Thunderstorm

[shawnofthedead]

What happens at Kings Island during a thunderstom? Do they close the park? what do they do?

[Adventuro]

First close SC, then close all the tall rides and water rides, and then everything else. They almost never completely close the park. Soak City is evacuated and then closed

[amandagail13]

I'd like to know this since I'm going tomorrow... I'd assume if it's spotty they don't.

Edit:

I just called. They said that Soak City shuts down in heavy rain. Rides start shutting down thunder/lightning. If it begins to storm then everything is shut down, You can leave or just see a show.

[Coaster.Rider.Kings Island]

Ususally in severe weather they just close the rides until the the thunderstorm passes.

[Adventuro]

The way it works is if there is any weather at all in the area, any rain or lightning anywhere near they will close anything tall, and anything with water

[Adventuro]

And once it's gone it reopens. However, if it is past 5pm Soak City does not reopen if its been closed. So if you park over there you won't be able to get out through soak

[shawnofthedead]

Thank you very much!

[KI-ORIG-EMP]

Just like it has been mentioned on the other posts, during thunderstorms and lightning, all of the outside rides shut down for safety until they pass. If there is lightning within a certain amount of miles, the rides shut down. There is plenty to do during this time, browse in the shops, have a bite to eat and take in a show or two. About the only time that I have known the park to close due to severe weather was a few years back when severe winds blew through the area and knocked down lots of trees and power in the area. I remember the tall trees being almost blown over and one of the umbrellas out side being bent in a 45 degree angle. There were lots of areas that had power out for long periods of time. Also, roofers made out like bandits repairing and replacing roofs from that wind storm.

[BB1]

And once it's gone it reopens. However, if it is past 5pm Soak City does not reopen if its been closed. So if you park over there you won't be able to get out through soak

That my friend, is a lie.

BB1, who knows his facts

[Adventuro]

And once it's gone it reopens. However, if it is past 5pm Soak City does not reopen if its been closed. So if you park over there you won't be able to get out through soak

That my friend, is a lie.

BB1, who knows his facts

Which part do you think is a lie?

[amandagail13]

Well I was there yesterday and they closed the rides down everytime there was a drizzle. So I guess the rides cannot operate in the rain? I was checking the forecast on my phone and it said that there was no thunderstorm threats or lightening each time. I just waited it out in line.

[Creed Bratton]

Well I was there yesterday and they closed the rides down everytime there was a drizzle. So I guess the rides cannot operate in the rain? I was checking the forecast on my phone and it said that there was no thunderstorm threats or lightening each time. I just waited it out in line.

Unfortunately rides do close during rain only at the park, but there are other factors that go into that. It's not completely caused by the rain. Sometimes it's caused by lighting within a certain radius, so even though you didn't see any marks on the forecast on your phone, the park has a more powerful radar that checks things like that.

[BB1]

And once it's gone it reopens. However, if it is past 5pm Soak City does not reopen if its been closed. So if you park over there you won't be able to get out through soak

That my friend, is a lie.

BB1, who knows his facts

Which part do you think is a lie?

The five o' clock deal, they re-open after five, even yesterday they did.

BB1, who has his times and regulations for a place that he goes to every day practically.

[KI FANATIC 37]

I thought coasters just ran a one train operation in the rain?

[zombiejane]

I thought they didn't shut down for rain alone.

It rained last year on mothers day and the rides were still open.

[thedevariouseffect]

Some rides go one train op, some have to shutdown. It depends on each individual ride, for instance my main ride Corkscrew can run one train op in a bit of rain, not heavy rain, however Gemini cannot run in ANY rain, not even a drop, as soon as it rains, get all the people off, call the ride down. The reason depends on their safety systems/failsafes/redundancy per every ride. I'm not sure also but at CP we can transfer off/on our own units as we need to, I think KI needs supervision to do so, not entirely sure but I've never seen them out on the transfers alone doing their own work, but not certain.

[Screaming_Chicken]

I've been at Kings Island during some really nasty storms, Once they closed the park because of a Tornado Warning my family and I had to bolt to my truck. It was extremely terrifying. The clouds were a crazy mixture of light green,purple, black and gray! The clouds were so low, that day was very freaky it stormed all the way back to Dayton.Also, another time it started Hailing on us and we left the park. It happens.

