Extreme Winds And Very Large Hail Likely Rolling Into Oshkosh Later Today

The National Weather Service (NWS) has advised that there's a moderate chance of severe weather blowing into Oshkosh tonight (Wednesday, July 28, 2021), and EAA spokesman Dick Knapinski told Plane & Pilot that EAA is closely monitoring the situation and will make determinations on possible courses of action as the day progresses and the storm's window of arrival becomes clearer. The storm, says the NWS as of Wednesday morning, could bring with it heavy rains, hurricane-level winds, very large hail (NWS's exact wording) and possible tornadoes.

Knapinski said that EAA and the FAA met with forecasters this morning to assess the potential and were told that there are two likely widows of arrival, one between nine pm and eleven pm and the other a couple of hours later than that.

At this point, no one expects the storm to dissipate or to change course enough to spare Oshkosh. The outstanding questions concern how powerful the storm will it be, what associated weather hazards will strike, and when exactly will it hit.

There are around 8,000 aircraft on the field, and Knapinski said that at this point there are no plans to cancel the daily airshow, which starts in the early afternoon, in order to extend departures, though plans are subject to change, he emphasized as the weather picture comes into better focus.

EAA always has contingency plans for severe weather. In 2019, EAA sheltered many in the museum building, but with as many as 50,000 people on site at any given time, Knapinski said that shelter-in-place recommendations are sometimes the best option when extreme weather arises.

As far as the night air show is concerned, he said that there are no plans to cancel it at this point, though he did say that EAA is exploring a move to Thursday night should the need arise.

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh

Isabel GoyerWriter

A commercial pilot, editor-in-Chief Isabel Goyer has been flying for more than 40 years, with hundreds of different aircraft in her logbook and thousands of hours. An award-winning aviation writer, photographer and editor, Ms. Goyer led teams at Sport Pilot, Air Progress and Flying before coming to Plane & Pilot in 2015.