UFC White House card at risk of major delays as tornadoes and thunderstorms forecast

The UFC's upcoming event at the White House is facing major issues amid risks of rain, thunderstorms and tornadoes.

In the early hours of Monday morning the UFC will hold one of the most historic combat sports events ever organised with fights set to take palce on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington DC.

Lightweight champion Ilia Topuria will defend his belt against interim champion Justin Gaethje in the main event of the card, with the event organised to celebrate both the 250th anniversary of the USA's independence and Donald Trump’s 80^th birthday.

In the co-main event, former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira will look to make history and become the first-ever three weight champion as he faces Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title.

The event is just one of only a few UFC events to be held in an open-air stadium or outdoor-style venues across the years, something which of course brings it's own set of challenges.

Undoubtedly the biggest concern heading into the event is the weather forecast for Washington while the fights are set to take place.

A recent report from AccuWeather has warned that on Sunday, Washington may be hit by “a heavy thunderstorm late in the afternoon,” in which “downpours and lightning could impact the events at the White House.”

However, it now appears that the weather forecast has gotten even worse as Accuweather has given a 70% chance of rain during the event and a concerning 42% of thunderstorms.

And that's not all, as a new report from Polymarket has revealed that there is a slight risk of tornadoes & hail during the UFC's White House event.

What will happen if severe weather impacts the UFC White House card?

Should a thunderstorm, hail or tornado arrive at the White House then the UFC card would almost certainly face a major delay, or even a cancellation.

But, ahead of the event getting underway, UFC Chief Content Officer Craig Borsari, a lead producer on the White House event, explained that the organisaion already had a plan in place for extreme heat and other weather conditions.

“We have a custom cover for the canvas, so that’s going to protect us from any increased heat,” Borsari said on Wednesday.

“Part of the reason why we picked an 8 pm start time was so that we could get some of the intense direct sunlight off of the canvas, so we feel confident that the heat of the canvas, we have plans to mitigate that.

“Moisture, precipitation, wind, those are other things that we’re planning for, but in terms of the actual canvas being warm, yeah, when you’re out in the sun, particularly this time of year, it gets hot very quickly.

“We’ll keep it covered, we’ll keep it cool, there also is a canopy overhead, which you’ve probably seen on this claw structure, but there’s a 100-foot canopy or tarp over that that also provides a lot of shade and reduces the heat quite a bit.”

“If we have light to moderate rain with no lightning, we’re going to try to push forward,” Borsari added.

“That canopy will help, it’s more floor seating, maybe a couple of rows up, the bleacher packs, there are people that will get wet, and to be honest, it’s so high up that if we’ve got a bit of a breeze, the rain will start to creep inside that 100-foot diameter.”

And in the case of the worst-case scenario in which the fights have to be delayed, Borsari assured that there are plans in place to try and keep the event running.

“So we have a few options,” he said. “One is to stay on air, and we do have contingency planning where we can remain and continue to broadcast from a location close by the South Lawn, and if we feel like a weather pattern’s coming in that will pass through, and we can resume, we will.

"We would not leave the broadcast, we would just fill and report from site. It’s a bit of an evaluation, so when we’re going through that we’ll be talking regularly to a meteorologist, who is right now on site giving us updates.

“We’ll figure out what does this window look like? Do we have the ability to resume, or what is the extent of the weather front that’s coming through?”