Hoosier

Good luck. I am going to try to be as far east in Missouri as possible but if that doesn't look promising, then I should be flexible enough to get into southern IL or western KY. Just gonna try to stay away from Carbondale lol. I have abandoned any notion of trying to make the entire drive on Monday morning... that is just another stressor and I'd be kicking myself big time if traffic did me in.

You doing Nebraska?

I have these big road maps and drew the center line on there. Old school lol. But I'm not taking chances if I have to quickly relocate and internet/GPS is having problems.

It's close to the longest duration. I think the longest duration is in a state park to the east of there, but we are basically talking fractions of a second difference in duration of totality along the center line until you get well east of the area. Greatest eclipse (the moon's shadow passing closest to Earth) is near Hopkinsville, KY.

I think it's received increased attention because of 2024. But it's a decent sized town, near the center line, and relatively easy to get to. The crowds there should be huge.

Hmm, not on my end.

Good read about the logistical issues https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/local/trafficandcommuting/the-eclipse-could-bring-the-worst-traffic-jam-in-us-history-heres-how-states-are-trying-to-keep-that-from-happening/2017/08/18/a1bb07ea-8119-11e7-902a-2a9f2d808496_story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/08/18/total-solar-eclipse-weather-forecast-as-of-aug-18/

My first choice is eastern Missouri. If that's going to be affected by clouds spilling in from the west, then I will probably head to western Kentucky. Nebraska would be absolute last resort. Like you, I'm going to have to make a call with what to do with my hotel reservation (west of STL) in the next day or so. It's hard to have a ton of confidence in the forecast for the Missouri area at this point so I will most likely be making use of my room...get there Sunday and then wake up bright and early on Monday to evaluate the weather situation.

I'm just going to make sure I have a full tank when entering the totality zone.

Indeed, that is where it is at 1 pm central time.

Fyi, the Pivotal Weather maps have the totality path overlaid.

You get some eclipse edge effects that last longer, like Baily's beads. I've read that some veteran eclipse chasers will do the edge thing just for something different, but not recommended for most people who want the real show.

Don't quite me on this, but I think it's the Kansas City Star newspaper that the totality line passes through their parking lot. So yeah, the difference in conditions over short distances is amazing.

I saw a comment from someone who has seen total solar eclipses say that not knowing if you were in totality is like a woman not knowing if she ever gave birth.

If I do Missouri, I am looking at the St. Clair to St. Genevieve corridor in eastern MO. The center line runs through both of those places but I may try to get a little outside of a town to not deal with lights (I did read that some places are disabling the lights from turning on during the eclipse). Been thinking about how I want to experience this eclipse, and I am probably not going to seek out one of those organized viewing parties. This is my first total solar eclipse and I want to take it all in with minimal outside distractions, and I'm sure I'd be pissed if there's a bunch of cursing and hollering, etc.

Gotta say, the St. Louis office has been putting out some particularly detailed discussions for Monday.

The 12z GFS seems more favorable for Nebraska than Missouri. I would not get too hung up on individual runs yet. I really don't want to have to go out to Nebraska (mainly because I want to arrive home at a reasonable hour on Monday night and I'm assuming traffic will be heavy leaving the eclipse) but am prepared to do it if necessary.

Gotta like the 12z GFS. Limited clouds almost perfectly overlaying the path of totality from eastern Nebraska to Tennessee.

There's very convenient interstate access into southern IL from Chicago, Milwaukee, etc. so my guess is that the first choice for most of that crowd is going to be southern IL or thereabouts.

This stuff is so high stakes. If totality lasted a couple hours there'd be a lot more margin for error. We can model watch ourselves to death but it only goes so far. Get some poorly located/timed clouds even on a "mostly sunny" day and you're screwed, unless you just want to see how dark it can get in the middle of the day..

Here's the cloud cover map valid same time. Been closely following the model runs ever since this got in range (especially for the Plains/Midwest region), and after absorbing all these runs, I will be pleasantly surprised if there aren't some cloud concerns somewhere in that region. That is a general takeaway that I'm getting even though there's the usual variance on specific details.

Surprisingly there's a free site that offers it. https://weather.us/model-charts/euro/illinois/total-cloud-coverage/20170821-1800z.html 12z run looks decent. I wish it would be less than 1% though haha

Models have cloud cover output maps. At the College of Dupage website, it's located under the Precipitation Products menu on the left side. Here is the 12z GFS at 1 pm central time on the 21st