Women's World Cup: Record-setting heat fades, thunderstorms may threaten last semifinal game

The semifinals of the 2019 Women's World Cup have been set, and three teams remain in the quest to be crowned the best in the world.

A record-setting heat wave has made major news across France over the past week, and relief from that heat will continue for the second semifinal match on Wednesday.

The United States beat England, 2-1, in the first semifinal match at Stade de Lyon on Tuesday.

Wednesday's match will also take place at Stade de Lyon, where temperatures peaked near 38 C (100 F) on multiple days last week.

Wednesday's semifinal match between Netherlands and Sweden will take place at 9:00 p.m., local time.

Similar to Tuesday's match, temperatures will fall from an afternoon high of 30 C (86 F) to 25 C (77 F) by the start of the match and continue to fall as the evening progresses.

Heavy rainfall is possible in any thunderstorm and may result in travel disruptions for fans attempting to view the matches in person or take in other World Cup festivities in Lyon.

The third place playoff will take place on Saturday in Nice amid dry and seasonably warm weather.

The final is scheduled for Sunday in Lyon, and heat may become an issue in this match.

A temperature near 33 C (92 F) will be possible for the start of the match at 5:00 p.m., local time before temperatures fall slowly through the evening hours.

Such heat may trigger required water breaks, which are allowed by FIFA rules any time after 30 minutes into a game played in extreme heat.

The threshold for extreme heat has been set at 32 C (89.6 F) on the wet-bulb globe temperature index. The wet-bulb globe temperature index is calculated using a combination of temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud cover.

Those same components are part of the equation used to calculate the AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperature.

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