026 — during the North Carolina–Clemson lightning delay, by someone who wanted to know when the game was coming back. It is run by The Barrett Group LLC and is not affiliated with any team, conference, league, broadcaster, ESPN, or NOAA. Lightning data: NOAA GOES-East and GOES-West Geostationary Lightning Mapper, public domain.
Questions, corrections, or a game we got wrong: help@delayclock.com.