wxeyeNH

A friend of mine up in Sherbrooke Quebec is not really into weather and such. I have been harping about this eclipse forever. Honestly he was not really into it. This morning I said just wait and then give me your honest opinion. His text just now was "No words. Honestly the coolest 3 minutes of my life". I'm glad it worked out. The next total solar eclipse for New England is 2079 but it is an early morning crappy eclipse. After that well into the next century for us

Wasn't it great? Since we saw ours in 1998 I keep telling people you have to see one in your lifetime. Here at 98% it was no big deal. Either your under the shadow or your not. Congrats. The weather along the swatch turned out much better than it had looked. It was fun to watch from the Mansfield webcam.

61.4F at first contact. Thin cirrus moving overhead now so the temperature drop will not be 100% from the eclipse

The kids will remember this afternoon for the rest of their lives. Hope you guys enjoy it

Ouch. From Rt 93 over the Pemi near Thorton to Cannon is 20 miles. Lots of kids, Mom I have to go to the bathroom!

The social element is really interesting to watch. I have waited for this day since 1998 when I saw my last total. I always thought NH was not prepared if it would be a nice day. According to the traffic maps Rt 93 if you can get through Concord up towards the noth you will hit a 15 mile traffic jam. I even had thought about contra flow after the eclipse to get people southbound but that would take so much $$ to setup.

45 minute traffic jam to get through the Notch

I just checked. Cabot Lodge only has a 45 second total eclipse. Even the other side of Lancaster to the north adds 30 seconds. You are so close to awesomeness but I would definately drive 15 minutes north. Just my opinion who has seen a total

Lancaster gets just barely under totality. If you can even a 5 or 10 mile drive further north is a darker and much longer eclipse. At the edge of a solar eclipse each mile towards centerline adds quite a bit more time for totality

Early release in my school district Central Nh

These high clouds are going to screw things up a bit. My feeling is that you still will see the eclipsed sun but it will be slightly to the west at 3:30pm. towards slightly thicker cirrus. That might block out the corona, Bailey's Beads and planets. Looking at the traffic maps Franconia Notch has a 4 mile backup.

I am curious to hear from you Mets. The timing of that cirrus layer is critical. Although the sun will filter through I don't know if it will be a thicker solid high overcast with filtered sun or a very thin layer of cirrus that is hardly noticable. I'm not smart enough to look at the moisture layers to determine how thick the moisture layer might be. Even if the layer is thin it will screw up seeing the Diamond Ring, Bailey's Beads and the sun's corona. The planets would not be visiable either. Any thoughts on how "thick" is thick? Looks like a total layer with no holes. One more thing. At 3:30pm the sun is in the western sky to some degree. So even if the forward line of cirrus is still slightly west of any given point it may still block the afternoon sun

I just heard from a friend that just came up that RT 93 traffic is very heavy northbound. Over a 3 mile backup at the split of Rt 89 and Rt 93.

Watch what those cirrus coming in from the west. If you have choices more easterly options might be best. I'm thinking epic traffic jam in the notch right afterwards in that area near Echo lake which is one lane. This will be interesting to see how it plays out. It seems to me so many people are going but my circle of friends are interested in things like this so it is hard to gauge.

Good post

I have done the crossing into Sherbrooke many times. Usually a wait even on a regular day. I don't see how border patrol would be able to handle more than 50 cars per hour. I guess you can do a Uturn right before the border and if you time it right just pull over. All the traffic will stop at 3:25pm and with miles and miles of country land the police can't be everyplace to tell you to move on

My town is adjacent to Plymouth NH so I know the local roads well. I think the traffic is going to be fair worse than most people are expecting. The problem going north from Plymouth is that there is only one way through Franconia Notch. One lane each direction. With hundreds of thousand people coming I don't see how Rt93 would handle that. Remember that there is very little cell service in N NH and few gas stations and restrooms. Take food with you and gas. The few restaurants up in totality will be unable to help this amount of people. Although it is probable that skies would be clear over Maine there is no easy way to get there from here. Not even on a good day. So my advice is from Plymouth go west on Rt25 up to Haverill. Then use one of the bridges to cross into Vermont. Monroe might be best. Then Rt 5 to St Johnsbury. Cirrus might be an issue but our limited road system will be so overwhelmed. Just impossible to tell.

I just heard that Burlington VT is now expecting 200,000 extra people. Especially because New England may have the best viewing people that were heading to other areas like upstate NY may try to come east with less chance of that cirrus deck. So traffic jams and few services may end up being the big story. I still have 10" of heavy wet snow on the ground (that is melting quick) so people thinking they can just pull off the pavement into some snow are going to have a rude awaking. With the 18" in the last storm and a foot or so the other day. Also whenever i drive NW of my area there is no cell service in vast rural areas so people that get stuck or rely on GPS maps are going to be in trouble. The whole social element of this is very interesting to me.

If we do have cirrus to the SW it will add to the spectacular as the sunlight returns right after totality

I think the cirrus will block out the corona and you will not be able to see any planets but all and all it should be good. I have been watching the Euro and GFS every run. Weatherbell has tools that even break down cloud cover by type. The good thing is that on the 12Z runs the cirrus are slightly slower to move in. On thing is that I can tell you because I am very active in our Newfound FB group is that so many people are planning to head north. So really plan on that. The other thing that strikes me is how many people are planning to go up to Lincoln. With a solar eclipse either it is totality or bust. Good luck Jerry. Take some pictures!

The 12Z GFS is ever so slightly slower with the cirrus to the SW.. Good trend. I would like to see the Euro go that way too. I didn't post the NAM but it has a fair amount of CU in NNE. As totally approaches the sun will progressive dim so that cloudiness should be able to wane somewhat??

For New England The 1970 total eclipse is the closest anology to this one. There was an annular eclipse in May 1994. That past over me in Central NH. 93% sun coverage and it was barely noticable. In 1970 only Nantucket was had a total eclipse. Everyone else just saw a partial. Partial is interesting but no big deal. Okay, I'll stop honking about Monday. By the way I don't like how the Euro is bringing in the high clouds so early. 1970 path is below

Steve, I "totally" get it that you would not want to travel to NNE and deal with all the traffic. I bookmarked the Mansfield cam. The only thing I can say is a 99% eclipse vs 100% totality is literally night and day. I will never forget the wall of darkness coming up the beach. I was curious about 1970. Only Nantucket got into totality. SE Rhode Island had a 98% partial eclipse. That is similar to what I am goin to experience. I keep telling locals even a 98% eclipse is no big deal. It is 100% or it is a bust.

Steve, you and I are of the same age. I remember that 1970 eclipse. I was 14 and the family and I skied at Wildcat. I think it was perhaps 95% totality. It got a bit darker. Then in 1998 I traveled to Aruba and saw a total eclipse. I can't say it changed my life but it was by far the coolest natural type event of my lifetime. I went on a tornado chase many years back and saw 2 tornadoes. Not extremely close but within a couple of miles. The eclipse was way better.

I just looked at the 12Z GFS and Euro. I am getting a bit more concerned about the high clouds to the SW getting into New England by eclipse time. GFS still looks good but Euro is a bit faster. At 3:30pm the sun will be somewhat to the west so high clouds in that direction is not good. Here are both model runs and comparison to the former runs.