[KI FANATIC 37]

I've never been in a storm at KI, but I was in an awful downpour at Carowinds lat year. We got completely drenched, but at least we got some good hours in the park.

[teenageninja]

This may be old information, so correct me if I am wrong.

No coaster at KI can ride ops take trains off. If the storm will be short (i.e. pop up) they will probably just take the ride down until the storm passes. If the storm is long lasting, maintenance will go around the park and take trains off the rides.

Also, if there is very heavy thunderstorms and attendance is low enough, they will close the park, but this is EXTREMELY rare.

[thedevariouseffect]

^Brought this up earlier. I don't think they can like we can. If we're told to go down and go back up one train, we can set gates to close, get the previous riders off of the trains, dispatch empty and transfer off. Then after transfer is complete we can call back up with one/two trains depending on the ride. Transferring trains isn't hard, especially for some coasters like DB...lol a fool could transfer on or off for that ride. Only ride I could see maint. having to come out for is Top Gun (even we can't transfer that train off as it's a tedious transfer), and maybe Vortex being a little bit more intuitive if the PLC is like mine, our brakes are controlled manually so parking it right can be tricky, especially in rain if you're new to transferring off trains.

[amandagail13]

Well I was there yesterday and they closed the rides down everytime there was a drizzle. So I guess the rides cannot operate in the rain? I was checking the forecast on my phone and it said that there was no thunderstorm threats or lightening each time. I just waited it out in line.

Unfortunately rides do close during rain only at the park, but there are other factors that go into that. It's not completely caused by the rain. Sometimes it's caused by lighting within a certain radius, so even though you didn't see any marks on the forecast on your phone, the park has a more powerful radar that checks things like that.

Ahh, that makes sense.

They didn't close the water rides though. Which, with a lightening threat, shouldn't they have closed first?

[thedevariouseffect]

Again each ride has a different safety system and policy/procedure...

[Creed Bratton]

^Brought this up earlier. I don't think they can like we can. If we're told to go down and go back up one train, we can set gates to close, get the previous riders off of the trains, dispatch empty and transfer off. Then after transfer is complete we can call back up with one/two trains depending on the ride. Transferring trains isn't hard, especially for some coasters like DB...lol a fool could transfer on or off for that ride. Only ride I could see maint. having to come out for is Top Gun (even we can't transfer that train off as it's a tedious transfer), and maybe Vortex being a little bit more intuitive if the PLC is like mine, our brakes are controlled manually so parking it right can be tricky, especially in rain if you're new to transferring off trains.

You are correct, rides with multiple trains must be put to bed by maintenance. The only one that I've seen with Ride Ops taking the train off was Beast, however, maintenance was there with them. Unfortunately, we were unable to transfer trains off of Diamondback.

[thedevariouseffect]

Ugh any lol...its way too easy on any b&m to transfer on or off...only pain to transfer is an occasional intamin, and moving manual arrow trains...b&ms are just a bunch of jogging and move transfers left and right haha

[Creed Bratton]

I stood with the maintenance guys on the transfer track a few times at the end of the night. We were told we were unable to take the trains off Diamondback because of the open end on the back end of the transfer shed.

[thedevariouseffect]

Lol too funny

[TheCrypt]

Ugh any lol...its way too easy on any b&m to transfer on or off...only pain to transfer is an occasional intamin, and moving manual arrow trains...b&ms are just a bunch of jogging and move transfers left and right haha

You would know this how? As far as I'm aware, you've only worked Corkscrew and a handful of flat rides at Cedar Point.

[thedevariouseffect]

Lol the rides listed are my main rides that I worked a great deal of the season (like my fridays for halloweekends were power tower, ect). I've worked practically everything in Area 2 (corkscrews back to Monster and the other side all the way to frontier trail). The only ride I didn't get a good chance to work was Iron Dragon, but eh, that's fine lol. Also just because I haven't worked them doesn't mean I don't know about operating em...Being an enthusiast I got to ask lots of questions and talk to people at other rides.

But anyways I have worked Mantis, and that ride is a joke of a transfer lol. Once transfer mode is enabled on main controls it's literally move track left, right, ect, then from there it jogs and brakes on it's own, then move the track back, done, turn off transfer enable on the main control panel.