If you’re in the Nehoiden Golf Club area on Tuesday, March 19, 8am-noon, prepare your ears for an assault. The private, 9-hole golf course, owned and operated by Wellesley College, is in the process of installing a lightning detection system for the safety of their members, and loud test alarms will periodically go off.
Read the above carefully—it’s a lightning thing, not a lighting thing. So nobody start up in the comments section about towering poles or dark skies in peril.
The automated system detects lightning activity within 10 miles of the course and provides an audible 5-second alarm, as well as visual strobe light alerts. Thirty minutes after the last lightning strike, the system will signal an “all-clear” audible alert (two short blasts), and the strobe light will turn off.
Neighbors of Nehoiden received a postcard letting them know about about the lightning detection system testing.
We checked in with head golf pro Hal Jacobs at Wellesley Country Club who told us they also have such a system. “When it’s not safe to play, everyone is evacuated off the course and into the clubhouse. Then after 30 minutes, if there hasn’t been more lightning, everyone can go back onto the course,” he said.
Nehoiden has collaborated with Wellesley College Campus Police and Town of Wellesley Police on the scheduling of the test.
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“as well as visual strobe light alerts.” Wait…it IS a lighting thing! :)