Total solar eclipse 2024: Spectators share their positions along the path of totality

MESQUITE, Texas (AP) — Eclipse spectators monitored their locations in three states Sunday, desperately hoping for clear skies despite Expectations call for withdrawal Along most of the path of the sun's disappearance.

North America will never see another coast to coast Total solar eclipse For 21 years, creating anxiety and a mad weekend rush.

Monday Splendor extends From the Pacific shores of Mexico to the rugged Atlantic shores of Canada, with 15 US states in between.

“You've made it to college!” Ian Kloft made the announcement Sunday afternoon after entering Mesquite from Portland, Oregon, a distance of 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers).

a Total eclipse It occurs when the Moon is perfectly aligned between the Earth and the Sun, blocking the sunlight. That means just over four minutes of daylight east of Dallas in Mesquite, where locals like Jorge Martinez have the day off. The land surveyor plans to “view history” from home with his wife and their 3-year-old daughter, Nattie.

“We hope she remembers. She's excited, too,” he said after breakfast at Dos Panchas Mexican restaurant.

Inside the crowded restaurant, manager Adrian Martinez decided to stay open Monday.

“I hope it will be as sunny as today,” he said. “But the clouds? Hopefully it still looks good.”

Near Ennis, Texas, to the south, the Range Vintage Trailer Resort was also packed, with all venues sold out in more than a year.

“I booked it straight away, and then I told my wife, ‘We’re going to Texas,’” Gotham's England international Chris Lomas said from the trailer park on Sunday. Even if the clouds obscured the covering sun, “it would still be dark.” “It's just about sharing the experience with other people,” he added.

And in Cleveland, the eclipse convinced Women's Final Four fans Matt and Sheila Powell to stay an extra day after Sunday's game. But they were debating whether to begin their journey home to Iowa's Missouri Valley early Monday in search of clearer skies along the eclipse's path. “We're trying to be flexible,” Powell said.

Even the eclipse professionals were up in the air.

Eclipse mapmaker Michael Zeller had a perfect record before Monday, viewing 11 out of 11 total solar eclipses after successfully moving three of those times at the last minute for better weather.

“We are the complete opposite of tornado chasers, always seeking clear skies,” Zeller said in an email over the weekend. But this time, he was staying in Fredericksburg, Texas, with his family of 10, holding on to a “big glimmer of hope.”

Farther north, in Buffalo, New York, Jeff Sherman flew in from Somerville, Massachusetts, to witness the second total solar eclipse. After seeing the eclipse coast-to-coast in the United States in 2017, he said, “Now I have to see any eclipse that is close.”

Kloft also enjoyed clear skies during the 2017 solar eclipse, in Oregon, and headed to Mesquite wearing a T-shirt for that major event. As for Monday's cloudy weather forecast across Texas, “I'll at least be around like-minded people.”

Suspicious weather was also forecast almost all the way to Lake Erie, despite the great weather on Sunday. The only places promising clear skies along the narrow, 115-mile (185-kilometer) total corridor on Monday were New England and Canada.

As elsewhere, weather was the hot topic at Buffalo Marine and Military Park on Sunday. By mid-morning, volunteer Tom Vella had already received tourists from several states, as well as Canada and Brazil.

“They hope it will be like this tomorrow, of course, but you know, the weather is the weather,” he added.

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AP reporters Jimmy Stengel near Ennis, Texas; Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York; Stephanie Nano in Cleveland contributed.

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