The Great North American Eclipse of 2024
(I launched my 2017 Eclipse page in 2010; it's only fitting and just that I launch my 2024 page in 2017!)
The URL for this page is http://russillo.weebly.com/bull-eclipse-2024.html
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* 2024 Interactive eclipse map
* I ADDED WEATHER LINKS TO TOTALITY PATH LOCATIONS...SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM
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FORGET ABOUT TELESCOPES, especially if you have never used one before. Just a pair of decent eclipse glasses or a rudimentary pinhole camera will do you.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
More links farther below--and especially on my 2017 Eclipse page.
•4/5/24, 08:25 EDT
For a couple days forecasts improved along the southern half. That seemed too good to be true and indeed it was. Fewer storms, but still 80+% chances of cloud cover.
I ADDED WEATHER LINKS TO TOTALITY PATH LOCATIONS...SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
•4/2/24, 15:13 EDT
No news. Cloud-cover forecasts are still terrible.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
• 3/31/24, 16:13 EDT
The main change since yesterday is New England's starting to improve. But for what I'd say is the southern half of the eclipse path (approx. everything south of Indiana) is still crappy; cloud-cover chances > 70-80%.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
• 3/30/24, 11:22 EDT
TERRIBLE NEWS ON THE WEATHER FRONT ("Front?" Ya get it?) NINE DAYS OUT AND *ALL* FORECASTS ALONG THE TOTALITY PATH ARE DOGSH*T. That's southern Texas up to eastern Maine, folks. Starting in Texas at the Mexican border moving NE along the path? They start terrible (cloudiness forecasts of 75% & greater, with storms!) and improve to merely crappy (no precipitation, but the cloudiness forecasts rarely dip below 50%) by the time you get up to NY.
Almost all of the Texas portion of the path—and most of Arkansas—is high % forecasts for T-storms. Could hardly be worse. Literally the only good news I have is that this is a 10-day forecast, and I've routinely put little stock in forecasts farther out than 5 days. FINGERS CROSSED MOTHER-SCRATCHERS!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(FROM HERE DOWN IS THE ORIGINAL PAGE, POSTED 2017)
On Monday (another Monday!) April 8, 2024, a fantastic Total Solar Eclipse will slice northeasterly through the three major North American countries of Mexico, USA and Canada. Specifically, the moon's shadow will come ashore on the Pacific coast of Mexico at a town called Francisco Villa (just south of Mazatlan) and will slice north then east through the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Durango, the southeastern tip of Chihuhaua, then Coahuila, then the American states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, a sliver of southeastern Michigan, then Ontario (Canada), then Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, then the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Islan,d and will depart the North American continent at the tiny hamlet of Maberly, Newfoundland (population 20.)
This eclipse will differ from 8/21/17 in two more significant respects. Because the moon will be slightly closer to the earth on 4/8/24 than it was 8/21/17, the shadow will move faster across the ground (just over an hour from Texas to Maine) yet the duration of totality will be quite a bit greater. The 8/21/17 eclipse, along certain locations on its centerline, "maxed out" at 2min 40sec at its longest. On 4/8/24 totality will last 4:27 on the coast of Mexico and when it enters Texas. By the time it reaches eastern Maine it will "only" be 3:21, but that's still 40 seconds longer than the maximum duration of 8/21/17!
It's a long way off, but as many of you learned with 8/21/17, it's never too early to plan (though it CAN be too early to reserve hotel rooms! Gotta see those weather forecasts!) But I will say this: if I'm coastal Mexico right now? Or southwestern Texas? Or, really, ANYWHERE along the path? I'd be planning for a MASSIVE influx of tourists from April 5 to April 9, 2024.
Easter 2024 is March 31, which means that unless policies change, Spring break that year (in our county and in many other US school districts that base Spring Break on Easter Sunday) will be March 23 to March 31*. IF YOU'RE READING THIS AND ARE SOMEONE WHO IS IN A POSITION TO MAKE THESE KINDS OF DECISIONS, PLEASE GIVE SOME THOUGHT TO MOVING SPRING BREAK, OR AT LEAST MAKE APRIL 8 A HOLIDAY (as many jurisdictions wish they had done in 2017!)
