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The August 21, 2017 Great American Eclipse


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24 minutes ago, Animal said:

I will be out in Denver. Checked the local news and looks to be at 93% or so. Apparently best location is up near Wyoming I read via local news. Not sure what to expect....reported to be about 2 minutes of something

Those two minutes are only on the totality path......if you stay in Denber, at 93% you may sense a dimming and if you have the glasses you will definitely see something great but if you are only a short drive or so from the totality path you need to find a way to get there......I hear it is other worldly and this is why I am trekking 1500 miles into the middle of the nations heartland in Nebraska to see it.....I have a tight time schedule and I am unsure about a lot of things.....the logistics are insane.....but I will try to get there.....dude you are like only 4 hours away from the path in WY or NE.....GO!!!

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1 hour ago, bdgwx said:

Yes, the black oval is the position of the shadow. Keep in mind that the GFS cloud products look worse than they actually are. As an exercise take a look at GOES-16 imagery tomorrow and compare it to what these cloud charts are showing and you'll see what I mean. 

Ya thanks for reminding me of that......I was also thinking that those cloud cover maps at longer lead times diffuse or creap more.....sort of like those spaghetti plots go bonkers the farther you go out in time as the uncertainty just explodes......anyway my totally uneducated take......its also annoying how those cloud cover shades are basically zero clouds to 100% clouds with no realistic transition in between.....they're like the NAM clown snowfall maps...lol

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4 minutes ago, ice1972 said:

Question.....if you are driving in those last few hours to your target will you bring extra gas tanks full of gas?  Legit question.....or is that dumb in low population areas like NE and WY.....

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

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14 minutes ago, ice1972 said:

Ya seems reasonable.....you can get 300 miles out of Dodge that way and probably be fine.....where are you headed?

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. 

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12 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

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. 

Ya....I have until late tomorrow to make the call otherwise I'm on the hook for the reservations.....honestly I can't believe I got the rates I did but they are a few hours outside the totality zone.....still thinking Nebraska is my final target.....once the decision is made its an all in thing.....no regrets.....can't wait

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Just now, ice1972 said:

Ya....I have until late tomorrow to make the call otherwise I'm on the hook for the reservations.....honestly I can't believe I got the rates I did but they are a few hours outside the totality zone.....still thinking Nebraska is my final target.....once the decision is made its an all in thing.....no regrets.....can't wait

Also.....if it wasn't so far wouldn't you rather be behind the spill over rather than trying to out pace it and risk the chance its faster than expected.....thats part of the reason I like Nebraska.....but I also have an Omaha hotel reservation.....

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41 minutes ago, weathafella said:

The hope is the typical diurnal cumulus can be dampened by the eclipse moving in.  In any case, I'm feeeling ok with Gallatin-timing of the 594dm ridge high water Mark couldn't have been planned better.   Fingers crossed.

Dream conditions would be cold front passage with a drop of dew points.

Instead, this is semi-tropical humid soup.  Hopefully pop up showers and thick clouds will shift north along

the edge of that ridge which wants to trundle north (slowly).   Wouldn't know for sure until 24 hours before the event.

Wishing clear skies to all the eclipse chasers.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, winterymix said:

Dream conditions would be cold front passage with a drop of dew points.

Instead, this is semi-tropical humid soup.  Hopefully pop up showers and thick clouds will shift north along

the edge of that ridge which wants to trundle north (slowly).   Wouldn't know for sure until 24 hours before the event.

Wishing clear skies to all the eclipse chasers.

 

 

Eh..nothings perfect Richard.   I think maybe 2 days after your fropa would be best.  The prevailing conditions in the eastern half of totality through the USA in summer are what they are.  At least in TN Monday looks mainly dry.   Clouds are so hard to predict when there is no synoptic driver though.....good luck and hopefully we all see the black hole!

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2 hours ago, weathafella said:

The hope is the typical diurnal cumulus can be dampened by the eclipse moving in.  In any case, I'm feeeling ok with Gallatin-timing of the 594dm ridge high water Mark couldn't have been planned better.   Fingers crossed.

Safe travels Jerry.  I am so excited for you!   Definitely want to hear a detailed write up.  In Aruba 1998 the Cu did not get dampened by the total eclipse.  Perhaps it was because it is such a small island surround by ocean.  Of course water temps don't change.  An hour of slowly decreasing sunlight before totality might make a difference.  Now that we have GOES 16 with such high resolution it will be interesting to watch from space to see if in fact the cooling does decrease Cu!

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While my central SC target is looking good, Tennessee is becoming more attractive of a target and is drawing me in despite travel challenges. I don't have a place to stay in TN, but I could make my drive back to NH that evening (rather than Tuesday) and swallow the pill with traffic issues until I get far enough north to stay in a reasonably priced hotel. I'd rather have clear sky than to stress about Cu field...

 

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I'm still trying to decide between NE, MO, and TN.  MO would be awesome because I have a brother near St Louis.  But I want to head to the highest percentage chance of clear sky.  We're flying out to Chicago this evening and then just winging it from there.

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29 minutes ago, wackymann said:

I'm still trying to decide between NE, MO, and TN.  MO would be awesome because I have a brother near St Louis.  But I want to head to the highest percentage chance of clear sky.  We're flying out to Chicago this evening and then just winging it from there.

Right now I'm planning on NE.......central NE.....it looks dicey but ATM Monday looks Mostly Sunny sandwiched between convection on Sunday evening and Monday evening....playing with fire.....I'll be driving to Omaha from Madison all day Sunday....

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My wife and I are flying from Syracuse to Louisville tomorrow then driving to Bowling Green where I've had a hotel room reserved since last September. My plan for eclipse day is to drive the 20 miles south to Franklin, KY where totality lasts 2 minutes 25 sec.  Worst case scenario if traffic is a nightmare is to stay at the hotel where totality is 1:15. If I can make it just 9 miles south it increases to 1:45. 

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