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OT: The April 8th Eclipse - Put in Zip Code to See How Much You'll (not) See

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RU848789

Heisman
Jul 27, 2001
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Brisket and Bourbon said:
100%
Click to expand...
50% chance of it being clear, at best, based on climo, even in Texas (and maybe 25% in Maine), as it's still way too early to make deterministic predictions of clouds. We're actually going to wait until about 2 days before the eclipse, determine the most likely place to be clear between about Ohio and northern Maine (assuming somewhere in that swath will be clear) and then drive close to there the day before (where hotels are still available - and if they're not, we'll just get up at 4 am on 4/8 and drive to the destination) and then driving the rest of the way to the final destination on the morning of 4/8.

https://wgme.com/news/local/what-ha...-sun-weather-skies-lunar-sun-block-moon-maine
 
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RUhasarrived

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May 7, 2007
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I'm going to shoot for Watertown.
So far,the forecast isn't so hot.
I was hoping to end my eclipse drought of 54 years,having seen the one at Norfolk in 1970.
 
R

RU848789

Heisman
Jul 27, 2001
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ashokan said:
I've seen comets and lunar/solar eclipses but was never that impressed.
Shooting stars are still the best
Click to expand...
Every year we used to watch the Perseid meteor shower up in Cape Cod on our son's birthday as he was growing up (always on 8/12) - agree they're awesome, but I haven't seen a total solar eclipse yet, so psyched for that next...
 
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ClassOf02v.2

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krup

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Feb 5, 2003
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Right now the forecast isn’t promising in Maine (99.2% where I live), little sun from Sun to Tues that week.

Even if the forecast changes I wouldn’t recommend people make a lot of effort to get here last minute thinking it will be clear, as the weather here changes by the hour and seems to be much more localized than when I lived in NJ and PA.

My wife works about 25 miles from our house and she has to call me to check the weather at end of the day because she can leave work in full sun and end up driving in a snowstorm (or vice versa).
 
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ClassOf02v.2

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Sep 30, 2010
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krup said:
Right now the forecast isn’t promising in Maine (99.2% where I live), little sun from Sun to Tues that week.

Even if the forecast changes I wouldn’t recommend people make a lot of effort to get here last minute thinking it will be clear, as the weather here changes by the hour and seems to be much more localized than when I lived in NJ and PA.

My wife works about 25 miles from our house and she has to call me to check the weather at end of the day because she can leave work in full sun and end up driving in a snowstorm (or vice versa).
Click to expand...
“If you don’t like New England weather, wait a minute.”
—Mark Twain

My family had a small cottage in Maine (near Sebago Lake) for many years and this quote hung on the wall in that house.
 
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ru109

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Sep 18, 2011
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The Wife and I already have a hotel booked in Geneva NY for that weekend. Going up Saturday and coming back Tuesday. Should be fun watching an eclipse in wine country.
 
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dazl

dazl

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Mar 24, 2002
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RU848789 said:
50% chance of it being clear, at best, based on climo, even in Texas (and maybe 25% in Maine), as it's still way too early to make deterministic predictions of clouds. We're actually going to wait until about 2 days before the eclipse, determine the most likely place to be clear between about Ohio and northern Maine (assuming somewhere in that swath will be clear) and then drive close to there the day before (where hotels are still available - and if they're not, we'll just get up at 4 am on 4/8 and drive to the destination) and then driving the rest of the way to the final destination on the morning of 4/8.

https://wgme.com/news/local/what-ha...-sun-weather-skies-lunar-sun-block-moon-maine
Click to expand...

I used basically the same type of strategy in 2017. Had forecasts lined up for various cities from Nebraska to South Carolina. Visited a friend in Dayton Ohio a couple days before the eclipse (I had booked a hotel in eastern Nebraska since the forecast looked good there and eventually lost that non-refundable gamble). Wound up selecting Gallatin TN the night before the eclipse and drove from Dayton to Gallatin in the morning. My avatar is a picture of the eclipse I took with my camera in Tennessee. Anything less than being in 100% totality is not really "impressive". The traffic jam heading back to Dayton after the eclipse was over was apocalyptic. This time I'm targeting about 300 miles on either side of Dayton for eclipse day travel and hoping for the best with the weather.
 
