I really like this. There is a lot of great information here. It is similar to but different from the others linked in this thread.
I really liked the cultural information included - roads, several overlays to help orient things, eclipse duration lines, etc but the thing I liked the most was the rich data about the part of the path that includes my family's original land here in Texas. It turns out that both sides of my family settled land that is very near the totality centerline of the eclipse with a duration exceeding 4 minutes.
Your addition of layers that define boundaries for parks helped me locate an archaeological site that I had never heard about. While access is not available to the public I was able to research it and read the description of excavations and conclusions about the history of the site. That really made my day since it connected some of the things my Dad mentioned about the area where he was raised with a real historical site very close to the places he described.
Too bad we don't own either of those parcels today. I am probably going to experience the eclipse with a sister who lives a few seconds outside the 4 minute line since my own home is at a 99.7% eclipse location.
Great work. I thought it looked like OpenStreetMap underneath. The totality information overlays fit perfectly into their clean display format and the center bulls-eye tracking really allows you to find an optimum place nearest your location to view this eclipse.
+1 for this link - lets you easily click around to see what different places will experience. In my case, at home the (total) eclipse will last ~2:37, but at my office it'll last ~3:41.
Places to stay are booked solid along the route. I've also seen reports of reservations made months in advance getting cancelled when the hosts discover they could get more money. Traffic tends to be epically bad on eclipse days, so keep that in mind too when planning.
I live in a city nearly directly under the middle of that route. Schools are cancelled for the day, and were known cancelled at the start of the school year. Everything is booked and has been for a while. It's crazy. I'm glad to live near a park that's got some events planned but doesn't require me to go far or past a lot of people to get there.
It looks like there are a few major airports in the path of totality, including at least one very close to the centerline (CLE in Cleveland, Ohio). Maybe just fly in, watch it from the airport, and fly home?
I mentioned this a while back[0] but you really want to be in a rural area when it happens. Most important thing is being in totality, but if you're going to go all the way to totality, go rural.
When the sky goes dark, and the world suddenly cools, and the birds and insects suddenly wake up and come to life all around you... you'll know you did it right. It's magic.
I'll be at a YMCA camp that's hosting a family weekend of summer camp style events. Win win.
I've heard of people planning on doing this at DFW (which is not all that close to the centerline). I also know a guy who's flying up from Atlanta to Indianapolis, I think just for the day, although he plans to leave the airport.
Flights are much more expensive than normal, though. But as that would be the only expense maybe it's not crazy?
I’m grateful to be ~30 minutes away from totality. But I’m still shooting to spend the extra 2-3 hours driving to a place typically only an hour away just because it affords opportunities after the eclipse to entertain us while the traffic leaving the destination can taper out. On the previous eclipse, it took us about 3 hours to drive 20 miles, after the event. I’m not making that mistake again.
Yes, it's better to stay put for quite a while, the roads and highways will be stupidly full as almost everyone rushes to leave the moment totality is over. Then party through the night after the eclipse, share with others what struck you the most.
We made a reservation months ago, and it was cancelled because the owner could triple the price for someone else. They didn’t even ask if we’d pay more (we would have).
There's one a year before that one that is also in the continental US, although only near the end. Totality on the centerline in the US ranges from 1m 39s to 1m 47s.
Might be a good excuse to go to Montana though. But on this one you'd have to be careful to pick out a location that has a clear view of the western horizon.
Thanks. I don't quite trust it this far out, but where I'm going is around 50% chance of being clear. If it's supposed to be cloudy, I plan on driving toward clearer spots that morning, so this gives me an idea of which way I should go (matches what I had expected, which is to go south toward Texas.)
I don't think that's a forecast (eclipse is still 20 days away) but rather it's a count of how many days of each type of cloud condition that area has had in the past on this date.
I mean sure, but when people think "weather forecast" they usually think "forecast based on current/recent conditions" not "forecast based on conditions at least one year prior".
That actually makes me feel better about the data, vs. had it been an attempt to use other models to predict that actual weather, that would have pretty much zero trust in this far out.
We plan on being in low-population SW TX (somewhat NW of the path), and the evening before we'll evaluate and pick an optimal sunny location to view totality; we'll have hours to drive a bit South or a bit East to get to the right location by dawn at the latest. Anybody else making similar plans?
