There will be at least one cloudy day in April on this year. There could be more, but there is likely to be at least one. April 8, to be exact.
Why will there be a cloudy day on April 8, 2024? Because there’s going to be a solar eclipse and every time something cool happens in the sky, it seems to get cloudy.
Maybe I’ll be wrong. I really hope I am, because I like things like this. But it seems to happen with some regularity. I’ve spent a lot of nights hoping to see meteors and watching clouds instead. Not that I don’t like clouds. They can be quite interesting on their own. But every now and then they could get out of the way and let is see other things.
For most of us, this won’t be a total eclipse of the sun. But it will be pretty close. And you can see the total eclipse without leaving Nova Scotia. If you go to Meat Cove. The northern most town in the province is about the only place the total eclipse will hit in Nova Scotia. The path will go right through the center of New Brunswick, catch a part or P.E.I. and a good chunk of Newfoundland, but most of us will be on the edge. Which is still a pretty good show.
My first attempt at looking up the path had me checking NASA. They said the path ran from Texas to Maine, which had me scratching my head a bit. Until I realized they are the U.S. space agency and only talking about their country. The sun doesn’t get turned off when it hits the border. So the eclipse keeps right on coming through Eastern Canada.
Although they are rare, we do get the odd eclipse. There will be one in 2026, but to get a good view you might have top visit Greenland or Iceland. There have been a couple in the past, although the clouds have tried their best on a couple of those. We’ve generally been pretty lucky. There were total solar eclipses that passed over the province in both 1970 and 1972. Usually you have to wait about three hundred sixty years to see a solar eclipse in the same location. At least one of those was visible. I remember watching. With an entire stack of photo negatives as eye protection. I saw the sun as it peaked out from the eclipse and it didn’t melt my retina, so the negatives worked. Although I wouldn’t advise it. These days there will be a number of places offering free eclipse glasses so you can safely check it out.
So get you eclipse glasses and hope the sun shines. I hope my weather prediction for the day doesn’t come true. Although I’m not confident enough to head for Meat Cove.
