Weather Day Log and Notice Template by RainDelayLog

Set up before the season, once per job

Copy the weather clause onto the first page of the templateWrite out the exact qualifying threshold, the notice window in calendar days and the notice route in full. A superintendent should never have to open the contract at 6 am to know whether the day counts.
Name the weather source and record its distance from the siteWrite the station identifier, its distance in miles and the direction. If a site gauge is permitted, note where it is mounted and who reads it.
Build the monthly anticipated weather day tableEither copy the owner's published table or build one from published climate normals for the named station. Leave a column beside each month for the running actual count.
Name one person accountable for the entry and one backupWeather days get lost when the superintendent is at a preconstruction meeting and nobody else knows the record exists. Put both names on the template.
Preload the current controlling activities from the scheduleList the activities on or near the critical path for the next month. On the morning it rains you are picking from a list, not trying to remember the schedule.

The morning it hits, before the crew is released

Record the measured amount and the time it was readWrite tenths of an inch, or the temperature, plus the exact reading time and the source. A number without a source and a time is the single easiest thing for a reviewer to strike.
Mark which controlling activities stopped and whyPick from the preloaded list and give a physical reason: pad will not hold a proof roll, no crane picks in the wind, deck cannot be poured. Weather alone is never a reason.
Photograph standing water, mud and the idle equipment in placeSix to ten photos with the location noted, taken before anything is pumped or moved. Include one wide shot that shows the whole affected area.
Count the crews sent home and the crews redeployedList company and trade, headcount, arrival time and release time. Note separately anyone who moved to unaffected interior or shop work, because that reduces the claim and protects your credibility.
Log equipment standing idle by unit and hoursRecord every rented and owned unit on site that could not work, with its idle hours. Rental invoices later have to match this list line for line.

Before you leave the gate that day

Write a three sentence narrative of the dayWhat the weather did, what work it stopped, what the crew did instead. Plain language, present tense, written while you remember the hour it turned.
Update the running count against the monthly allowanceMove the actual count up by one and note whether the month has now passed the anticipated table. That single line is what makes the extension request obvious rather than a surprise.
Flag whether tomorrow is likely a dry out dayIf the subgrade is saturated or the excavation is holding water, mark the follow up now. Dry out days are the ones most teams never write down.
Start the notice clock on the templateWrite the event date and the calendar date the notice is due under the clause. Put that due date somewhere a project engineer will see it, not only in the log.
Attach the day's photos and station printout to the entrySame day, same folder, named by date. Photos living in a phone gallery are functionally gone by the time a claim consultant asks for them.

Inside the notice window

Send written notice by the exact route the clause namesIf the contract says email to the owner representative with a copy to the architect, do that. Delivering it a different way is a procedural gift to whoever reviews the day later.
State the event, the impacted activities and the days requestedKeep it short and factual, and say the record and cost detail will follow. Notice is a timeliness requirement, not the place to argue the whole claim.
Record the date, time and recipients of the notice sentSave the sent confirmation with the log entry. When a reviewer questions timeliness this is the only exhibit that matters.
File the day into the running packet in claim orderNarrative, weather evidence, photos, hours, schedule impact, notice trail. Building the packet as you go turns a claim into an assembly job rather than an archaeology project.

How to use it

Use it in the order it is printed. The most common failure we see is a superintendent who fills in the narrative and the photos beautifully and never touches the notice section, which means a well documented day gets struck on a procedural point that had nothing to do with the rain. The last group is the one that saves the day, so run it even when the site is chaotic.

Two habits make the rest work. First, one entry per event on the same morning, never a weekly catch up, because reviewers can tell the difference and so can you at month end. Second, keep the days you worked through in the record as well. A log that only appears when it rains looks written for a claim, while a continuous record with normal days in it is the thing that makes your rain days credible.

Send me the editable copy

Send it to your inbox as an editable file you can adapt to your own weather clause, threshold and notice route before the next storm.

Questions about this document

Can I use this on paper in the trailer?

Yes, it is designed to print on one sheet front and back. Plenty of superintendents run the paper version at the gate and hand it to the project engineer to enter later that morning. Just make sure the photos and the station reading get attached the same day.

How is this different from our daily report?

A daily report describes the working day for the project team. This describes a weather event for a reviewer who was never there and who is looking for a reason to strike the day. The evidence, the order and the notice tracking are all different.

What if my contract has no weather clause at all?

That is worth raising with your counsel before the next job. Without a clause you are usually arguing under general delay and force majeure provisions, and the evidence burden goes up rather than down. The template still applies; the threshold line is just yours to define.

Filling it in is the work, remembering it is the problem

Once the clause, the station distance and the anticipated day table are written on the front page, the template does its job and the discipline becomes daily. Somebody has to reach for it at 6:30 with the crew arriving, count the released hours before anyone drives off, flag tomorrow as a dry out day and watch the notice due date. A demo shows that same sequence prompting itself and the packet assembling in claim order as you go, so the record does not depend on who is standing on the site that week.

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The weather day log and notice template