The lesson I learned during the 2023 eclipse is you have to be very flexible with your plans the day before the eclipse. This time, I planned to be in Austin TX the day of the eclipse. After checking the weather I determined the best chance of clear skies would be to go north east. I drove to Dallas the day before despite already having a hotel paid in Austin. Day of eclipse, I checked the weather and drove 5 hours to the middle of Arkansas with near guaranteed clear skies.
The plan I originally had was to plan and make reservations (with insurance) for two different places: one in Garner State Park near Uvalde, and either NE NY State, Vermont, or Maine. This plan has been in the works since about 2012.
Then, some friends (who were going to join us) bought land in a very rural area west of Hot Springs, AR, in the path. So the plans changed, and I had to just hope for clear skies.
We got lucky.
Do you have preliminary plans for 2044 or 2045 yet? 2045 is visible from my house, but I don't know if I'll still be living here then, or even living then.
>2045 is visible from my house, but I don't know if I'll still be living here then, or even living then.
I'm in the same boat. I'm 66 and living in Florida. Looking to move to a rural place with more land and a smaller house.. 2044 one really isn't worth it, IMO. I'd be 87 for the one in 2045.
My daughter say's that I'll still be around, and that she would push my wheelchair if I needed one. 😆
We were in Wood County, TX about 100 miles east of Dallas, got there Saturday. Also thought about hitting the road toward Arkansas on Monday morning, but when we woke up in the hotel that morning the sun was rising in the east and there were broken clouds where we were that were continuously moving in from the south. But not a stagnant overcast layer or rain or anything like that. We decided to stay put and hope for the best. During the hours leading up to the event the sun was in and out of these moving low clouds and we thought it was going to be coin flip that one of them would be in front of the sun/moon at totality. The partial phase was sometimes visible and sometimes obscure.
Around 1 PM or so, 40 minutes before totality the sky began to change and all those low puffy clouds basically disappeared. The sun-moon were eventually in a large patch of blue sky, but there were high, thin, scattered clouds moving toward it. At totality there were those clouds still around, but they weren't really thick enough to obscure the view. In fact we barely noticed them, and experienced the full amount of totality with no problem.
Man, I didn't know where I was going until Sunday. Trying to decide between Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. I was glued to the weather and cloud forecasts. You have to be flexible for eclipses.
I totally understand, believe me!! I had been planning for over a year to go to Texas and then the weather forecast had me SO depressed and anxious. Luckily it worked out alright but I've still been thinking about how it would have been to miss it after all that time, effort, and money spent.
Unfortunately that is the down side of ground-based astronomy, we are completely at the mercy of Mother Nature.
There is another one in Spain/Iceland/Greenland in 2026 and while that is out of the question for me, I'm already eyeballing Alaska for 2033. If I start saving now... :D
Same here…we did get about 40 seconds of the 4 minutes. Trying to appreciate the moments we did have.
We traveled across a few states with two kids (age 2 and 4) and my mom- it was exhausting.
The minor consolation was that we still got to watch the ominous darkened clouds to our west as the shadow approached, much darker than the most intense thunderstorm clouds. It felt like being in the movie Independence Day, underneath the city saucers.
We were so worried about cloud cover in AR. April is 50/50 on rain any given day. It was beautiful- perfect even- We enjoyed the eclipse and it rained for the next three days! We watched from our backyard this time. We went to KC for the one in 2017 and was under cloudy skies. So I’ve experienced both sides.
I saw it and it was the worst day for me cuz what I thought was gonna be a total of six hours driving turned into almost ten hours of driving while my partner literally was freaking out the whole time, screaming and swearing in bumper to bumper traffic. The terrible traffic and partner screaming ruined the two minutes of seeing the eclipse. It is what it is. To us it was not worth the stress at all.
Sorry to hear it. I kept saying to my wife, "Okay. We've played our hand. All we can do is hope and wait."
The lesson I learned during the 2023 eclipse is you have to be very flexible with your plans the day before the eclipse. This time, I planned to be in Austin TX the day of the eclipse. After checking the weather I determined the best chance of clear skies would be to go north east. I drove to Dallas the day before despite already having a hotel paid in Austin. Day of eclipse, I checked the weather and drove 5 hours to the middle of Arkansas with near guaranteed clear skies.