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R

RU848789

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Jul 27, 2001
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dazl said:
I used basically the same type of strategy in 2017. Had forecasts lined up for various cities from Nebraska to South Carolina. Visited a friend in Dayton Ohio a couple days before the eclipse (I had booked a hotel in eastern Nebraska since the forecast looked good there and eventually lost that non-refundable gamble). Wound up selecting Gallatin TN the night before the eclipse and drove from Dayton to Gallatin in the morning. My avatar is a picture of the eclipse I took with my camera in Tennessee. Anything less than being in 100% totality is not really "impressive". The traffic jam heading back to Dayton after the eclipse was over was apocalyptic. This time I'm targeting about 300 miles on either side of Dayton for eclipse day travel and hoping for the best with the weather.
Click to expand...
Sounds pretty similar. I recall having a couple of friends who went to Charleston, SC for a week of fun centered around seeing the eclipse and that morning I started getting emails from them worrying about clouds and recommended they go about 50-75 miles inland to the NW, which was much more likely to remain clear for them, which worked out well (these were not very weather savvy folks). My hope is that it's going to be clear somewhere between Ohio and Maine that afternoon (not a given, though) - also, there's always some chance that a clear sky goes cloudy for a few hours, which would suck.
 
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RUhasarrived

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The forecast is starting to look good for Upstate New York.
Watertown's forecast has clouds breaking for some Sun.
8 days away but at least it's the first hopeful forecast.
 
R

RU848789

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Jul 27, 2001
65,437
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Oddly enough, 6 days out and the best looking area, as of now, is probably VT/NH/Maine and one of the worst is Texas, which is not what climo would tell us (good friends of mine are departing for Texas shortly for the eclipse and a week of vacation), although we know this can change significantly over the next several days. All three sources below are fairly similar on this (I'm guessing the Times and AccuWeather are both using the NWS NBM for cloud cover, but not sure).

We're continuing with our plan of waiting until the day before to make a decision on where to go within fairly easy driving distance, i.e., roughly between about Cleveland (~7.5 hrs/470 miles) and Jackman Maine (~8 hr/500 miles), with Watertown, NY being the closest point of totality (~5 hrs/310 miles), although we'd likely pick a bit north of Burlington VT as our top choice if Burlington and Watertown were looking both clear (north of BTV is ~5.5 hr/340 miles). We'd then drive close to that destination Sunday afternoon/evening, stay in a hotel and then drive the rest of the way Monday morning to some point of totality (right on the center line if possible).

https://www.accuweather.com/en/sola...orecast-what-will-the-weather-be-like/1636042

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/science/solar-eclipse-cloud-cover-forecast-map.html




 
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robcac26

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RU848789 said:
Oddly enough, 6 days out and the best looking area, as of now, is probably VT/NH/Maine and one of the worst is Texas, which is not what climo would tell us (good friends of mine are departing for Texas shortly for the eclipse and a week of vacation), although we know this can change significantly over the next several days. All three sources below are fairly similar on this (I'm guessing the Times and AccuWeather are both using the NWS NBM for cloud cover, but not sure).

We're continuing with our plan of waiting until the day before to make a decision on where to go within fairly easy driving distance, i.e., roughly between about Cleveland (~7.5 hrs/470 miles) and Jackman Maine (~8 hr/500 miles), with Watertown, NY being the closest point of totality (~5 hrs/310 miles), although we'd likely pick a bit north of Burlington VT as our top choice if Burlington and Watertown were looking both clear (north of BTV is ~5.5 hr/340 miles). We'd then drive close to that destination Sunday afternoon/evening, stay in a hotel and then drive the rest of the way Monday morning to some point of totality (right on the center line if possible).

https://www.accuweather.com/en/sola...orecast-what-will-the-weather-be-like/1636042

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/science/solar-eclipse-cloud-cover-forecast-map.html
Click to expand...
I have a somewhat similar plan, although I'm trying to avoid the problem of spots being filled up by only considering places that require a prior reservation. I'm also bringing a large telescope (with solar filter of course), which isn't allowed at some organized events. I have a spot in Brockport and another in the Adirondacks. If neither of those work, I'll go out to the Cleveland area. Right now the Adirondacks looks like the least cloud cover, but at around 30% that's still a bit of a risk considering totality is only about three and a half minutes. Hopefully it clears up by then.
 
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RU848789

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Jul 27, 2001
65,437
44,453
113
RU848789 said:
Oddly enough, 6 days out and the best looking area, as of now, is probably VT/NH/Maine and one of the worst is Texas, which is not what climo would tell us (good friends of mine are departing for Texas shortly for the eclipse and a week of vacation), although we know this can change significantly over the next several days. All three sources below are fairly similar on this (I'm guessing the Times and AccuWeather are both using the NWS NBM for cloud cover, but not sure).

