Total Solar Eclipse Part III: How Often in Northern Ohio?

The last Total Solar Eclipse to pass over northern Ohio was in 1806. Thomas Jefferson was President. Here are the next TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSES with the PATH OF TOTALITY to cross northern Ohio: 

There are only 5 in the next 2000 years!

What are the types of solar eclipses? (descriptions and images courtesy NASA)

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth blocking the face of the Sun. If a location is in the center of the Moon’s shadow when it hits Earth they will experience a total eclipse. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk. Weather permitting, people in the path of a total solar eclipse can see the Sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere, which is otherwise usually obscured by the bright face of the Sun.

ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE

An annular solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, but when it's at or near its farthest point from Earth. Because the Moon is farther away from Earth, it appears smaller than the Sun and does not completely cover the Sun. As a result, the Moon appears as a dark disk on top of a larger, bright disk, creating what looks like a ring around the Moon. 

HYBRID SOLAR ECLIPSE

Because Earth's surface is curved, sometimes an eclipse can shift between annular and total as the Moon’s shadow moves across the globe. 

Here are two great videos from NASA on Total Solar Eclipses:

Here are some nice eclipse tools from NASA:

Total Eclipse Explorer - Interactive

Total Solar Eclipse Viewer

Total Solar Eclipse Part I: What's The Weather Typically Like on April 8th?

NASA

As of this writing it's still a bit too early for a super detailed daily forecast for April 8 in northern Ohio. However it doesn't keep us from looking back at past April 8 weather history.

Here's the weather for April 8 over the last 20 years in northern Ohio:

The NWS office in Wilmington, Ohio has some nice past satellite images showing the wide variety of cloud cover regimes on April 8th.  Here is one comparing 2020 to 2021.

Historically, a cloud free day around the Great Lakes is not very high.

Image courtesy:  Brian Brettschneider, Climatologist

Here is a nice summary of April 8 weather for Cleveland:

Not that I put tons of (little if any actually) weight on deterministic model output but for semi-entertainment use, here is what the American model (GFS) is showing for Monday afternoon, April 8th. What is my confidence of this verifying?  Not high as of this writing. More to come.

What's Special About the 2024 Solar Eclipse?

The weather cooperated this morning for a brief period of time. The clouds thinned out enough for us to see the partial solar eclipse along the horizon in northern Ohio. Pictures courtesy:  Doug Kishman, Mari-Dor Beach, Vermilion, Ohio at approximately 6:10am.

Solar Eclipses just as common as lunar eclipses.  The difference is that the path of visibility is much smaller during a solar eclipse than a lunar eclipse. Calculations indicate that anyone location on the Earth's surface will have a total solar eclipse once every 375 years. Space.com has an excellent write-up.

There are different types of solar eclipses:  Partial, annular and total.

The next Total Solar Eclipse that will pass directly over Ohio will be April 8, 2024. 

The next set of solar eclipses will pass within several hundred miles. If you miss the Total Solar Eclipse in 2024, you will have to wait until the end of the century--September 14, 2099--for the next TSE to pass directly over Ohio.

Here are ALL Solar eclipses world wide per decade and their paths. These graphics may be incomplete. Check the NASA site for any I might have missed.

2021-2029

2030-2039

2040-2049

2050-2059

2060-2069

2070-2079

2080-2089

2090-2099