One single cloud in an inconvenient position could spoil the event — or the view of the highly anticipated solar eclipse.
With just one week until the event, travel and viewing plans for many have shifted to the weather forecast. total eclipse, travel and viewing plans for many have shifted to the weather forecast.
Right now, things look promising in Western Pennsylvania.
WTAE meteorologist Jill Szwed said the regions around Pittsburgh and Erie should be free of rain on April 8.
“An area of high pressure will bring near-optimal viewing conditions for locations on the northern side of the path of totality,” Szwed said. “We will call skies partly cloudy as of right now.”
On April 8, the effect of the moon’s shadow will progress southwest to northeast from Mexico, to Texas, to Ohio and Northwestern Pennsylvania, and then Maine. Nearly 32 million people are set to be in the path of totality
In Pennsylvania, the path of totality crosses in Erie. Peak totality will be at 3:18 p.m.
Temperatures should reach the low 60s at peak eclipse time, said David Shallenberger, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Moon. There’s also the possibility of some very light showers, but not until that night, he said.
“They’re not coming in until after the eclipse,” Shallenberger said of rain showers.
The potential for some cloud cover probably won’t be enough to obscure the view, he said.
The last eclipse happened in 2017, and it won’t happen again for another 20 years, according to NASA. Fifteen total solar eclipses have been recorded in the U.S. in the last 150 years, with the next one expected in August 2044.
A survey by researchers at the University of Michigan estimated that more than 150 million American adults observed the 2017 eclipse directly, while another 60 million watched it on TV or the internet, the Washington Post reported.
Shallenberger said the NWS Pittsburgh’s forecast extends to part of Mercer County, which is about an hour away from Presque Isle State Park in Erie.
Presque Isle is preparing to welcome 50,000 to 100,000 people April 8.
Tom DeKoning, director of mountain operations at Peek’n Peak Resort in Chautauqua County, N.Y., is hosting a large deck party. The resort, not far from Pennsylvania border and Erie, plans multiple viewing sites for guests.
DeKoning isn’t wasting time worrying about the weather.
“It should be a really nice day to see the eclipse,” he said.
