Access to the pitch at the Azteca Stadium has been prohibited due to a thunderstorm currently erupting at the ground ahead of tonight's England versus Mexico World Cup Round of 16 clash. Under electrical storm protocols, nobody is allowed onto the playing surface for health and safety purposes, and the restriction will stay in force until meteorological conditions ease.
Severe Weather Warning and Shelter-in-Place
Forecasters have said there is a 'very high risk of a storm' as the game kicks off at 6pm local time (1am GMT). The venue has implemented a shelter-in-place directive. At present, kick-off remains scheduled for 1am GMT on Monday morning.
Forecaster John Kettley told GB News host Dawn Neesom: "It is a very bizarre situation, really, because they often play the matches at midday for obvious reasons. The storms tend to gather as the afternoon heat develops. A typical temperature in Mexico City would be about 24 to 25 degrees, and that is certainly high enough to trigger these thunderstorms, which we are expecting. It is a 90 per cent chance of a storm at some point during the day. But if they start the game at our time, say 6pm, that would have negated most of the problems. Yesterday, there were no storms around that time. And if they caught a storm after the game, and perhaps the situation would have been not so serious. But there is a very high risk of a storm, we know that, and these are killer storms. You can't belittle these storms in Central America. They are pretty violent affairs, and they can go on for an hour or two; they self-perpetuate. They are 7,200 ft above sea level, and it's very humid there, so they are proper storms, not the little ones we get sometimes in this country."
When Would Weather Delay the Game?
We don't have to look back far in the World Cup tournament to when bad weather saw the Mexico v Ecuador game pushed back an hour. Rules at the tournament state that a game must be delayed if lightning strikes within eight miles of the stadium. There then needs to be a 30-minute period without a strike before the game can restart.
More Challenges for England
Alongside the challenging weather, England's squad must also contend with the effects of high altitude. Manager Thomas Tuchel spoke on Saturday about how his players have been coping with the thin air in Mexico City: "We feel it even if we don't train. I felt, for example, a slight headache in the hotel room throughout the day. I didn't sleep as well as the days before. But nothing you can't handle and you can't adapt to. The players felt it in the first minutes of the training session. And the longer it went on, the better they could cope with it. It's just what it is. We cannot physically adapt, it's just impossible. But we are here one day before to experience it, at least."
