Clouds still reign for Monday eclipse forecast, thinning past Dallas

Increasing clouds are poised to ruin solar eclipse viewing for some in Texas Monday. Others, however, may see a break, especially the farther northeast one travels within the Lone Star State.

The overall solar eclipse is expected to begin in Texas shortly after 12 p.m. and conclude three hours later. Areas to the north and south of the zone of totality will see a partial eclipse. In both Abilene and San Angelo, observers can expect to see 96% of the sun blocked at the height of occlusion.

Totality, the complete blocking of the sun by the moon, will be what some observers see as a round shadow 115-miles wide cast by the moon travels 487 miles from Eagle Pass to the Red River between Paris and Texarkana. Depending upon where you are, that complete darkness will begin just after 1:30 p.m. and may last approximately 3-4 minutes.

Mark Cunningham at the National Weather Service Office in San Angelo said on Sunday that five counties in their coverage area will experience the total solar eclipse, Kimball, Mason, San Saba, McCullough and Menard counties.

"Maybe the question is, is it going to be partly cloudy or mostly cloudy?" he said. "If we were just dealing with high clouds, that would definitely probably be just a little bit better. But if we get low clouds in there, that's really going to dampen it."

His estimation was that the probability of lower, thicker clouds might diminish more closer to Zephyr in south Brown County, as opposed to down by San Saba, Brady and Junction. But either way, at this point clouds in the Concho Valley will be a feature of the eclipse, not a bug.

Steve Fano at the National Weather Service Office in Fort Worth characterized their forecast as bad news versus good news.

"The bad news is we think, basically, any areas south of Interstate 20 in the path of totality will have probably limited, to almost no visibility of the eclipse," Fano said, adding that meant possibly broken, overcast skies. "The good news is the further north and east you get, like heading from dallas, up through Paris, the better chances you have of no low clouds and thinner high clouds.

"It looks like as you head into southeast Oklahoma, that may actually be some of the best viewability for the eclipse."

But if traveling to the other side of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is too far, he suggested low clouds may not be so bad east of Stephenville, which is right on the edge of the zone of totality.

"There is probably going to be a widget of area right around the Stephenville area, kind of north and northeastward, that may not quite get into those low clouds," Fano explained.

He added they used I-20 as a general boundary in predicting these clouds, but that it's not a hard and fast one.

"If I were telling my family or somebody, just knowing what I know right now, I would stick probably between Stephenville and Granbury, which may be right on the edge as well," Fano said. "But no further south and east, not into Hillsborough or Waco or Hico or anything like that."

The weather excitement doesn't end after the eclipse, however. Both forecasters said severe weather is expected later in the day as well. With so many people on the move, many may encounter it as they return home in the afternoon and evening hours.

"It looks like the severe weather will hold off until mid to late afternoon tomorrow," Fano said. "It'll likely be in the areas that see the most clouds tomorrow."

Thunderstorms and possible hail are expected, though the tornado risk is low.

"We don't anticipate this being an enormous tornado outbreak, but just based on what we're seeing right now, I wouldn't be surprised if a tornado or two were to develop at some point in time during the course of Monday afternoon into Tuesday," Fano said.

Credits