Stifling heat, storm delays: Weather extremes could impact World Cup

NEW YORK – Heat, humidity and thunderstorms are synonymous with summer in many North American regions – and in a few weeks’ time, they could also threaten the World Cup.

The 2026 edition of the tournament is being played across the US, Canada and Mexico at 16 host cities, including places accustomed to soaring summer temperatures exacerbated by stifling humidity.

Meanwhile, frequent wildfires in Canada and places like California pose air-quality risks.

There is also the possibility of thunder and lightning. In the US, summer storms often mean outdoor sporting interruptions.

Generally, a 30-minute mandatory delay follows a lightning strike within an approximately 13 to 16km radius. Every subsequent flash sets off a new half-hour pause.

The 2025 Club World Cup, which served as a dress rehearsal for the 2026 showpiece, saw six matches significantly delayed by severe weather, which scientists expect could become increasingly common as greenhouse gases continue to warm the planet.

The repeated club-tournament game delays had left some critics and coaches wondering if the US should even be hosts.

Enzo Maresca, who was manager of Chelsea at the time, called delays a “joke” that upset focus, asking whether some American cities were right to host matches in major tournaments.

Lightning carries serious risks. Deaths from direct strikes are rare, but do happen.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 444 lightning strike deaths in the US between 2006 and 2021, and most occurred during outdoor leisure activities.

Regions east of the Rocky Mountains are at the highest risk. Those areas tend to be quite humid due to warm Gulf waters, which creates moisture that can rise and form thunderstorms.

Scientists are voicing concerns that climate change might inject uncertainties into storm patterns, and perhaps create conditions that would make lightning strikes even more prevalent.

Kelsey Malloy of the University of Delaware said “we haven’t really detected strong trends yet” but overall “it is expected that lightning is going to increase” in parts of the US.

A warming climate “has been linked to heavier rainfall rates as well as stronger rising air” which “equals greater electrification of clouds, and therefore greater lightning flash rates”.

Malloy, a climate scientist, said forecasting has improved at predicting severe weather and urged fans to heed risk warnings and protocol surrounding impacted matches.

“A lot of people maybe imagine if they can’t see the storm, they can’t see the lightning, they haven’t heard the thunder yet, that they’re not in an active threat,” she told AFP.

“But lightning can strike miles away from an actual storm location.”

Ziqin Ding, a University of Florida lightning researcher, said stadiums are generally well-protected with precautions like lightning rods, metal devices meant to prevent structural damage or fires by intercepting strikes and providing a path for harmful electrical discharge to disperse.

But strikes nearby could still “cause interruption for stadium events”.

Football’s world governing body FIFA will use a few stadiums with roofs, air-conditioning or both – in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Vancouver – to ease concerns over storm delays or extreme heat.

But many are open-air.

This could spell storm delays and subject players and fans to debilitating temperatures.

During the Club World Cup in 2025, many matches were played in temperatures over 32 deg C, with humidity making it feel even hotter.

A team of climate scientists recently released a report that said “gruelling heat” could impact a quarter of slated matches, including the final in New Jersey.

FIFA has mandated cooling breaks during each half of games.

Christopher Mullington of Imperial College London said it is possible some footballers “just won’t be able to play at the intensity that they’re used to”.

Fans – many of whom might be consuming alcohol under direct exposure to the sun with heavy heat and humidity – may face even more health risks.

Mullington said that, by and large, those people “will not be elite athletes and may come with many co-morbidities that could be exacerbated by the heat.”

A group of current and former professional players led by Norway’s Morten Thorsby delivered a recent petition to FIFA describing the impacts of heat, saying “it can make you feel light-headed, dizzy, experience fatigue, muscle cramps and worse”.

They urged the body to update its World Cup heat-stress framework, a measure they insisted be coupled with “consistent climate action”.

“It would be a missed opportunity if a sport so impacted by the climate crisis doesn’t take its responsibility in addressing it,” read the open letter. AFP