Total Solar Eclipse April 8, 2024 weather prospects

[Dan Robinson]

Arrived in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. No traffic or crowds, southbound and northbound traffic on I-91 was equal. We are waiting here for a while as it appears the last road northeast into Maine is here. If the clouds still look good we'll head farther north on I-91.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Arrived in Bangor, Maine last night and targeting Patten / Island Falls, where there are a few side roads to get out of the towns and hopefully be in relative solitude with my family. Probably not necessary as traffice seems completely clear right now, but I will probably hit the road in about an hour to get to Sherman. That is already in the path (although not close enough to the centerline) and from there can decide whether to stay on the interstate heading northeast or a secondary road heading due north. Adjusting more to crowds / traffic than weather.

Euro and HRRR show some very small amount of cloud coverage in northeastern Maine. Not enough to worry about or change plans, but if I wasn’t worried about roads I would probably shift to western Maine. The Canadian, NAM and NAM 3KM continue to be all clear. @Dan Robinson the Burlington VT AFD mentions timing of cloud arrival, per our exchange yesterday. But they remain optimistic clouds hold off in the northeast portion of the state. As you noted, there are no E/W roads once you get too far north.

Really happy to give my wife and kids this experience. Especially since the kids were 14 and 10 last time. The younger ones in particular don’t have too much recall of the 2017 eclipse.

 

[JamesCaruso]

As a chase vacationer that 9 months ago made eclipse chasing plans centered on Dallas, the irony of this is not lost on me.

 

[Dan Robinson]

We are in Island Pond, VT. There was a pretty solid line of northbound cars on Hwy 5 in Lyndon. 114 north from there was fairly light. Traffic beginning to pick up here in Island Pond, but nothing crazy. We may move east a little more to hedge against the cloud deck.

I have zero Verizon cell service (data or voice) now, but my ATT hotspot is still working.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Update 10:30AM EDT: In Colebrook, NH now. This will be our final spot, for better or worse. Traffic is getting to the point that repositioning and finding a place to park may be difficult. Not apocalyptic yet, though. Traffic was steady but moving at the speed limit on the rural 2-lanes.

The towns here have not brought in extra bathrooms. Plan for that and stop when you can (or find a rural location with some woods).

Gas has also not been an issue. No lines at the pumps yet. I did not have to use my 5 gallon reserve tank. We will stay here until traffic subsides afterward.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Well, we had a great view and it sounds like most did too. Everything worked out better than we all expected. Thankful!

 

[Levi Mol]

Also good view here in West Michigan.

 

[Peter MacDonald]

If I stay at home in London, Ontario, I'll see a 99.7% partial eclipse, but if I drive 20 minutes south I'll be in the path of totality. I think this is an easy call to make. The only problem is this is early April and that usually means cloud cover and rain in this region.

Fingers crossed we get a break of good weather.

I'm really glad I made the drive. Hope the skies were clear for everyone!

https://imgur.com/Z1nG1fe

 

[NancyM]

Sounds like the weather cooperated in most places. Yay!

St. Louis had 99%+ coverage. It was interesting to see the difference between that and being in the path of totality, as we were last time. It looked almost like a total eclipse but there was always a thin red rim that started on one side & ended up on the other. The 1% I suppose.

Not awe inspiring like a total eclipse but still pretty cool. We had a clear sky, sunny day. As the moon progressed the light dimmed just a bit - as if there was a thin gray screen over the sun. I've only seen this during partial eclipses. Temp. dropped a little.

Crescent shaped shadows under leafy trees. Shadows from the still-leafless trees - very weird looking, not quite like branch shadows in shape. I really don't know how to describe it. They were also in the wrong direction with respect to the location of the sun.

 

[Elaine Spencer]

If my math is correct, at the next U.S. coast to coast eclipse on 8/12/45, I will be 81 years old, my husband will be 78 and our daughter will be almost 50. Of course there are no guarantees but given that both my parents and 3 of my grandparents lived well into their 80s, I'm planning on going to Oklahoma or Arkansas for the next one so I better take care of myself....

 

[JamesCaruso]

Linking the related Eclipse Reports thread here for convenience.

I had originally posted my report here, but have moved it to the Reports thread.

 

[Jeff House]

I wished I'd gotten the settings right to use Stormtrack before the event. I would have shared to use downward short-wave solar flux instead of straight model cloud cover forecasts, to sniff out the decent areas. Straight cloud forecasts overdo it by forecasting % with no context on thickness, height or cloud type. Here is the difference. North Texas was markedly better and correct using flux. My Arkansas report is in the Reports thread, or will be shortly.