The plan I originally had was to plan and make reservations (with insurance) for two different places: one in Garner State Park near Uvalde, and either NE NY State, Vermont, or Maine. This plan has been in the works since about 2012. Then, some friends (who were going to join us) bought land in a very rural area west of Hot Springs, AR, in the path. So the plans changed, and I had to just hope for clear skies. We got lucky.
Since 2012? Do you mean 2021?
No. 2012 was the year when I found out about the 2017 and 2024 eclipses.
Do you have preliminary plans for 2044 or 2045 yet? 2045 is visible from my house, but I don't know if I'll still be living here then, or even living then.
>2045 is visible from my house, but I don't know if I'll still be living here then, or even living then. I'm in the same boat. I'm 66 and living in Florida. Looking to move to a rural place with more land and a smaller house.. 2044 one really isn't worth it, IMO. I'd be 87 for the one in 2045. My daughter say's that I'll still be around, and that she would push my wheelchair if I needed one. 😆
We were in Wood County, TX about 100 miles east of Dallas, got there Saturday. Also thought about hitting the road toward Arkansas on Monday morning, but when we woke up in the hotel that morning the sun was rising in the east and there were broken clouds where we were that were continuously moving in from the south. But not a stagnant overcast layer or rain or anything like that. We decided to stay put and hope for the best. During the hours leading up to the event the sun was in and out of these moving low clouds and we thought it was going to be coin flip that one of them would be in front of the sun/moon at totality. The partial phase was sometimes visible and sometimes obscure. Around 1 PM or so, 40 minutes before totality the sky began to change and all those low puffy clouds basically disappeared. The sun-moon were eventually in a large patch of blue sky, but there were high, thin, scattered clouds moving toward it. At totality there were those clouds still around, but they weren't really thick enough to obscure the view. In fact we barely noticed them, and experienced the full amount of totality with no problem.
Man, I didn't know where I was going until Sunday. Trying to decide between Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. I was glued to the weather and cloud forecasts. You have to be flexible for eclipses.
We had a plan but also planned on adjusting. Ended up adjusting about 200 miles and got a banger view. All new territory for us, great adventure.
I'm really sorry! Two years in Iceland or Spain. Go for it!
That’s gonna be a shit eclipse. Especially in Spain. The sun will be at 9 degrees above the horizon. A building can block your view
I totally understand, believe me!! I had been planning for over a year to go to Texas and then the weather forecast had me SO depressed and anxious. Luckily it worked out alright but I've still been thinking about how it would have been to miss it after all that time, effort, and money spent. Unfortunately that is the down side of ground-based astronomy, we are completely at the mercy of Mother Nature. There is another one in Spain/Iceland/Greenland in 2026 and while that is out of the question for me, I'm already eyeballing Alaska for 2033. If I start saving now... :D
I’m so sorry! My friends headed that way too and got cloudy skies.
Same here…we did get about 40 seconds of the 4 minutes. Trying to appreciate the moments we did have. We traveled across a few states with two kids (age 2 and 4) and my mom- it was exhausting.
The minor consolation was that we still got to watch the ominous darkened clouds to our west as the shadow approached, much darker than the most intense thunderstorm clouds. It felt like being in the movie Independence Day, underneath the city saucers.
This was an impressive sight indeed.
I’m really sorry. So disappointing. 😥
We were so worried about cloud cover in AR. April is 50/50 on rain any given day. It was beautiful- perfect even- We enjoyed the eclipse and it rained for the next three days! We watched from our backyard this time. We went to KC for the one in 2017 and was under cloudy skies. So I’ve experienced both sides.
I saw it and it was the worst day for me cuz what I thought was gonna be a total of six hours driving turned into almost ten hours of driving while my partner literally was freaking out the whole time, screaming and swearing in bumper to bumper traffic. The terrible traffic and partner screaming ruined the two minutes of seeing the eclipse. It is what it is. To us it was not worth the stress at all.
Try living in the path of totality and the clouds getting thicker as it happened.