^^^^^A total solar eclipse will take place at the Moon's ascending node on Monday, April 8, 2024, visible across North America and dubbed the Great North American Eclipse (also Great American Total Solar Eclipse and Great American Eclipse) by some of the media.[1][2][3] A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs only in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide.
Occurring only one day after perigee (perigee on Sunday, April 7, 2024), the Moon's apparent diameter will be 5.5% larger than average. With a magnitude of 1.0566, its longest duration of totality will be of 4 minutes and 28.13 seconds near the Mexican town of Nazas, Durango, (about 4 mi (6 km) north), and the nearby city of Torreón, Coahuila.
This eclipse will be the first total solar eclipse to be visible in the provinces of Canada since February 26, 1979,[4][5] the first in Mexico since July 11, 1991,[6] and the first in the U.S. since August 21, 2017. It will be the only total solar eclipse in the 21st century where totality will be visible in Mexico, the United States, and Canada.[7] It will also be the last total solar eclipse visible in the Contiguous United States until August 23, 2044.
The final solar eclipse of the year will occur six months later, on October 2, 2024.
Cloud-cover prospects along the path:
April is a month of changeable weather along the eclipse path. The weather in Mexico and the southern United States include afternoon convective buildups, whereas northern regions are still immersed in late winter and early spring weather, with passing low-pressure disturbances (e.g., rain, snow). Of these disturbances, eclipse-day cloud cover is most likely, unless severe storms are present across the south or spring storms with blizzard-like conditions are passing in the north. Cloud patterns are simple: lowest average cloud coverage occur in the south, particularly in Mexico, whereas the highest amounts of coverage crop up in the northeastern United States and Canada.[16]
Along the eclipse path, various locations will encounter differing cloud coverage and thus different views. Cloud cover is measured by satellite and averages 25–35% along the axis of the eclipse track—from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, to Torreón, Coahuila—and begins a steady increase, rising above fifty percent along the U.S.-Mexico border. At Carbondale, Illinois, where the 2024 track crosses that of the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, average cloudiness rises to sixty percent before it peaks at seventy-five percent in western Ohio.
The Great Lakes Erie and Ontario influence cloud cover along the eclipse central line, and the percentage of cover declines to 60–65% through Cleveland, OH; Buffalo, NY; and Rochester, NY. Through Vermont, Quebec, Maine, and New Brunswick, April cloudiness climbs to a maximum of eighty percent or more, before declining by about fifteen percent along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The community of Tignish, Prince Edward Island, enjoys the best cloud-cover prospects in the northeast due to its exposure to the Gulf, with average monthly amounts falling back to sixty-five percent. Farther across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, April cloudiness climbs again. Newfoundland, standing in the path followed most often by April storms, sees an average monthly cloud cover that peaks between 80 and 85%.
Maps of average cloud cover identify a few locations off the central axis of the eclipse where cloud cover is more favorable to the eclipse traveler. The western side of the track through Texas has sunnier skies than those on the eastern side. The same is true in Arkansas and Missouri, where average April cloud cover can be as much as 20 percent lower than on the east side, around Jonesboro. Through New York, Vermont, and Maine, heavier cloud tends to favor higher terrain, though the differences across the shadow path are not large, as these states already have a large average cloud cover in springtime.
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