Watch the sun over the next 2 weeks to plan the ideal total eclipse 2024 viewing location

[Admin]

Between Aug. 25 and Sept. 8, the sun will be in the same location as during the total eclipse on April 8, 2024 making it the perfect time to scout your viewing spot.

Watch the sun over the next 2 weeks to plan the ideal total eclipse 2024 viewing location : Read more

 

[Helio]

Aug. 28th is the ideal date, at least for San Antonio. Comparing to totality on Apr. 8th at 1:33:35 pm CDT, the azimuth will be only 4 minutes off and the altitude will be 4 solar diameters (2 degrees) higher than during the eclipse.

 

[billslugg]

Good luck!
I was in Baja 7-11-91 for the eclipse.
As it progressed, high clouds began forming due to the cooling. Fortunately was not a problem. They stayed transparent.
If clouds burned off in AM, they might come back. I don't remember if we'd had AM clouds burn off though.

 

[Helio]

Good luck!
I was in Baja 7-11-91 for the eclipse.
As it progressed, high clouds began forming due to the cooling. Fortunately was not a problem. They stayed transparent.
If clouds burned off in AM, they might come back. I don't remember if we'd had AM clouds burn off though.

We watched clouds move in during the 2018 eclipse while we were just north of Nashville. We were fortunate that the Sun was between the few clouds that were there, but it could easily have gone the other way.

April in S. Texas is usually not our rainy month, but I wonder if El Nino changes this?

We are going to a wedding chapel reserved for this event, which we were lucky to find since everything has been sold out since late March.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

My wife and I went to Columbia SC for the 2018 eclipse, choosing to stay away from the coast to minimize the chance of clouds. As the moment of the eclipse approached, we were apprehensive of a lot of small to medium cumulus clouds all over the sky, wondering if they would happen to obscure the sun during the eclipse. What happened was a surprise to us. As the Moon's shadow obscured the sunlight on the clouds, they soon vanished. Apparently, those cumulus clouds are a much more dynamic phenomenon than they appear to be, constantly evaporating at the tops while being replenished by rising moisture at their bottoms. When the heat source (sunlight) causing the moist air to rise was suddenly removed, those clouds did not last anywhere near as long as the eclipse lasted.

Of course, other types of clouds would be more persistent, especially the kinds that last overnight.

 

[Helio]

My wife and I went to Columbia SC for the 2018 eclipse, choosing to stay away from the coast to minimize the chance of clouds. As the moment of the eclipse approached, we were apprehensive of a lot of small to medium cumulus clouds all over the sky, wondering if they would happen to obscure the sun during the eclipse. What happened was a surprise to us. As the Moon's shadow obscured the sunlight on the clouds, they soon vanished. Apparently, those cumulus clouds are a much more dynamic phenomenon than they appear to be, constantly evaporating at the tops while being replenished by rising moisture at their bottoms. When the heat source (sunlight) causing the moist air to rise was suddenly removed, those clouds did not last anywhere near as long as the eclipse lasted.

Of course, other types of clouds would be more persistent, especially the kinds that last overnight.

It looks like there has been some scientific efforts addressing this topic, beginning in 1901 (Clayton).

Here is a paper that presents many aspects of atmospheric dynamics. The section on gravity waves is certainly interesting.