Fears of severe weather has put a damper on solar eclipse celebrations in the southwest, particularly in Texas where one highly anticipated event—the Texas Eclipse Festival—canceled its festivities just hours before totality.
Local news stations reported that 30,000 people attended the festival, which began Friday and was slated to run through Tuesday. Melanie Hutzler told the Centre Daily Times that she’d met people from “everywhere” at the festival, including eclipse chasers who flew in from Seattle, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Festival organizers urged people to flee the event ASAP so they weren’t stuck in dangerous weather and traffic, but said it’d allow festival-goers to stay through totality as long as some left as soon as it ended.
The festival’s cancelation sums up the frustration of eclipse chasers who flocked to the Lone Star state, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas to witness a rare phenomenon but now must contended with a forecast of “softball-sized” hail, isolated tornadoes, and wind gusts as high as 60 mph.
Among those giving a grim forecast was NBC News meteorologist Kathryn Prociv, who added that there is one silver lining for those who traveled hundreds—if not thousands—of miles to witness the eclipse: The worst of the storms will likely begin just after the eclipse rolls through between 1:30 and 2:00 p.m. local time.
There isn’t much wiggle room, however. Severe weather from Dallas to Fayetteville, Arkansas, is expected to arrive as early as 3 p.m. and last through the night, Prociv said.
Federal forecasters have also warned eclipse chasers that it may not be safe to be outside at all—let alone traveling on the road—in the immediate aftermath of the event, and possibly not even during it.
As of 9:40 a.m. CT, the National Weather Service projected that severe weather would begin in portions of the totality zone as early as 1 p.m. and could include “scattered large to very large hail.”
“Do not be caught off guard today,” the NWS Storm Prediction center wrote in a statement, adding, “eclipse-related activities may be impacted and hazardous travel is possible.”
Scores of local TV meteorologists in the southwest have warned that significant cloud cover may minimize the spectacle for those in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. It’s an unlucky forecast for those who shelled out thousands in hopes of witnessing an uninterrupted glimpse of a total solar eclipse—a view that’s not expected to be possible again in the lower 48 states until August 12, 2045.
Hotel occupancy has reflected the rarity of the event, with eclipse chasers clamoring for rooms in tiny towns across the U.S. heartland. The travel tech company Amadeus reported that more than 90 percent of hotel rooms in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, were filled for the eclipse—a massive jump from the eight percent occupancy it had on April 7, 2023.
It’s a similar story for other cities who find themselves in the totality path that spans from southern Texas to Maine.
Notable cities in that sliver includes Austin, Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Burlington, Vermont. Hotel prices for Monday in those areas were, on average, $17o more expensive than their nightly rate a year prior, according to Amadeus.
Millions of Americans outside of the totality path, including those in New York City and Chicago, will be able to experience at least an 85 percent eclipse. In those areas, darkness will fall for as long as two hours with a sliver of the sun still visible, experts say. Within the path of totality, total darkness could last between 3.5 and 4 minutes, said University of Texas scientists.
The eclipse will first be visible in southern Texas around 1:30 p.m. as it moves northeast from Mexico. An interactive map by CNN predicts it will then reach Little Rock by 1:50 p.m., Indianapolis by 3:06 p.m., Cleveland by 3:13 p.m., and Burlington by 3:26 p.m. local time.
The famed scientist Bill Nye will be watching the eclipse in Fredericksburg, Texas. He said he’s acutely aware of the poor forecast, but told CNN that the spectacle will still be “amazing.”
“I’ve been in a total solar eclipse in 2002, when it was a little cloudy—it’s still amazing, you guys,” he said. “It goes dark. It turns to night in a few moments.”
Nye added that Earth is unique in that it’s the only place in our solar system that experiences total eclipses from a moon.
“There’s no place else in the solar system where that happens, but it happens here, probably doesn’t happen any other place nearby galactically and so appreciate it,” he told CNN. “It’s a remarkable thing where it goes completely dark when you’re in the path.”
Those hoping to witness the spectacle have been encouraged to get their hands on eclipse glasses—if they’re still available—or make DIY glasses to view the eclipse safely, as NASA explains here.
Officials have urged people to make sure their eclipse specs are legitimate, especially after the Illinois Department of Public Health issued an urgent recall Monday for some that were sold by Amazon and warned they could cause “serious eye damage” if used.
The recalled glasses were labeled “Bikini Solar Eclipse Glasses AAs Approved 2024 – CE & ISO Certified Safe Shades for Direct Sun Viewing (6 Packs)” on Amazon.
Joe Biden was among the countless officials warning against staring directly at the eclipse without proper protection—a dangerous decision that can lead to permanent vision damage. Donald Trump infamously stared straight into the 2017 solar eclipse, drawing the ire of scientists who feared others may follow his lead this time around.
In Biden’s PSA, he appeared to take a dig at Trump without naming him, sharing a short clip of him standing on a White House balcony—the same one Trump was on when he stared into the sun on the last eclipse—as he put on protective eyewear.
“An eclipse is worth marveling at,” he wrote. “But don’t be silly, folks—play it safe and wear protective eyewear.”
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