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April 16

Historical cloud coverage data

I'm starting to make my travel plans to view the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse. Obviously a major consideration is the possibility of cloud cover, which could interfere with viewing the eclipse. So I'd like to see data on cloud conditions at various possible sites on the eclipse path around April 8 in previous years. I've tried looking on the ncie.noaa.gov web site, but if the data is available there I haven't been able to find it. Does anyone know of a way to get this type of data? CodeTalker (talk) 20:26, 16 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

No to your specific question about the NOAA site, CodeTalker, but you can get the information from the American Astronomical Society's dedicated solar eclipse website here – it covers both the 2024 total eclipse and the 2023 annular eclipse whose totality paths cross the USA.

If you look at the website's first drop-down menu "Eclipse America" you'll see there's an item "April 2024 Solar Eclipse". Click on that and you'll be taken to a section which includes a 'heat map' showing the median cloud amounts for April.

Good luck for the event! I travelled from the UK to northern France to see the 1999 total eclipse; despite the broken thin cloud at the observing site, it was still a wonderful experience. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.101.71 (talk) 07:56, 17 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Annularity is a word. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:54, 17 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it is. Your point? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.101.71 (talk) 21:53, 17 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

So next year will have a path of annularity. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 01:36, 18 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Technically true, but I didn't want to complicate the sentence unnecessarily with a detail that is doubtless obvious to the OP, and one might counter-argue that within that path, the Moon's limb is totally inside the Sun's :-). {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.101.71 (talk) 03:53, 18 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Some information here. Alansplodge (talk) 07:45, 17 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The website Weather Underground has historical weather information from thousands of weather stations around the world. For example, [here is the information from a weather station near me, from April 18, 2018. --Jayron 32 16:44, 18 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to all for your help. The heat map referred to by 90.197.101.71 looks particularly useful. CodeTalker (talk) 04:41, 19 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]