Last August, more than 50,000 people made their way to a stadium in the suburbs outside of Washington, D.C.

They were there to see Beyonce during her Renaissance world tour.

But Mother Nature wasn't making it easy.

There was a storm front rolling in.

People were waiting outside. there was a storm front rolling in.

People were waiting outside.

The organizer said, you don't want to go out

to the seats where you're exposed to lightning strikes.

Stay in the concourse.

That's Steve Edelman, Vice President of the Event Safety Alliance.

He's a sports and entertainment lawyer who works on live events,

and he spends a lot of time thinking about how things could go wrong.

His biggest concern is usually the weather. The organizers of the Beyoncé concert,

the only thing they didn't account for is that on a hot steamy

August night in the DC area, putting thousands upon thousands of people in the concourses becomes a health and safety disaster

because people got dehydrated and started fainting in the concourses.

Edelman works in just one of the many industries that hinge on weather.

Live event planners, airlines, retailers, farmers, they all have to plan ahead and make weather-related decisions.

Because as it turns out, there's a lot at stake. When is the storm likely to arrive? What is the nature of the storm? The downside risk of

leaving everyone in harm's way when there's lightning in the forecast is

extremely bad. For the Freakonomics Radio Network, this is the economics of

everyday things. I'm Zachary Crorakit. Today, weather forecasts. From the time he was eight years old,

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