Winter Weather Information

During the winter, weather conditions may cause some activities or even some facilities to close.  Typically facilities will make every reasonable attempt to stay open and generally can do so as long as the building is accessible and utilities are working properly.  Generally decisions will be made by 7:30a for morning programs, 10:30a for afternoon programs and 4:00p for evening programs.  Cancellations will be posted on our website, weather page, on Facebook, and when time permits communicated via email when these situations occur.  You are encouraged to check these sources first before calling our office as call volumes can be high during those times.   If this is a Beyond the Bell or Preschool Program, please assume your program is cancelled when school cancels.

Onsite Activities

Some activities may also be cancelled due to inclement weather.  Depending upon the activity, the Huntley Park District will make every reasonable attempt to reschedule the missed activities or provide a refund if appropriate.  Some factors that are considered when determining if activities will be cancelled due to inclement winter weather include, but may not be limited to the following:  General accessibility of the roads/snow accumulation, status of building utilities, or staff availability due to these challenges.

Seedlings Preschool and Beyond the Bell

For activities such as Seedlings Preschool and Beyond the Bell (before and after school care), when District 158 school is cancelled these programs will be cancelled for the day (snow day).  This year District 158 has adopted an e-Learning option for "snow days" and during these days Beyond the Bell and Preschool is not available.  You should treat this as you would have treated any other snow day in the past.  If District 158 decides for a late start, AM Beyond the Bell and Seedlings Preschool are cancelled. Activities will resume on the next regularly scheduled District 158 school day.

Offsite Activities

Huntley Park District partners with several recreation providers including Canlan Ice Arena, Royalty Gymnastics, Platinum Farms, Tot Rock (LITH) that are held offsite.  We also make use of School District 158 Gymnasiums for basketball programs as well.  We will work with these providers during inclement weather days to determine if their facilities are open or closed.  Situations may occur where these off-site activities are running, or not running, which may be different than internal program held at, and by, the Huntley Park District.

Activity Status

Huntley Park District uses a platform called Rainout Line to communicate changes in programming due to weather. This is particularly important to outdoor sports programming, Stingray Bay activities, special events, and even Emergency Communications. You can simply search for “Rainout Line” in the app store of your mobile device. Once downloaded you can follow the directions to find Huntley Park District, setup up app alerts, and you can even setup text and/or email alerts to your favorite activities. All sports changes due to weather will be communicated here exclusively. For those that prefer to call a weather hotline, an updated message is also generated through the system any time a status changes. You can call (847) 580-1275 to hear the current status. You can also go to the main Huntley Park District Rainout Line Page to add things like text and/or email alerts as well.  Clicking on this link from your mobile phone should prompt your device to download the app.

For most outdoor sports program, the decision will be made by 4:00p that day.  Please don't call the office or email.  All communications regarding sports status will be communicated here to all parties to ensure efficient and consistent communication.  In some instances the weather will look good at 4:00p and the program supervisor will leave the discretion to the coaches.  Parents should also use their judgement and if weather changes, please make the decision that is best for your child on their participation that day.

Lightning Warning System and Weather Station

Huntley Park District has uses a lightning warning system at Stingray Bay/Deicke Park, Tomaso Sports Park, and the Public Works Soccer Fields. This system warns of actual lightning strikes within a 10-mile radius of the park. When lightning is detected, you will hear a 15-second blast and strobe lights will begin to flash on the unit at the park. When this occurs, ALL outdoor activities should cease, and all persons should seek shelter in a permanent building or vehicle immediately. Activities may only be resumed once the system has indicated the “all clear” with three – 5 second horn blasts and the strobe lights will stop flashing. There is a minimum period of 30 minutes if the system goes into alarm before it will be all clear. You can visually see the lightning and the current "countdown timer" as conditions change.  Each time a lightning strike happens within a 10-mile radius, the timer will reset to 30 minutes.

The Huntley Park District also has its own weather station located in the center of Deicke Park/Stingray Bay/Warring Park.  This temperature, "feels like" reading (wind chill/heat index), and wind speed and direction are displayed as well.