As they do every year in the days leading up to EAA AirVenture 2019, show organizers were keeping a close eye on the prog charts. After all, “Oshkosh,” the world’s largest aviation celebration, is an almost exclusively VFR event, and weather can be fickle. The forecast for this year looked encouraging, with a frontal system swinging down from the northwest a few days ahead of show opening, promising cool air and clear skies for the week. But Wisconsin weather can deliver a nasty curveball.
The Saturday before opening day—traditionally one of the busiest for early arrivals—lines of much-stronger-than-expected storms associated with the front brought violent winds (a tornado touched down in Appleton, 15 miles north) and heavy downpours. In all, some six inches of rain fell on Saturday, flooding grass aircraft parking areas and campgrounds. Even after the storms passed, arrivals were restricted to aircraft with reservations for hard-surface parking areas and—among the more unusual restrictions for a “lower-48” airport—those equipped with oversize tundra tires.
