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What are the best alternatives for watching either a total or a partial solar eclipse during inclement weather conditions?

I can watch partial solar eclipse at home, without driving anywhere. I can also drive for 4 hours to the nearest location in the path of totality.

Is it even worth the long drive if the weather forecast is bad (cloudy or rainy) at both locations (that is, both for the partial eclipse at home, and for the total eclipse 4 hours away)?

I have no special equipment other than the solar eclipse glasses.

Related:

How much does cloud cover affect viewing the total eclipse - this does not answer my question, since it does not go into details about partial or total eclipse, and about cloudy or rainy weather.

Eclipse clouds

xkcd: Eclipse Clouds (via Florian F)

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    $\begingroup$ I live in the path of totality and there was an amusing (to me) online newspaper article asking, "What if it's cloudy during the eclipse? Will I be able to see it?" The answer, boiled down, was "Yes. It'll get dark." $\endgroup$
    – Wastrel
    Commented Apr 5 at 14:55
  • $\begingroup$ "What are the best options for watching total or partial solar eclipse if I don't live anywhere near the path of the eclipse?" $\endgroup$
    – Michael
    Commented Apr 5 at 16:04
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    $\begingroup$ Also, xkcd.com/2914 "A partial eclipse is like a cool sunset. A total eclipse is like someone broke the sky." $\endgroup$
    – PM 2Ring
    Commented Apr 5 at 18:38
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    $\begingroup$ For the last total eclipse I made a long drive to see it. The sky was completely clouded over and rainy, I was driving like mad to find an open spot. Found open sky 5 minutes before the eclipse and parked at the side of the road. $\endgroup$
    – Mark Ransom
    Commented Apr 5 at 19:02
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you all for the great answers, comments & useful tips! Despite the overcast forecast, we ended up driving 7 hours to see the total eclipse. The total eclipse (unlike the partial eclipse) was an experience of a lifetime! We drove back 12 hours with a few very short stops. The expected drive was only 4 hours without traffic. As you can see, the traffic was awful. But the total eclipse was worth all the traffic. We used eclipse glasses (must have!), a pinhole camera, & a grating with 3 different size combs (optional, for adding some science experiments to this awesome experience). $\endgroup$
    – Timur Shtatland
    Commented Apr 15 at 18:01

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Your profile says you're from Massachusetts. The weather in northeast US looks to be very good for eclipse viewing: enter image description here

I would take that eight hour hit if I lived in the northeast US. Total eclipses are an experience. Be prepared for a ten to twelve hour hit; there are lots of eclipse fanatics who will all be going to see the total eclipse and who will inevitably tie up traffic. Small towns in central Texas have been planning and preparing for an inundation of eclipse fanatics (and are planning and preparing to charge them up the wazoo). Central Texas is where the skies are not supposed to be cloudy all day. The song appears to be wrong for April 8.

The weather for me looks atrocious; I'm in Texas. I'm taking the eight hour hit regardless; my hotel rooms are booked, and I face a nasty cancelation fee if I don't go. At least I'm not paying the \$1000+ per night for a room in a Motel 6 that some are paying. Almost all of the hotel rooms in towns in central Texas in the path of totality are 100% filled.

Update: I got to see the total eclipse! The cloudiness looked awful all across the path of the eclipse in Texas, and it was for most of the lead-up to totality. Then the skies cleared in the area around the Sun, and I got to see the total eclipse.

I had booked a couple of rooms in San Antonio just outside the path of totality as the price gouging wasn't as severe there as it was in places inside the path. My plan was to pick a town well inside the path of totality that might have nice-ish weather. I picked Kerrville Texas, as they had been planning for many years on creating an event for the eclipse and planning how to handle the crowds. Kerrville is nicely west of the Texas dry line, in the heart of the Texas Hill Country.

My plan worked in the sense that I got to see the total eclipse and I got to attend a really cool free festival as an added bonus. My plan didn't work in the sense that it took us over nine hours to drive home on what should nominally be a four hour drive). Two out of three ain't bad.