We're continuing with our plan of waiting until the day before to make a decision on where to go within fairly easy driving distance, i.e., roughly between about Cleveland (~7.5 hrs/470 miles) and Jackman Maine (~8 hr/500 miles), with Watertown, NY being the closest point of totality (~5 hrs/310 miles), although we'd likely pick a bit north of Burlington VT as our top choice if Burlington and Watertown were looking both clear (north of BTV is ~5.5 hr/340 miles). We'd then drive close to that destination Sunday afternoon/evening, stay in a hotel and then drive the rest of the way Monday morning to some point of totality (right on the center line if possible).

https://www.accuweather.com/en/sola...orecast-what-will-the-weather-be-like/1636042

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/science/solar-eclipse-cloud-cover-forecast-map.html




Click to expand...
Updated forecast for clouds for the eclipse on Monday. Still looking like Maine/NH/VT are the best bet, although the cloud forecast increased in NY, just to the west, so still not a lock for sunny in ME/NH/VT. The IN/IL area forecast improved some, but TX still looks cloudy.

People also need to keep in mind that cloud cover for a specific one hour period (or 4 minutes of totality) is far more difficult to forecast correctly than anything else we ever talk about. The best one can do is go where the highest probability of sunshine is (which still doesn't guarantee no clouds), which is why I'm deciding where to go on Sunday afternoon, after the 12Z models come out. And even then, one can have a "sunny" forecast, but clouds could crop up just at the point of the eclipse ruining the blocked sun visual (but not all the other cool effects of daytime darkness). And areas forecast to have clouds could simply get lucky for 5-10 minutes. It's going to be a bit of a crapshoot right up until totality.






 
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RU848789

Heisman
Jul 27, 2001
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Not much change in the forecast. VT/NH/ME (especially) looking best and much of the rest of the path, including SW TX, which would normally have the least cloud cover, looks partly to mostly cloudy unfortunately. although SE MO to SW IN might be decent. Hopefully, those areas will catch a break at totality and the New England areas won't cloud over for the key 5 minutes, as we'll be somewhere in that area (have a B&B room in central NH for Sun/Mon nights and will head to wherever looks best Monday am). Updated maps below...





 
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RUhasarrived

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May 7, 2007
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My plan is to hit Pulaski,NY-20 miles South of Watertown- about noon,gas up at the Kwik Full,then have lunch at Arby's,camping there until totality ends,then shoot back 81 to 481 to avoid the construction in the Syracuse area.
If all goes well,it'll mark 54 years between eclipses for me,having seen the one passing over Norfolk in 1970.
 
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RU848789

Heisman
Jul 27, 2001
65,437
44,453
113
RUhasarrived said:
My plan is to hit Pulaski,NY-20 miles South of Watertown- about noon,gas up at the Kwik Full,then have lunch at Arby's,camping there until totality ends,then shoot back 81 to 481 to avoid the construction in the Syracuse area.
If all goes well,it'll mark 54 years between eclipses for me,having seen the one passing over Norfolk in 1970.
Click to expand...
Looking cloudy there, although likely cirrus clouds which might still give some view, plus everyone says even if cloudy a total eclipse is spectacular - but I've never been in one and this could be my last chance, so I'm making sure I'm where it's most likely clear...
 
R

RU848789

Heisman
Jul 27, 2001
65,437
44,453
113
We "flew" up from NJ this morning, leaving at 6 am, with very little traffic, going the 340 miles in 5 hours. Now safely ensconced in our B&B (Coppertoppe in Hebron NH) after an awesome breakfast at a place called Gilly's in Bristol NH - amazing pancakes with real maple syrup and great home fries. Pics don't do the place justice, but below is a pic from the balcony of our huge 1 bedroom suite. Really nice and friendly owners, too (only 3 rooms in the place) and they didn't gouge on the price (like so many other places are doing) - good way to get repeat business, as we'd definitely want to come back.

Might do Franconia Notch, which is supposedly gorgeous in the White Mountains, as a side trip this afternoon unless traffic picks up too much. Still debating Newport VT (Nearby Jay Peak is open for the eclipse with free parking if you get there early) vs. Pittsburg for tomorrow's eclipse - if clouds look iffy to the west, we'll pick Pittsburg as it's 45 miles east of Newport. Hearing the worst part of travel will likely be after the eclipse as everyone leaves at once, so we'll probably hang out for an hour or two after it's over to avoid that mess (both our destinations have disc golf courses within a couple of miles).

Right now it still looks good for no/few clouds in northern VT/NH and especially Maine, but maybe not for NNY (close call). The usual NWS model blend is below. Hope everyone going enjoys the day - very psyched for this...



 
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