Choosing a region to visit for the eclipse

The eclipse is now less than 5 months away, so it's a good time to be looking at places to go for it. (if you need inspiration, please read the first post on this blog, and please continue to follow for more stories!) 

As a reminder, the totality path is between the red lines:

http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2024_GoogleMapFull.html 

Perhaps this will be a good topic to bring up at upcoming holiday gatherings. 🙂

When choosing which general region to visit for the eclipse, there can be multiple factors. 

Proximity to the path can be a factor. If you are lucky enough to live close to the path, your drive to see an incredible natural event is a short one! Remember: a deep partial eclipse- including over 90%- does NOT come close to comparing to totality! There are things you would see and experience during totality that you can't experience at any other time - but only if you go to the path. Some of you may live close enough to make it a day trip (although you'd have to live very close: the traffic getting to the path will be crazy!) 

Another factor could be to visit an area that interests you- an area that has pretty scenery, fascinating museums, unique food, or other things that make the area someplace that you would like to visit. Remember to dedicate April 8 to the eclipse (in the path), but you could visit other places in the region in the day or days surrounding the eclipse. 

It's a good idea to have several regions in mind, in case your first choice does not work out (places to stay are full or expensive, or other reasons) 

Here are some other factors: 

Family and Friends: Of course, you may be lucky enough to have family or friends who live in the path- give them a call if you haven't already! (Inviting yourself may be ok here 😀)

But what if you and your friends and family all live outside the path? It's certainly a good goal to try to get a large group of family members and/or friends to go together, but getting everyone to agree on the same area may prove to be a difficult task. The key here, in my opinion, is to make sure that everyone knows about the ENTIRE eclipse path. Sure, you can invite friends and family to join you where you choose to go- but make sure they know about the rest of the shadow path, so they can choose where to go if some other region interests them. If a friend or family member chooses to view the eclipse from a different location, you can always share stories later on (make sure that they travel to the path of totality!). Certainly, spouses should travel together. Children should travel with their parents (unless they're old enough to travel independently). 

That's one of the reasons for having several options in mind: perhaps a location that is your second choice happens to be the first choice of someone close to you. You could then potentially meet up with them for the eclipse. Ultimately, though, the goal should be to get people to go where they want to go.

Sentimental reasons: You may have a personal connection with an area in the eclipse path. Perhaps you've lived there before. Perhaps you have relatives or close friends that live there. Perhaps you visited it when you were younger and want to visit it again. 

Crowded areas: Some areas may be very crowded for the eclipse. Since the eclipse is on a Monday, that could mean that these areas may be very crowded on the Saturday and Sunday leading into eclipse day. This could mean long lines to get into museums and other interesting places, big crowds at parks, long waits at restaurants, traffic jams, and more. If you don't mind the crowds- or maybe you will even enjoy being part of them- then you can potentially consider going to one of the areas that will likely draw the biggest crowds. If you want to avoid the big crowds, then you may want to consider going somewhere else for the eclipse- provided, of course, you end up in the path of totality when the eclipse is happening! 

The larger cities and major towns in the totality path, areas that are having big eclipse festivals, and popular tourist areas (such as the Texas Hill Country) will likely be the most crowded.

The Weather: Serious eclipse chasers will, of course, use their safety and their finances as their top factors in choosing where to go. They will also choose an area that interests them. But they are- in many cases- willing to go to an area that isn't the most interesting to them. Why? Because serious eclipse chasers almost always use the weather as a factor. They ask the following question: "Where are the highest chances for clear skies along the eclipse path?"

This is an excellent website to check out: https://eclipsophile.com/2024tse/

Jay Anderson has created this website. He is a meteorologist from Canada, and he studies weather patterns for areas that experience total solar eclipses. Is the weather in a certain area typically clear, cloudy, or mixed? Does the time of day make a difference (some areas might tend to have clear skies in the morning and cloudier skies in the afternoon- or vice versa)? Eclipse chasers will frequently position themselves in an area that has a high chance for clear skies that time of year. 

But climate data does not predict what the weather will do on eclipse day: it just shows the general weather patterns for that time of year. The following has been stated many times on the eclipse chaser's discussion group: "Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get." 

That being said, weather shouldn't be the only factor- but you could possibly come up with a balance between choosing a region with decent weather chances and the other factors mentioned. Later on, I'll be posting some suggestions on what you might want to consider doing if the weather forecast predicts clouds in the area that you're wanting to watch the eclipse. I will preface that post by saying: Be flexible! 

Does anyone else have suggestions on what other factors people may use to choose a region to experience the eclipse? If so, please leave them in the comments below. Thanks for reading!