San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Could clouds ruin the total eclipse?
A potential once-in-alifetime event is just a month away. A total solar eclipse will cut a northwesterly path across Texas on April 8. If you haven’t made plans to see it yet, do it now. The next total solar eclipse won’t be visible across Texas until 2077.
This is different from the annular solar eclipse that happened back in October. In a total eclipse, the moon appears large enough in the sky to entirely obscure the sun. But during the annular eclipse, the moon was farther away from the Earth, which made it appear smaller — too small to cover the sun completely. Instead, it allowed the edges of the sun to shine
through and produce a ring of light.
On April 8, the moon
will be slightly closer to Earth, making it appear large enough to completely
block out the sun for a few minutes along the path of totality, seeming to turn day into night.
It’s only during those few minutes of darkness that it is safe to take off your eclipse glasses. But will there actually be anything to see, or will clouds ruin the fun in the Lone Star State? Here’s a look at what we know so far.
Because eclipse day is still a month away, we do not have a solid forecast for April 8. Weather models that look out beyond a few weeks are typically very unreliable. Instead, we’re going to take a look at climatology, or what the average conditions are in Texas in early April.
Government researchers at the National Center of Environmental Information have published historical averages for cloud cover on April 8 for many cities along the eclipse path. Some Texas cities historically have experience more cloudiness on April 8 than others.
San Antonio: Downtown San Antonio is not in the path of totality, meaning that you’ll have to be in the northwest side of town to see the total eclipse. It’s also not the best place to see the ellipse, based on historical cloud data. The NCEI reports that San Antonio has either overcast or mostly cloudy skies 56.9% of the time on the afternoon of April 8. Skies are only completely clear 17.2% of the time.
Hondo: If you move toward Hondo, west of San Antonio, visibility will be better for a few reasons. First, the area is more centrally located in the path of totality. Secondly, average cloudiness is much lower than in San Antonio. Mostly cloudy or overcast skies happen just 27.9% of the time. Similar averages are present in Uvalde, Kerrville and Comfort.
Dallas: The DallasFort Worth Metroplex is also in the path of totality, but according to the NCEI data, the area has a 53.7% chance of mostly cloudy or overcast skies.
Houston: Texas’ largest city is not in the path of totality, but residents will see an impressive partial eclipse. Unfortunately, Houston’s position close to the Gulf of Mexico causes even more cloudiness in the region. Overcast or mostly cloudy skies happen nearly 60% of the time in Houston on April 8.
To clarify again, this is not a forecast but simply a look at what skies, on average, look like in Texas in early April. Stay updated on the latest forecasts with expressnews.com/ weather over the next few weeks, as we determine with more accuracy what kind of weather we’ll get on eclipse day.