Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024
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. 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 four minutes and 28.13 seconds near the town of Nazas, Mexico (~6 km north), and the nearby city of Torreón.
This eclipse will be the first total solar eclipse to be visible in Canada since February 26, 1979, the first in Mexico since July 11, 1991, 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. It will also be the last total solar eclipse visible in the Contiguous United States until August 23, 2044.
The next solar eclipse occurs six months later, on October 2, 2024.
Visibility
Totality will be visible in a narrow strip on the Pacific Ocean passing 200 nm north of the Marquesas Islands and later in North America, beginning at the Pacific coast, then ascending in a northeasterly direction through Mexico, the United States, and Canada, before ending in the Atlantic Ocean.
Mexico
In Mexico, totality will pass through the states of Sinaloa (including Mazatlán), Durango (including Durango and Gómez Palacio) and Coahuila (including Torreón, Matamoros, Monclova, Sabinas, Ciudad Acuña and Piedras Negras).
United States
In the United States, totality will be visible through the states of Texas (including parts of San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth and all of Arlington, Dallas, Killeen, Temple, Texarkana, Tyler and Waco), Oklahoma, Arkansas (including Morrilton/Petit Jean, Hot Springs, Searcy, Jonesboro, and Little Rock), Missouri, Illinois (including Carbondale, where it intersects the path of the 2017 eclipse), Kentucky, Indiana (including Bloomington, Evansville, Indianapolis, Anderson, Muncie, Terre Haute, and Vincennes), Ohio (including Akron, Dayton, Lima, Roundhead, Toledo, Oak Harbor, Cleveland, Warren, Newton Falls and Austintown), Michigan (extreme southeastern corner of Monroe County), Pennsylvania (including Erie), Upstate New York (including Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Syracuse, the Adirondacks, Potsdam, and Plattsburgh), and northern Vermont (including Burlington), New Hampshire, and Maine, with the line of totality going almost directly over the state's highest point Mount Katahdin. The largest city entirely in the path will be Dallas, Texas. It will be the second total eclipse visible from the central United States in just 7 years, after the eclipse of August 21, 2017 (see "Related Eclipses", below). Totality will pass through the town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, home of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon. This will be the last total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States until August 12, 2045.
Canada
In Canada, the path of totality will pass over parts of Southern Ontario (including Leamington, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Kingston, Prince Edward County, and Cornwall), parts of southern Quebec (including Montreal, Sherbrooke, Saint-Georges and Lac-Mégantic), central New Brunswick (including Fredericton and Miramichi), western Prince Edward Island (including Tignish and Summerside), the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and central Newfoundland (including Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor). Then, it will vanish on the eastern Atlantic coast of Newfoundland. (Some of the Canadian cities listed, such as Hamilton and Montreal, are on an edge of the path of totality. Windsor, London, Toronto and Ottawa lie just north of the path of totality, and Moncton lies just south of it.)
Europe
The eclipse will be partially seen in Svalbard (Norway), in Iceland, Ireland, west parts of Great Britain, north-west parts of Spain and Portugal, the Azores and Canary Islands.
Interesting can be the extension of this eclipse below the horizon, where the greatest phase is to be observed at mid-nautical twilight in Galicia (Spain) and the beginning of astronomical twilight in Nouvelle-Aquitannie (France). The extension of the eclipse path within the twilight zone will create probably the best "observation window" for the 12P/Pons-Brooks comet located closely to Jupiter.
Americas
The eclipse will be partially seen in all Central America countries, from Belize to Panama, and in all Greater Antilles (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Jamaica).
Cloud-cover prospects along the path
April is a month of changeable weather along the eclipse path. Over Mexico and the southern United States, afternoon convective buildups are a common part of the climate, while northern regions are still immersed in late winter and early spring weather, with passing low-pressure disturbances that can bring rain, snow, or anything in between. Of all of the elements important to eclipse viewing, eclipse-day cloud cover is likely the most important unless severe storms are present across the south, or spring storms with blizzard-like conditions are passing in the north. In general, the cloud pattern is fairly simple: lowest average cloud amounts are found in the south, particularly in Mexico, while the greatest amounts are found in the northeastern United States and Canada.
Satellite-measured cloud cover averages between 25 and 35 percent along the axis of the eclipse track from Mazatlan to Torreón, Mexico, and then begins a steady increase, rising above 50 percent along the Texas-Mexico border. At Carbondale, IL, where the 2024 track crosses that of the 2017 eclipse, average cloudiness has risen to 60 percent before cresting at 75 percent in western Ohio. Due to the influence of lakes Erie and Ontario, cloud cover along the eclipse central line declines to between 60 and 65 percent through Cleveland, OH, Buffalo, NY, and Rochester, NY. Through Vermont, Quebec, Maine, and New Brunswick, April cloudiness climbs to a maximum of 80 percent or more, before declining by about 15 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 65 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 percent.
Maps of average cloud cover identify a few locations off the central axis of the eclipse where cloud cover is more favourable to the eclipse traveller. 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 favour higher terrain, though the differences across the shadow path are not large, as these states already have a large average cloud cover in springtime.
Related eclipses
The path of this eclipse will cross the path of the prior total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, with the intersection of the two paths being in southern Illinois, in Makanda, just south of Carbondale. The cities of Benton, Carbondale, Chester, Harrisburg, Marion, and Metropolis in Illinois; Cape Girardeau, Farmington, and Perryville in Missouri, as well as Paducah, Kentucky, will be within a roughly intersection of the paths of totality of both the 2017 and 2024 eclipses.
Eclipses of 2024
A penumbral lunar eclipse on March 25.
A total solar eclipse on April 8.
A partial lunar eclipse on September 18.
An annular solar eclipse on October 2.
Solar eclipses 2022–2025
Saros 139
Tritos series
Metonic series
Other solar eclipses crossing the United States
Notable total and annular solar eclipse crossing the United States in the 20th century:
Notable total and annular solar eclipse crossing the United States in the 21st century:
See also
List of solar eclipses in the 21st century
References
External links
2024 Total Solar Eclipse – CNN
Average cloud coverage during total eclipse of 2024-04-08: Canada US Mexico
Besselian Elements for the Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 Apr 08
Hermit Eclipse: Total Solar Eclipse April 8, 2024
Information on the 2024 total solar eclipse for every community!
NationalEclipse.com An educational site launched for the 2024 eclipse with overviews, maps, city data, events, animations, merchandise, historical information, and other resources.
Solar Eclipse 2024, 2023, 2021, Eclipse Glasses Information about the 2024 eclipse, including maps, city data, events, animations, and an interactive Google Map providing custom eclipse information.
Solar Eclipse US Information, resources, safety precautions and educator resources for 2023 & 2024 solar eclipse with focus on North America.
Illustrated, nontechnical talk by astronomer Andrew Fraknoi about this eclipse and safe viewing
2024 04 08
2024 04 08
2024 04 08
2024 in science
2024 in North America