Can you remember the fanfare of the August 2017 full solar eclipse that crossed the country from northwest to southeast?
Not since June 8, 1918 had such a celestial event occurred in the United States! We had a partial glimpse here in Houston that Monday afternoon of Aug. 21 as you can see from the cover photo above: three meteorologists walk into an eclipse....below is the “path of total darkness”:
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Those lucky enough to be under the full eclipse saw as much as two minutes and 41 seconds of ‘nighttime’ during the day. Here’s a still shot from a great time-lapse out of Greenville, South Carolina:
To see the full, 30-second time lapse go right here!
Of course, this all happened to much fanfare the same Monday that a tropical depression formed off Barbados. That depression moved to the Bay of Campeche on Wednesday where Tropical Storm Harvey was born and by Friday night the state began to feel the wrath of the worst tropical cyclone in history. A Category 140 mph storm barreled into Rockport that night, slowed down over Victoria for two days and dropped at least 50″ of rain on our region (I’ve seen viewer rain gauges with as much as 60″).
I had a viewer yesterday ask if the full eclipse -- a once-in-a-hundred-year event at the time -- played a role in the sudden rise of Hurricane Harvey that same week. In short, no. While some growing cumulus clouds in the eclipse path did stop growing during that two minutes of darkness and temperatures cooled 15 degrees in spots -- that is about the only sensible change to the weather the eclipse caused. In fact, the eclipse did not come anywhere near the growing Harvey and, if it had, the cooling effect would have prevented more growth, not exacerbated it. The only relationship the two had is that Harvey stole the eclipse thunder pretty quickly.
Not to worry, on April 8, 2024 -- only 593 days, not 100 years -- another total eclipse will occur in the US, running from Mexico across Texas and clear to Canada! Take a look at that path:
Yes, there are already eclipse festivals being planned in Texas and across the country. You can check those out here. Let’s hope for clear skies and a relaxing weekend and week to enjoy the event!
Frank