Amusement parks in the rain... what's the standard?

A few years back, we did Canada's Wonderland.

It was an ugly day with expected rain but we had no other opportunity really, and we don't get up there often. There was no line for anything and the day was capped off by one drizzly ride on Leviathan (front) which hurt a bit and one in a downpour (back), which was brutal but still completely worth it.

I've also ridden almost everything at Carowinds in downpours as that's my hometown park being just an hour and a half or so from where I grew up.

Every year i go to knoebels the first week of june and the last 2yrs its rained the whole day i was there. The only ride that closes in the rain is flying turns, Everything else was open. My home parks are lake compounce and sfne and they both are pretty much like knoebels eveything remains open unless there's lightning in the area.

I rode SFMM Goliath back in 2008; I'll never the feeling of being ambushed by tiny needles. It was a light drizzle, but still made the first drop miserable. Covered my eyes.

This past year, I was at SFOT. The coasters were running, but down to one train operation because of the skid brakes. I missed being drenched on the New Texas Giant, so I didn't ride anything else for awhile. I rode Judge Roy Scream with a drizzle; I heard woodies are best in the rain or after a thunderstorm. It was okay, but not worth getting rained on. Can anyone verify that woodies are better in the rain or after a thunderstorm?

Sure. The best example of that was The Beast. And I say 'was' because it held true before the advent of magnetic brakes.
Back in the day if you could catch a ride on it in the evening after a shower it was so fast and the sled brake trims had very little if any effect. A good barometer was how far the train would climb up the second lift before engaging. Sometimes the rear of the train would make it past the phone, about halfway up.
Now with the magnets the coaster slows in those spots to the same speed no matter what. So whatever speed is gained from rain is quickly squashed.

I've always wondered if the notion that wooden coasters always go faster at night is true, or if it's just a weird perception. I've heard tell that the wooden track can "shrink" in the transition from a hot day to a cool evening, in turn loosening things up enough to provide a faster ride.
And maybe the concept applies to rainy rides. A rainstorm is cold water, so that (combined with slippery grease) falling on a hot track may account for a faster rainy day ride.

OK wow, so it was a little strange how SFMM shut down the entire park and kicked everyone out like I mentioned in the first post. I would understand if they were thinking lack-of-attendance, but since it was already around 11 or 12 in the day, the park was already packed, so you would think they would just shut down the affected rides and keep everyone in to make the food/merch/games money.

I did end up going to CGA that rainy day last weekend, and it stayed open all day and most of the rides actually stayed open too, with everything being walk-on. They just shut down Tiki Twirl (the Zamperla Disk'O) and The Patriot (although I hear that was for non-rain issues. It's been having problems the first few weeks of its opening).

I definitely got that tiny-needles-stabbing-the-face experience! Coasters in the rain were quite fun though; I will not actively avoid the park on future rainy days.

Interesting how all these different parks handle rain differently, being willing to take different amounts of risk

--Josh--

With Magic Mountain, if you have to shut the majority of the major attractions down, for an undetermined amount of time, it's just a lot safer to clear the park. Things have been known to get out of control in the past in this type of situation.

RCMAC, I had a Beast ride after a rainstorm about 20 years ago, and it was blissful. The train slid through the track. I never laughed so hard on a roller coaster in my life.

I wonder how many times a year SFMM gets rained on. Certainly not enough during the recent 5 year drought.

Other parks have to get used to dealing with weather

LostKause said:

RCMAC, I had a Beast ride after a rainstorm about 20 years ago, and it was blissful. The train slid through the track. I never laughed so hard on a roller coaster in my life.

Wasn't the nail in the coffin for the Beast getting mag brakes the 'bump' that occurred in the station when a train came skidding into the brake run after a rain storm?

I know it happened on Magnum but thought their was incident on the Beast too.

We pretty much Carry on Regardless in the UK. Not much else you can do.

Wind causes issues for a lot of coastal parks, but rain is pretty much part and parcel of your operations.

I've ridden almost every ride at Great Adventure in the rain, including Kingda Ka. In my experience Great Adventure has a super lax rain policy.

SVLFever said:

Wasn't the nail in the coffin for the Beast getting mag brakes the 'bump' that occurred in the station when a train came skidding into the brake run after a rain storm?

I know it happened on Magnum but thought their was incident on the Beast too.

There was said incident on the Beast skidding through the brake run into another train at a very slow speed and bumped the next train. Not sure of the year though