Solar eclipse “warm-up act” will occur on Saturday

Occurring over a three-hour window from late morning through early afternoon on Saturday, October 14, over 60% of the sun’s disk will be obscured by the moon at noon as it passes directly between the sun and Earth. 

The April 2024 Great American Eclipse will be a total eclipse, in which the entirety of the sun will be obscured by the moon. However, this Saturday’s eclipse will be an “annular” eclipse for those in the western United States. Annular refers to the fact that, while the moon passes directly in front of the sun like in a total eclipse, it is too small (due to its distance from our perspective) to completely block the sun, thus a “ring of fire” is visible around the outside of the moon. 

A “ring of fire” produced by an annular eclipse. Photo by Ferdinandh Cabrera/AFP via Getty Images)

For those who are outside the path of totality, a partial eclipse will be visible with a “Pac-Man shaped” sun as the moon passes in front of it. The last annular eclipse visible in the continental U.S. was in 2012, but the next one won’t be until 2048! (Of course, we will have a total eclipse crossing the U.S. just 6 months from now!)

The forecast looks good for Saturday with a cold front arriving Friday night that should clear out by Saturday morning, leaving mostly sunny skies and a northwest breeze with temps in the mid 60s during the eclipse. 

Erik Proseus
MWN Meteorologist

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