Rain delay

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For the Brandy & Mr. Whiskers episode, see Rain Delay (Brandy & Mr. Whiskers).

A rain delay is a term regarding an event, generally a sporting event, delayed due to rain, or the threat of rain.

On television, in event of a rain delay, most broadcasters would run alternate programming, in place of the scheduled game or event. Depending on event, the alternate programming takes many forms, such as a movie, a rerun of a television program, interviews and analysis, highlights of the last event, or even another game. The delay continues until the weather is cleared up enough to resume the game, or if it comes to a point where it is not practical to resume it -- in this case, it would become a rain out.

In some cases, if the rain delay is in danger of interfering with the network's schedule that would follow after the game, they would often transfer coverage of the game to another station or channel, or show it later on via tape delay, depending on the league or organisation's policy.

Delays of the event due to other forms of weather other than rain are named appropriately, such as "snow delay", "thunderstorm delay", "fog delay", etc.

[edit] North America

In North America, the only one of the four major sports to stop play due to a rain delay is baseball. Football plays through all types of weather (though recently in college football there have been stoppages in play for some severe weather), while basketball and hockey play indoors. There have also been stoppages in auto racing events like the Indianapolis 500 due to rain.