Missouri State Fair prepares for weather threats with safety plan
The Missouri State Fair is underway in Sedalia from August 7th through the 17th, and safety is a big priority. Around 350,000 people are expected to visit the fair, and officials have safety plans in place in case of bad weather.
Jason Moore, the director of the Missouri State Fair, says the fair coordinates with the National Weather Service and the Missouri State Highway Patrol to make their decisions. "There's an action plan in place for certain threats that we get to, whether that be wind, rain, that sort of thing." Jason says, "We've got a lot of buildings, obviously, that people can go in just to get out of the casual rain, but we do have some storm shelters here in our campground to help keep our campers safe and secure."
The safety plan is flexible, with infrastructure limitations taken into account. That covers things like concert stages and, this year, the world's largest rubber duck. "Our grandstand stage, the stage rigging and things like that, it's about a 45-mile-an-hour wind that I can have riggers up there if we need to take that thing down." Jason says, "Uniquely enough, this year we've got the world's largest rubber duck, believe it or not. I love seeing people's faces when I say that."
Fair officials coordinate with the National Weather Service to make their safety decisions. Alex Crowell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Kansas City, relays that information directly from the state fair.
Alex has access to radar and model data at the fairgrounds, but the safety decisions are ultimately made by fair officials. "They take that weather information to then make the decision on how they want to keep the people here safe," Alex says.
Scattered rain chances are possible over the weekend at the fair, but heat will also be a concern. A triple-digit heat index is expected on Friday and Saturday, while the heat remains in the 90s through next week.
