Rainy weather dampens Metro Vancouver’s partial solar eclipse
Posted April 8, 2024 7:17 am.
Last Updated April 8, 2024 1:04 pm.
The rainy weather hid most of what people were hoping to experience from Monday’s partial solar eclipse in Metro Vancouver, but it didn’t dampen the spirits of local astronomers and enthusiasts who attended local viewing events and parties.
For B.C.’s South Coast, Monday’s partial eclipse started around 10:45 a.m., peaked at about 11:30 a.m., and finished at about 12:15 p.m.
“Weather permitting, we would see a partial covering. The moon will only cover about 17 per cent of the sun from where we can see in Vancouver. It will look like it gets a bit dimmer and it may feel a little cooler because part of the sun will be obscured,” said Marley Leacock, an astronomer who is hosting an event at the HR MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Monday morning.
Despite the less-than-ideal weather for eclipse viewing, Leacock told CityNews the day is still exciting for eclipse watchers.
“Even with the past partial eclipse we saw here back in October, we got a decent showing of it. It was a bit cloudy, but you’d feel the weather start to change. That is very exciting and it really is a special event to experience an eclipse, even just a partial covering,” she added.
While the heavy cloud cover obscured views for some, events like the one at the Space Centre or the watch party at Kwantlen Polytechnic University showed NASA’s live stream of the total eclipse that was seen in other parts of North America.
Laura Flinn, a physics instructor at KPU, hosted the party and said rainy eclipses are just the reality for B.C.
“We live in a Pacific Northwest rain forest so that says a lot. We just get a lot of rain,” she told CityNews.
But, Flinn says experiencing an eclipse together — even if it’s just under the clouds and virtually — is still an exciting experience.
“Watch the faces of people when they see it! I have not travelled to see a total eclipse myself, in person, but to see it for the first time, you realize these two objects, they are doing something that most people don’t get a chance to see, right?” she said.
“When you watch children or others, they get really excited and awestruck that this is happening and that — as an educator in the sciences — you want people to have that sense of wonder with nature.”
But Flinn admitted you will have to wait until the next partial eclipse in Vancouver and hope for clear skies to get the full celestial experience.
“The next one, we won’t see it until 2029 … and then there’s another one in 2033. For both of those, we will get about I think about 60 per cent coverage, so it’s a fair amount,” she explained.
If you are able to wait another six decades, Vancouver will actually get a total eclipse.
“We’ll get what’s called an annular eclipse in 2084 — somebody else will be organizing that party, not me,” Flinn chuckled.
The path of totality for Monday’s eclipse first hit North America along the west coast of Mexico at 11:07 a.m. PDT and arced up across the United States and into Eastern Canada, exiting the continent from Newfoundland by 2:16 p.m. PDT.
Environment and Climate Change Canada predicted mainly cloudy skies during the total eclipse in the Niagara region of Ontario, where huge crowds gathered to watch, but fewer clouds over southwestern and eastern Ontario.
Niagara Falls declared a state of emergency over a week ago to deal with the flood of people from Canada and other parts of the world who want to take in the event.
Skies were expected to be mainly clear across Quebec and the Maritimes but cloud cover disappointed some sky-watchers in Newfoundland.
Surrey woman drives to Arkansas to see total eclipse
It was a very long drive, but one woman from Surrey made the trip to the southern US to see Monday’s eclipse.
Somi Chuhan hopped in her Tesla four days ago and pointed east, generally.
“I was watching the weather up to two weeks before, and the entire pathway was clouded over,” she told CityNews Monday. “So, the entire way, I was basically watching the weather, watching the weather.”
“I was headed to Cleveland, maybe Rochester, I thought maybe Indianapolis. And then I saw the clouds moving away in Arkansas, so I [made] a quick change of direction — I went down south and I think we have one of the very small spots where it is actually cloud-free.
“I am just so excited and so lucky to be here.”
Chuhan says she’s slept in her car because the hotel she wanted to stay at jacked up its rate from USD$100 to over $600 for a room Sunday and Monday night, which she says was actually cheap compared to many others.
Chuhan had been researching and planning this eclipse viewing for seven years.
“I missed the eclipse in 2017 and then got interested after that. I thought I was headed to South America or India, I was looking for what the next eclipse was,” she said.
“And then I saw that it was coming through North America in 2024, and so about four years ago, I started just tracking and looking at sites and so forth doing research. It’s been a long time coming.”
She already has her eye on another total eclipse passing over the B.C. – Alberta border in 2044, and she says she’ll see you there.
“I will say that the difference between a 90 per cent coverage and 100 per cent coverage is literally a life changing difference.
“I would encourage everyone to make the trek and make sure you get into the path of totality and I guarantee you won’t regret it.”