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    $\begingroup$ Might be time to start checking the bookings on hot air balloons capable of high altitude flight $\endgroup$
    – Will
    Commented Apr 5 at 17:01
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    $\begingroup$ Reminds me of a debate I initiated once over whether "not cloudy all day" means "possibly cloudy, but not all day" (as the syntax suggests) or "cloudless all day" (more impressive, worth singing about). I think people mostly landed on the latter. $\endgroup$
    – Luke Sawczak
    Commented Apr 5 at 20:17
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    $\begingroup$ @Will, the clouds are forecast to be from thunderstorms. Your best bet for getting above them is to see if you can borrow one of NASA's ER-2s. $\endgroup$
    – Mark
    Commented Apr 5 at 21:44
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    $\begingroup$ $1000 per night for a Motel 6. That confirms it. Wazoos are bigger in Texas too. $\endgroup$
    – Amazon Dies In Darkness
    Commented Apr 7 at 22:14
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    $\begingroup$ @EndAnti-SemiticHate Over 100000 people came from all over the world to see the eclipse in Kerrville. Even more people went to other towns and cities in Texas -- and in other states. The State of Texas has very strict rules against price gouging during a disaster, but none against price gouging during an eclipse. So retailers gouged. Law of supply and demand. I suspect hoteliers, restauranteurs, T-shirt makers and others gouged in other states as well. $\endgroup$
    – David Hammen
    Commented Apr 9 at 4:30
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If you stay in the region of partial eclipse on a cloudy day you will probably observe nothing special. Perhaps you might notice that "the clouds are a little darker now than they were previously", but due to variation in the thickness of clouds, they get lighter and darker all the time, and your eyes adapt. A partial eclipse behind the clouds is not "an experience".

If you go to the region of totality you will get a short period of darkness during the day, and perhaps a bunch of other people to get excited with. It is a notable experience, and there is the possibility of a break in the clouds at the right time. Is that worth an eight-hour round trip? You decide.

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    $\begingroup$ I saw a sun eclipse once in the path of totality in a cloudy weather. The clouds were high, this is important. We could see the shadow arrive from one side as it obscured the clouds and then a clear darkening when it came over us. That was worth the few hours of drive. $\endgroup$
    – Florian F
    Commented Apr 5 at 11:06
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    $\begingroup$ I saw the total eclipse in Kerrville TX. It was quite cloudy, with some low clouds that completely hid the Sun and some high clouds. The low clouds were nasty during much of the partial lead-up to the total eclipse, but with occasional around the Sun clearing that let us see the progress. Then the skies around the Sun cleared right at the moment of totality. It was a thirteen hour ordeal (plus a night in a couple of hotel rooms), four hours driving there and nine coming back. It was worth it. "Notable experience" doesn't begin to cover it. $\endgroup$
    – David Hammen
    Commented Apr 9 at 4:38
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If it's a thin overcast, you can use the clouds as a solar filter for taking pictures of the Sun, but don't look at the Sun directly: it brings the light level down to something a camera can handle, but not the human eye.

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    $\begingroup$ You can use solar eclipse glasses and see the partial eclipse safely through a thin overcast. This is how I saw my first partial eclipse and it was cool enough. Granted, I'm not sure if the glasses we used were according to the best safety standards, so I don't know if it's possible using actual glasses. $\endgroup$
    – JiK
    Commented Apr 5 at 13:42
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Cloud cover during a partial eclipse totally destroys whatever experience you might have had. The day becomes slightly gloomier than it might have already been.

On the other hand, cloud cover during a total eclipse does not completely destroy the experience. It becomes dark. The birds shut up. There is a strange breeze that gets sucked into the region of totality. And then it all goes back to normal a few minutes later.

Having experienced a cloudy total eclipse in 1999 I would certainly travel for 8 hours to experience another.

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My answer is obviously a bit late for yesterday's eclipse, but it may still be of interest for future ones:

I observed the 1999 total eclipse from the UK and went to the observation location with the specific intention not only to take the usual eclipse photographs (corona etc) but also try to take photographs of the Moon's shadow as it went past. Inspired by satellite images like this,

enter image description here

I reckoned it should be possible to photograph the Moon's shadow from a vantage point a couple of hundred meters high in an otherwise more or less flat and uniform landscape. So I made out a suitable hill in the area from where to observe the eclipse. My original plan was thus to use a wide angle lens on my camera to record the Moon's shadow shortly before totality, then swap to a telephoto lens for the close up shots of the Sun's corona (I practised the lens swap in darkness at home before), and then swap it back to the wide angle lens. Due to the overcast sky (in fact it was even raining slightly as far as I remember) I did not need the telephoto lens though and could concentrate on the landscape shots. This is what I got

Solar Eclipse 1999

1 hour 15 min before totality

$$\\\\$$ Solar Eclipse 1999

50 sec before totality; Moon's shadow approaching (bottom left)

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Solar Eclipse 1999

30 sec before totality; Moon's shadow closing in

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Solar Eclipse 1999

15 sec before totality; darkness falls

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Solar Eclipse 1999

Totality; virtual night (locally)

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Due to the orientation of the shadow ellipse the photos after totality don't show the shadow location as well (it also went bright again a lot quicker than it went dark), so I am leaving those out here.

It just goes to show that with a multiple options strategy, you still can get something worthwile and certainly memorable out of the event, even in the case of unfavorable weather.

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