*5/29/23, GCS 23-24 ACADEMIC CALENDAR: Called it!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - LINKS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(many more links are at the bottom of the 2017 Eclipse Page)
Xavier Jubier Eclipse Maps. (Jubier is French--he pronounces his name "ZAH-v'yay JOO-bee-ay"--and he does up some very handy maps. They're interactive so zoom in as far as you like, and when you click anywhere on the map, a pop-up window gives you all kinds of detail about the eclipse as viewed from that location.)
• 2024 Eclipse map
• 2017 & 2024 paths on the same map. (A personal favorite. Imagine living near Makanda, IL, where the 2017 & 2024 totality centerlines cross! NOTE: the pop-ups on this map only have data for 8/21/17.)
• ALL Jubier's interactive maps (1955 - 2039)
I can vouch for Jubier's accuracy; I spotted my 21AUG17 viewing location fastidiously--on the tip of a peninsula, on a lake in Kefauver State Park in Madisonville, TN--and Jubier's times for totality were within a second of my direct observations for both the beginning AND the ending of totality.)
Fred Espinak's maps. Each of these seven shows all eclipse paths for those 20 years simultaneously on the same map.
1961-1980 | 1981-2000 | 2001-2020 | 2021-2040 | 2041-2060 | 2061-2080 | 2081-2100
NASA's Eclipse page. Every eclipse you can imagine. Lunar and solar.
With respect to this pair of eclipses, Dec. 14, 2020 was noteworthy.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
WEATHER LINKS FOR THE TOTALITY PATH.
MORE OR LESS. ISH.
Bona Vista, NL, Canada
Blackville, NB, Canada
Littleton, ME
Plattsburgh, NY
Rochester, NY
Buffalo, NY
Erie, PA
Cleveland, OH
Bloomington, IN
Mcleansboro, IL
Cape Girardeau, MO
Ash Flat, AR
Gillham, AR
Ozark Acres, AR
Atkins, AR
Idabel, OK
Waxahachie, TX
Fredericksburg, TX
Uvalde, TX
Nazas, Durango, Mexico
Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico
(I launched my 2017 Eclipse page in 2010; it's only fitting and just that I launch my 2024 page in 2017!)
The URL for this page is http://russillo.weebly.com/bull-eclipse-2024.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* 2024 Interactive eclipse map
* I ADDED WEATHER LINKS TO TOTALITY PATH LOCATIONS...SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FORGET ABOUT TELESCOPES, especially if you have never used one before. Just a pair of decent eclipse glasses or a rudimentary pinhole camera will do you.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
More links farther below--and especially on my 2017 Eclipse page.
•4/5/24, 08:25 EDT
For a couple days forecasts improved along the southern half. That seemed too good to be true and indeed it was. Fewer storms, but still 80+% chances of cloud cover.
I ADDED WEATHER LINKS TO TOTALITY PATH LOCATIONS...SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
•4/2/24, 15:13 EDT
No news. Cloud-cover forecasts are still terrible.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
• 3/31/24, 16:13 EDT
The main change since yesterday is New England's starting to improve. But for what I'd say is the southern half of the eclipse path (approx. everything south of Indiana) is still crappy; cloud-cover chances > 70-80%.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
• 3/30/24, 11:22 EDT
TERRIBLE NEWS ON THE WEATHER FRONT ("Front?" Ya get it?) NINE DAYS OUT AND *ALL* FORECASTS ALONG THE TOTALITY PATH ARE DOGSH*T. That's southern Texas up to eastern Maine, folks. Starting in Texas at the Mexican border moving NE along the path? They start terrible (cloudiness forecasts of 75% & greater, with storms!) and improve to merely crappy (no precipitation, but the cloudiness forecasts rarely dip below 50%) by the time you get up to NY.
