Is there wild fire smoke at Oshkosh?

Gary Ward said:
Never mind, I just looked at the web cams. It does not look good. We are headed there tomorrow Ugghhh.
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Be careful. It's currently IFR there right now with 1-1/4SM vis in smoke and has been IFR a good portion of the past 24 hrs. There has already been at least one instance of continued VFR into IMC conditions with an ATC save.
 
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Current conditions, for the time when this thread gets necrorrected.

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Watching closely. I'm planning on arriving in a week / next Thursday morning with my son, and he just called telling me about the smoke. He's in the Chicago area, and apparantly it's very bad visibility just driving.

It will be like any weather. We'll monitor, and make good decisions at the time. We don't have to fly, we don't even have to go. We'll see what it is next week.

But yeah - what did we do to the Canadians? At least they could have made the smoke smell like maple syrup.
 
WDD said:
But yeah - what did we do to the Canadians? At least they could have made the smoke smell like maple syrup.
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maybe the Canadians are getting annoyed that it's been almost 30 years since they won the Standley Cup
 
Gary Ward said:
Hoping it is not too bad there, does anyone know if it is a factor?
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It's bad. I live about an hour drive south of OSH and our AQI hit 500 today. Everyone's hoping for some rain tomorrow to alleviate things.

It does look like there's a possibility that it's bad through Saturday, though, and that would be another year like 2019(?) where EVERYONE is trying to get in on the Fisk arrival in a single day and it's a giant ****show. That's why the procedure starts all the way out at the Endeavor bridge now... With another bad year, maybe the Fisk arrival will make it all the way to Iowa.

WDD said:
But yeah - what did we do to the Canadians? At least they could have made the smoke smell like maple syrup.
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Hopefully they're at least using it to smoke their maple syrup. The local historical society has an event they call "Maple Sugar Days" where, among other things, they sell maple sugar that's made from trees tapped in our historical park and boiled down in a log cabin type building over a wood fire. You can taste the wood smoke in the syrup and it is just to die for good. Even better than the other stuff made locally and aged in used whiskey barrels, which are then returned to the distillery to make maple whiskey. That oughtta be next to "synergy" in the dictionary.
 
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WDD said:
Watching closely. I'm planning on arriving in a week / next Thursday morning with my son, and he just called telling me about the smoke. He's in the Chicago area, and apparantly it's very bad visibility just driving.

It will be like any weather. We'll monitor, and make good decisions at the time. We don't have to fly, we don't even have to go. We'll see what it is next week.

But yeah - what did we do to the Canadians? At least they could have made the smoke smell like maple syrup.
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Can confirm, Chicago sucks. It actually seemed to clear a little right at dusk
 
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For those who want a good planning tool for wildfires and smoke:

fire.airnow.gov

AirNow Fire and Smoke Map

This map shows fine particle pollution (PM2.5) from wildfires and other sources. It provides a public resource of information to best prepare and manage wildfire season. Developed in a joint partnership between the EPA and USFS.
fire.airnow.gov fire.airnow.gov

Be sure to turn on smoke plumes, they defaulted to off when I went there just now.

They're saying that conditions in the Oshkosh area should improve tomorrow evening, most of Wisconsin will be clearing out throughout the day starting from the southwest with winds coming from that direction.

BTW - In 2010 with all the flooding we had "Sloshkosh". 2026 will forevermore be known as "Ashkosh". :rofl:
 
One thing about the smoke, one doesn’t have to go to far West, SW to get clear of it. Even at the MS River it’s much better.

Just the general news had better conditions later today, Friday. One can still snug up towards Oshkosh, then slip in as conditions improve later today, or Saturday morning. I didn’t study any detailed aviation forecasts, general information.
 
Certainly you can check out the EAA live streams, and you should. What appeared to be early-morning fog may be enhanced with smoke; there's some as far south east as Cincinnati.
www.eaa.org

AirVenture Live

Don't miss any of the action from EAA AirVenture with the official live stream cameras presented by Pratt & Whitney and Daher. Daily air shows streams begin approximately 2:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
www.eaa.org www.eaa.org
 
Kenny Phillips said:
What appeared to be early-morning fog may be enhanced with smoke; there's some as far south east as Cincinnati.
www.eaa.org

AirVenture Live

Don't miss any of the action from EAA AirVenture with the official live stream cameras presented by Pratt & Whitney and Daher. Daily air shows streams begin approximately 2:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
www.eaa.org www.eaa.org
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I wouldn’t say ‘may be’, it is smoke! I’m in Watertown and it stinks!! I feel like I’m in a bar in the 80s!!
 
Still 3/4 mile here this morning. Yesterday we had a solid stream of IFR arrivals until noon when the NOTAM went into effect and tower started sending away those without reservations. I'm tracking about a half dozen arrivals on flight aware now.
 
WDD said:
Dang. Forgive a stupid question, but would they do a ground stop here because visibility is so poor it's unsafe for ground movement/taxi?
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They have lighting systems for that. Besides, that viz isn’t all that bad just for taxiing.
 
No. We were in Detroit and they had some issues with ground crew because the air quality index was high so based on some different contracts, a lot of rampers aren't able to work. That causes a ton of headaches. The flying wasnt an issue except it was really high and all that smoke acted like a diffuser so I was incredibly bright and the whole aircraft smelled like a campfire
 
Lowflynjack said:
I wouldn’t say ‘may be’, it is smoke! I’m in Watertown and it stinks!! I feel like I’m in a bar in the 80s!!
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Yeah, we just heard from some friends in Appleton. It's all too real.
We've smelled in down here in Cincinnati in prior years; not yet this time, though the milky sky seems to smooth out the air a little. If you like flying when it's in the nineties.
 
We flew up this morning and are at dodge county waiting for Osh to declare vfr. Most of the atis north of mid-Illinois were calling a mile viz or so, but it was 3-5 from a practical standpoint.
 
There’s a guy in a 172 who keeps flying the approach over and over waiting on it to open! He’s been at it for an hour. 2.5 mile visibility now, so we’re getting close.
 
kyleb said:
We flew up this morning and are at dodge county waiting for Osh to declare vfr. Most of the atis north of mid-Illinois were calling a mile viz or so, but it was 3-5 from a practical standpoint.
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Just send it! No wait, you’re on my Flight Review signature. :)
 
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