Almost all of the Texas portion of the path—and most of Arkansas—is high % forecasts for T-storms. Could hardly be worse. Literally the only good news I have is that this is a 10-day forecast, and I've routinely put little stock in forecasts farther out than 5 days. FINGERS CROSSED MOTHER-SCRATCHERS!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(FROM HERE DOWN IS THE ORIGINAL PAGE, POSTED 2017)
On Monday (another Monday!) April 8, 2024, a fantastic Total Solar Eclipse will slice northeasterly through the three major North American countries of Mexico, USA and Canada. Specifically, the moon's shadow will come ashore on the Pacific coast of Mexico at a town called Francisco Villa (just south of Mazatlan) and will slice north then east through the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Durango, the southeastern tip of Chihuhaua, then Coahuila, then the American states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, a sliver of southeastern Michigan, then Ontario (Canada), then Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, then the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Islan,d and will depart the North American continent at the tiny hamlet of Maberly, Newfoundland (population 20.)
This eclipse will differ from 8/21/17 in two more significant respects. Because the moon will be slightly closer to the earth on 4/8/24 than it was 8/21/17, the shadow will move faster across the ground (just over an hour from Texas to Maine) yet the duration of totality will be quite a bit greater. The 8/21/17 eclipse, along certain locations on its centerline, "maxed out" at 2min 40sec at its longest. On 4/8/24 totality will last 4:27 on the coast of Mexico and when it enters Texas. By the time it reaches eastern Maine it will "only" be 3:21, but that's still 40 seconds longer than the maximum duration of 8/21/17!
It's a long way off, but as many of you learned with 8/21/17, it's never too early to plan (though it CAN be too early to reserve hotel rooms! Gotta see those weather forecasts!) But I will say this: if I'm coastal Mexico right now? Or southwestern Texas? Or, really, ANYWHERE along the path? I'd be planning for a MASSIVE influx of tourists from April 5 to April 9, 2024.
Easter 2024 is March 31, which means that unless policies change, Spring break that year (in our county and in many other US school districts that base Spring Break on Easter Sunday) will be March 23 to March 31*. IF YOU'RE READING THIS AND ARE SOMEONE WHO IS IN A POSITION TO MAKE THESE KINDS OF DECISIONS, PLEASE GIVE SOME THOUGHT TO MOVING SPRING BREAK, OR AT LEAST MAKE APRIL 8 A HOLIDAY (as many jurisdictions wish they had done in 2017!)
*5/29/23, GCS 23-24 ACADEMIC CALENDAR: Called it!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - LINKS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(many more links are at the bottom of the 2017 Eclipse Page)
Xavier Jubier Eclipse Maps. (Jubier is French--he pronounces his name "ZAH-v'yay JOO-bee-ay"--and he does up some very handy maps. They're interactive so zoom in as far as you like, and when you click anywhere on the map, a pop-up window gives you all kinds of detail about the eclipse as viewed from that location.)
• 2024 Eclipse map
• 2017 & 2024 paths on the same map. (A personal favorite. Imagine living near Makanda, IL, where the 2017 & 2024 totality centerlines cross! NOTE: the pop-ups on this map only have data for 8/21/17.)
• ALL Jubier's interactive maps (1955 - 2039)
I can vouch for Jubier's accuracy; I spotted my 21AUG17 viewing location fastidiously--on the tip of a peninsula, on a lake in Kefauver State Park in Madisonville, TN--and Jubier's times for totality were within a second of my direct observations for both the beginning AND the ending of totality.)
Fred Espinak's maps. Each of these seven shows all eclipse paths for those 20 years simultaneously on the same map.
1961-1980 | 1981-2000 | 2001-2020 | 2021-2040 | 2041-2060 | 2061-2080 | 2081-2100
NASA's Eclipse page. Every eclipse you can imagine. Lunar and solar.
With respect to this pair of eclipses, Dec. 14, 2020 was noteworthy.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
WEATHER LINKS FOR THE TOTALITY PATH.
MORE OR LESS. ISH.
Bona Vista, NL, Canada
Blackville, NB, Canada
Littleton, ME
Plattsburgh, NY
Rochester, NY
Buffalo, NY
Erie, PA
Cleveland, OH
Bloomington, IN
Mcleansboro, IL
Cape Girardeau, MO
Ash Flat, AR
Gillham, AR
Ozark Acres, AR
Atkins, AR
Idabel, OK
Waxahachie, TX
Fredericksburg, TX
Uvalde, TX
Nazas, Durango, Mexico
Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico