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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Science
Léonie Chao-Fong (now) and Richard Luscombe (earlier)

Total solar eclipse: millions watched rare spectacle as moon blocked sun in Mexico, US and Canada – as it happened

United States Canada Mexico

They say bats come out during a solar eclipse, and owls too. Hippos have been seen to move towards their nighttime feeding grounds, bees to fly back to their hives and refuse to emerge until the sun comes back out, crickets begin to chirrup, mosquitoes come out for the evening, spiders take down their webs to protect them from the nighttime dew.

Last time they had a solar eclipse one around these parts, scientists working at Riverbanks zoo over in South Carolina noticed that the gibbons started barking and a pair of Galapagos tortoises immediately began mating with each other.

During this one, the fauna around and about Augusta National was acting unusually, too. Novel behaviours included patrons gathering together away from the shade and craning their necks to stare up into the blue spring sky. There were also sudden, and repeated, oaths, sighs, and other unusual utterances. “OH MY GOD! IT’S HAPPENING!” cried a man in the grandstand down at Amen Corner when the moon took its first little nibble out of the sun’s bottom corner.

“Ninety minutes till the end of the world,” said someone else, who was sitting a couple of rows behind him. “Well,” his deadpan friend said, “I can think of worse ways to spend it.”

Read the full story here:

Updated

A video posted by Nasa showed the view of the eclipse from the International Space Station, where expedition 71 crew members orbited 260 miles (418km) above south-eastern Canada as the moon’s umbra was moving from New York state into Newfoundland.

Updated

Caitlin Ray, an 11th grade student from El Paso, was on a campus visit at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, just in time for totality.

On the campus, students and families from the surrounding neighborhoods filled the campus’s main quad to stare skyward. Ray said she hoped to study astronomy, and was excited for the scientific possibilities the eclipse provides.

“I’m especially excited to see the corona and see if it’s going to be circular,” Ray said.

If it is, that means that there is a lot of solar activity, and there’s a lot of research that can come from that.

Clouds blocked the sun for much of the partial eclipse, but – like elsewhere in north Texas – parted just before totality. Alongside oohs and aahs, people cheered and sang God Bless America. Nikhil Kathuria, an SMU junior studying finance, said:

This was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.

Updated

Delta Air Lines ran two special eclipse-viewing flights for those who wanted to spent as much time as possible directly within the path of totality.

The flights departed from Austin, Texas, and landed in Detroit, Michigan, and were timed to give passengers the best chance of safely viewing the solar eclipse at its peak.

The first flight sold out in 24 hours, the airlines said, prompting it to add a second.

Updated

Summary of the day

Millions of people across 15 US states, and in Mexico and Canada, witnessed the rare and ethereal spectacle of a total solar eclipse on Monday, with cities plunged into sudden darkness and experiencing a precipitous drop in temperatures.

  • It was North America’s first total eclipse since 2017. The next coast-to-coast total eclipse in the US is in 2045.

  • The solar eclipse made landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast at 11:07am PT. Mexico’s beachside resort town of Mazatlán was the first major viewing spot along the path of totality.

  • Clouds blanketed most of Texas as the total solar eclipse began its path across the US. The weather cooperated at the last minute just east of Dallas and near Austin, where crowds cheered and whistled as the clouds parted in the final minutes before totality.

  • The path of totality encompassed many major cities including Dallas; Indianapolis; Cleveland; Buffalo, New York; and Montreal. About 32 million people in the US live within the path of totality but nearly everyone in North America was guaranteed at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting.

  • Nearly 400 couples tied the knot in the shadow of the moon in a mass wedding event in Russellville, Arkansas.

  • At Niagara Falls, hundreds dressed in costumes to look like the sun to view the eclipse next to the roaring waterfall.

  • The moon’s shadow exited continental North America in Newfoundland.

Updated

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, were among the millions of people who watched the eclipse.

Updated

At the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, players and fans were able to get a good look at the solar eclipse.

Georgia was not in the path of totality but experienced a partial eclipse as the sun shone brightly.

“This is timing up pretty good,” said British Open champion Brian Harman, who was playing the back nine during the height of the eclipse, AP reported.

Get to watch the end of the world at Augusta National.

Updated

Ignas Barauskas almost missed it.

He bought plane tickets from his home in Lithuania to the United States about a month ago. After a series of flight delays, he landed in Dallas around midnight, ready for a once-in-a-lifetime total eclipse of the sun.

“I probably wouldn’t have come to Dallas if it hadn’t been for the total solar eclipse,” Barauskas said.

It seems like it will be a grand event, the sun hiding away during the day.

On Monday morning he took public transit – because all rental cars had been booked in the city for months – to Dallas’s White Rock Lake, arriving moments before the partial eclipse started. All morning he and millions of other umbraphiles, or eclipse chasers, worried about the gloomy forecast of thick clouds.

But then, just before the total eclipse began, the clouds parted. The view of the sun’s brilliant corona left the city in evening-like darkness for as much as four minutes. Barauskas said:

Everyone was screaming. Like a concert.

Barauskas was among the millions who traveled to the path of totality that stretched from western Mexico to Newfoundland on Monday – much of it under lingering cloudy skies.

The Dallas-Fort Worth region was the largest metropolitan area on the path of totality for Monday’s total solar eclipse, making north Texas a major destination and creating potential headaches for locals. The cloudy weather left some scrambling at the last minute to change plans and head for clearer skies, but for much of north Texas totality itself was clear. Barauskas said:

Better than all expectations.

Total eclipse exits Canada

Totality ended in Newfoundland, Canada, at 3:46pm ET. The eclipse has now exited continental North America.

Updated

The clouds thickened as the moon passed in front of the sun here in Saratoga Springs, in upstate New York, so I was glad to have eclipse glasses with 2x magnification and could still see the orange segment of the sun become an orange sliver and finally a fingernail as the height of the phenomenon occurred.

A dusk-like gloom descended on the park where several hundred people, mostly locals, were craning skyward, and a hush descended as the shadows of people and trees became ghostly and then disappeared in the gloom, with some oohs and aahs.

Suddenly, mosquitoes appeared and started biting, as if it actually were night approaching.

It didn’t go completely dark as we’re a little out of the band of totality, but it was a surreal experience and now folks are folding up their picnic blankets and going on about their days, as blue skies return and the clouds clear somewhat. Well worth it.

Updated

Total eclipse ended for the US

The path of totality will continue to move over portions of Canada’s New Brunswick and Newfoundland provinces for a few more minutes.

Not everyone in the US got even a partial view of Monday’s eclipse. In and around south-east Louisiana, cloud cover and rain foiled spectators’ plans to catch a glimpse.

The National Weather Service in New Orleans tried to lighten the mood on X by publishing a video showing a hand-drawn moon whooshing in front of a hand-drawn sun. “Did y’all see that?????” read the post.

The post quickly achieved regional digital virality as those who were left disappointed by the cloud-socked day tried to process their feelings from being left out of an experience much of the rest of the US shared in.

Updated

Nasa’s official Twitter/X account for the moon has shared a screenshot showing it has blocked the sun.

“Oops I did it again,” it writes.

Eclipse reaches totality in Pennsylvania and New York

Updated

If you miss today’s total solar eclipse because it’s cloudy or because you live outside the path of totality, just wait … until 2044.

In the mainland US, the next total solar eclipse is on 22 August 2044 in North and South Dakota and Montana, plus northern Canada.

After that, it’s less than a year until the next coast-to-coast total eclipse in the US, on 12 August 2045, spanning California to Florida.

Outside of the US, an annular eclipse, when the moon crosses the center of the sun but is so far from Earth that it does not completely block it, will take place on 2 October this year in Uruguay and Argentina, with a partial eclipse visible in several South American countries.

Europe, including the UK, gets a turn on 29 March next year, when a partial solar will eclipse pass over. Some cities in Scotland will experience more than 40% obscuration of the sun.

And the next total eclipse anywhere is 12 August 2026, covering large areas of the northern hemisphere, although totality will be limited to Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and a small area of Portugal. The UK will see a partial eclipse of more than 90%.

Total eclipse crosses Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana

The eclipse has reached totality in Poplar Bluff in Missouri, Paducah in Kentucky, Carbondale in Illinois and Evansville in Indiana.

Several hundred people are scattered on rugs and folding chairs on the lawns outside the historic 1930s spa complex that uses the natural waters here in Saratoga Springs, the upstate New York state city that is also famous for its horse racing.

The light is turning weird on a sunny day with wispy clouds. And when looking at the sun through special glasses, it’s already evident that the moon is crossing its face, leaving it as a bright crescent like an orange segment.

There’s an air of excitement but also a very civilized calm in the air – we’re close to the zone of totality but far enough away from regional hotspots like Niagara Falls for it so be very civilized.

I’m looking forward to a freakily wonderful experience as the light fades further with every minute.

Updated

Here’s a reminder of where the eclipse can be seen across the US and Canada.

Nearly 400 couples got married in Russellville, Arkansas, during the eclipse.

Carlotta Cox and Matthew Holloway, a couple from Knoxville, Tennessee, told local television KCRA:

It just seems like the coolest wedding that you could ever have.

Here’s the video of the skies darkening and the total solar eclipse arriving a little earlier over Mazatlán, Mexico, the first community to experience totality during today’s celestial show.

Total eclipse reaches Oklahoma and Arkansas

The path of totality has crossed into Oklahoma and Arkansas.

The diamond ring effect has re-emerged at the edge of the sun over Dallas, signifying the end of the Texas city’s minutes of totality.

Television images of zebras at Dallas zoo, where researchers and citizen observers are looking out for strange behaviors by animals during the eclipse, show them looking completely unfazed by what’s been going on.

Updated

Competing Nasa accounts on X, formerly Twitter, are having some fun with each other as the eclipse spreads across the US mainland.

@NasaMoon has blocked @NasaSun, replicating what’s going on in the heavens.

@NasaSUN doesn’t seem too worried, and is urging people to vote for it in the space agency’s poll of which celestial body, the moon, sun or Earth, is having the bigger day.

Patchy clouds are overhead in Kerrville, Texas, where totality began at 1.32pm CT. Loud cheers erupted from tens of thousands of residents and visitors as darkness enveloped the city.

Television images showed Kerrville under leaden skies, and there was a fleeting glimpse of the eclipse for those assembled. There was no visibility of the diamond ring effect immediately before and after totality.

Hordes are gathered in Dallas, where totality will arrive shortly, and hoping for better luck.

Here’s our gallery of eclipse images from so far today, sent to us over the news wires and compiled by Julius Constantine Motal, photo editor for the Guardian US.

Updated

Total eclipse reaches Texas

The total solar eclipse has officially reached the US. The moon’s shadow crossed the Mexico-Texas border just moments ago, at 1.27pm CT, and will now track north-east across 15 states before exiting into Canada from Maine.

It’s not clear what, if anything, people on the ground in Eagle Pass are able to see, even though they will definitely be feeling a drop in temperature of about 10 degrees. Weather conditions there are cloudy.

Totality in other Texas cities will come in short order, Kerrville at 1.32pm CT, followed by Austin at 1.35pm, Waco at 1.37pm and Dallas at 1.40pm.

Updated

Bill Nelson, the former astronaut and US senator who’s now the head of Nasa, has just been on the space agency’s live stream of today’s eclipse explaining why it’s such a big deal:

You have the alignment of three celestial bodies, and unique things happen when that occurs. It has a profound effect here on Earth, the middle of the day and all of a sudden it gets totally dark.

Us earthlings are not accustomed to that, and the little earthlings, all the animals. But it’s also an opportunity for us to study much more. One of those celestial bodies, that’s our star, the sun, we can find out more about that gaseous explosion that’s coming out from the core of the sun.

We can see it better because we’re not looking at the bright ball. You’re suddenly looking at that corona, that mass of gasses that are coming out from the edge of the sun.

Updated

Total eclipse reaches Mazatlán, Mexico

Totality reached Mazatlán, Mexico, at 11.07pm PT, and will last for four minutes and 17 seconds. It’s the first populated community anywhere in North America to experience totality during today’s total solar eclipse.

A reminder that you can enter your zip code on Nasa’s eclipse explorer to find out what you can expect to see where you are, and how long you can expect to see it.

First totality in the US will take place in Texas at 1.30pm CT. Many areas of the US are already experiencing a partial eclipse.

Updated

Here’s a little bit more about one of the science experiments Nasa is conducting during today’s eclipse. The space agency will be firing three “sounding” rockets from its Wallops flight facility in Virginia, at intervals from 45 minutes before to 45 minutes after the peak local eclipse.

The purpose is to collect data on how the sun’s sudden disappearance affects the ionosphere and creates disturbances with a potential to interfere with communications on Earth.

They’re the same three rockets recovered and refurbished from a similar experiment Nasa conducted during last October’s annular solar eclipse.

The project is in partnership with Florida’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and researchers will monitor information from the rockets as they travel into the ionosphere, a region of Earth’s atmosphere from 55 to 310 miles (90-500km) above the planet.

“It’s an electrified region that reflects and refracts radio signals, and also impacts satellite communications as the signals pass through,” said Aroh Barjatya, professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle and director of its space and atmospheric instrumentation laboratory.

“Understanding the ionosphere and developing models to help us predict disturbances is crucial to making sure our increasingly communication-dependent world operates smoothly.”

You can read more about the project here.

Updated

Partial eclipse reaches Texas

A partial eclipse has reached Eagle Pass, Texas, one of the first in the country to experience the phenomenon.

Updated

Eclipse begins in Mazatlán

A partial solar eclipse is now visible in Mazatlán, Mexico, where it will reach totality in the next hour at 2:07pm ET (12:07pm local time).

Totality will last for four minutes and 17 seconds.

Updated

The US National Weather Service’s prediction center has issued its final forecast update before the eclipse in the country this afternoon.

Updated

In the wake of previous eclipses – like one we saw in 2017 – hospitals around the US were preparing to be inundated with people arriving at their emergency departments to see if they had sustained eye damage as a result of watching the eclipse.

Doctors across the country also reported a huge volume of calls requesting information about the possible long-term effects of having stared at the eclipse.

Here’s a simple test to find out if you damaged your eyes during the solar eclipse.

Total solar eclipse begins in middle of the Pacific

The moon lines up perfectly between the Earth and the sun in a total eclipse over the South Pacific, AP is reporting.

A partial solar eclipse is now visible in Mazatlán, on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

Updated

Millions of people are gathering across 15 US states and in Mexico and Canada in anticipation of the total solar eclipse.

Updated

Most of the things that animal behaviorists saw during the 2017 US total eclipse were related to circadian responses, but teams also observed a lot of anxiety-related behavior, said Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University, who will be leading a team of researchers and volunteer observers on Monday at the Fort Worth zoo in Texas.

Obviously the animals that are going to their bed area, they think that evening has fallen. But the anxiety one is a bit more mysterious, we don’t know the cause. It could be the animals are aware of some kind of disparity going on. If it all of a sudden seems dark, my dog, who is very food motivated, would worry we’d forgotten a meal for him, so that might be going through some of these animals’ heads.

The most likely reason is the strangest animals of all we observed in 2017 were the people, doing crazy things, and I think that probably the animals might be having a reaction to the exuberance that the people display.

Also being watched on Monday, he said, were “some animals we think might do something interesting”, such as the Fort Worth zoo’s bonobo apes.

Along with chimpanzees, they’re our closest relatives, and are strange, fascinating and very cool apes. When bonobos have tension in the group, they also have sexual responses to that. They alleviate tension with all sorts of sexual behavior, including homosexual behavior.

Updated

Not every scientist’s attention will be focused on the skies during Monday’s solar eclipse.

Animal behaviorists at several zoos across its pathway will be watching creatures great and small for their reactions to the sudden, unexpected darkness.

The research is an extension of their observations from 2017’s most recent total eclipse in the US, when usually sedentary tortoises started rutting, frantic giraffes ran around aimlessly, and siamang gibbons embarked on an abrupt and tumultuous chorus of screams and barks.

A team of researchers and volunteer observers on Monday at the Fort Worth zoo in Texas will watch many of the species they did seven years ago when the eclipse passed over Riverbanks zoo in Columbia, South Carolina, the results of which were published in a 2020 paper co-authored by Adam Hartstone-Rose for the National Library of Medicine.

As well as the amorous gopher tortoises, they recorded a male gorilla charging a glass enclosure, flamingos that clustered in an unusually tight bunch, and lorikeets that began chirping loudly and swooping en masse.

Updated

Joe Biden has urged Americans to watch the solar eclipse safely.

The US president is traveling to Wisconsin today to announce details of a new plan to ease student loan debt.

The vice-president, Kamala Harris, is expected to view the eclipse with students in Philadelphia.

Updated

What time is the solar eclipse happening?

The solar eclipse will make landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast at 11:07am PT.

As the moon’s shadow travels northeast, it will cross into Texas at 1:27 CT and sweep across more than a dozen US states, ending in Maine at 3:35pm ET and into Canada. The eclipse will exit continental North America from Newfoundland at 5:16pm NT.

Here are some times for the path of totality:

Dallas, Texas totality: 1:40pm to 1:44pm CDT

Idabel, Oklahoma totality: 1:45pm to 1:49pm CT

Little Rock, Arkansas totality: 1:51pm to 2:00pm CDT

Poplar Bluff, Missouri totality: 1:56pm to 2:00pm CT

Carbondale, Illinois totality: 1:59pm to 2:03pm CT

Evansville, Indiana totality: 2:02pm to 2:05pm CDT

Cleveland, Ohio totality: 3:13pm to 3:17pm ET

Erie, Pennsylvania totality: 3:16pm to 3:20pm ET

Niagara Falls, New York totality: 3:18pm to 3:22pm ET

Burlington, Vermont totality: 3:26pm to 3:29pm ET

Lancaster, New Hampshire totality: 3:27pm to 3:30pm ET

Caribou, Maine totality: 3:32pm to 3:34pm ET

What can I expect to see?

First contact is when the moon’s outer edge first appears to touch the sun, creating the beginnings of a partial eclipse and a crescent sun reducing in size until totality (second contact).

In the moments before totality, look for (in order) shadow bands, Baily’s Beads and a diamond ring, three of the most memorable stages of a total eclipse.

Shadow bands, says Nasa, are rapidly moving, long, dark bands separated by white spaces that can be seen on the sides of buildings or the ground just before totality; Baily’s Beads are short-lived light rays from the sun streaming through the valleys along the moon’s horizon, and give way to the diamond ring effect, the final, single spot of bright light immediately before the end of any direct sunlight.

The sun’s corona, the outermost part of its atmosphere, can only be seen during the total part of the eclipse, then, following totality, the same effects come in reverse. For most locations, the partial eclipse phase lasts from 70 to 80 minutes, according to Nasa.

Updated

A total solar eclipse is a “mystical, magical experience”, the deputy head of Nasa has said, adding that this one offers the space agency the chance to learn much more about the sun, Earth and moon.

Pam Melroy, a veteran astronaut who holds degrees in astronomy and planetary sciences, was just on CNN explaining how Nasa will be tracking today’s eclipse across Mexico, the US and Canada, and harnessing an army of citizen scientists to do so.

It gives us the opportunity not just to leverage all the great scientific capabilities that we have in the US, using all kinds of equipment, aircraft, kites, balloons, sounding rockets, all flying up into the atmosphere to observe.

But in addition we have trained regular citizens, not professional scientists, to use solar telescopes. And we have an app on your phone. We’re going to have hundreds of thousands of people taking pictures, and by pulling all that data together, we think we’re going to understand the shape of the sun down to within a few kilometers.

Melroy, one of only two women to command a space shuttle mission, said there was “something very mysterious” about a total solar eclipse.

When literally day turns to night, animals start to behave differently, we’re seeing changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, it’s a mystical, mysterious experience. And I love the thought that millions of Americans will stand together today, looking up into the sky wearing their glasses. It is amazing.

Updated

From eclipse donuts to deep-state lunacy, the weeks-long social media buildup to a solar eclipse is birthing memes, marketing gimmicks and more than a few conspiracy theories.

As many prepare for the celestial event in person, content creators have also scrambled to commemorate the big day. Zach Sweat, managing editor of the internet social history website Know Your Meme, said:

Most of the memes are jokes about people staring at the sun and going blind from not using proper protection, as well as jokes about places like Canada being almost entirely exempt from the path of the event.

Michael Zeiler, an eclipse cartographer and the man behind GreatAmericanEclipse.com, has provided a handy Emoji Map that depicts the path of totality – where you can see the total eclipse – through a series of emojis. A smiley face hovering over a city means that it will get the best view. Sleepy and angry faces, not so much.

Updated

Hotel rates in states in the path of the solar eclipse surged to astronomical prices, with some eclipse watchers traveling from across the country to find their reservations canceled and sold for several times the original price.

In Buffalo, New York, where as many as a million visitors are expected to flock for a prime viewing spot during the eclipse, hotel and flight bookings were up four times from a similar time period last year.

Amid the clamor for accommodation, one travel agency said it had been forced to rearrange lodging for more than 150 people after bookings made two years earlier at two Buffalo hotels were canceled. Rooms that had cost $129 to $159 were canceled and resold at $450 or more, according to Sugar Tours owner Chris Donnelly, who said it was “total price gouging”. “Of course this was all about the profits,” Donnelly said.

The region’s tourism bureau, Visit Buffalo Niagara (VBN), said it worked with the individuals who had received cancellation notices and that it “does not condone this business practice of canceling room bookings”.

“We find it shameful that longtime customers and new visitors are being treated this way,” Patrick Kaler, president and CEO of VBN, said.

Putting greed before the visitor’s experience and the destination’s reputation is unacceptable.

Updated

How do I watch the eclipse safely?

Staring directly at the sun during a solar eclipse (or at any other time) can lead to permanent eye damage.

Don’t do what Donald Trump did in 2017.

To look at the eclipse directly, you must have special eclipse glasses. Regular sunglasses, frosted or darkened glass, or any other method lacking the necessary eye protection, just won’t cut it.

Nasa’s must-read eclipse safety guide on the subject says:

Viewing any part of the bright sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or telescope without a special-purpose solar filter secured over the front of the optics will instantly cause severe eye injury.

Many stores, businesses, schools and libraries are still offering glasses free or at low cost, but you need to make sure they are safety rated. The American Astronomical Society warned last month that unsafe fakes and counterfeits were circulating, and has published a handy list of suppliers of safe solar viewers and filters (certified ISO 12312-2 compliant).

If you don’t have eclipse glasses, you can make a box pinhole projector following the steps in this video, courtesy of Nasa’s Goddard space flight center.

An even simpler method is using anything with a small hole, such as a kitchen colander, to project an image on to the ground. And remember that many places across the entire country, such as science centers and zoos, will be hosting special eclipse events so you can watch the action safely.

Updated

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is urging drivers to keep their eyes on the road, not the sky, as the eclipse nears.

Drivers should avoid pulling over in unsafe locations such as the shoulders of highways and interstates, and instead pull over in a safe area like a parking lot, the agency warns.

It comes after analysis published earlier this month that showed there was a significant increase in fatal car crashes in the US around the time of the 2017 total solar eclipse.

Updated

How can I watch it?

If you live anywhere in the path of totality, or can travel to it, congratulations, you have a front-row seat.

Just remember: you need eclipse glasses (more on that in a minute) to look up at all times other than the few minutes of full eclipse.

But everyone in North America outside the path should be able to see at least a partial eclipse of varying percentages, and Nasa will be livestreaming the entire event here.

And here is Nasa’s Eclipse Explorer, where you can enter any US address or zip code to find out what will be visible from that location.

You can find Nasa’s guide to the stages of a total solar eclipse here.

Updated

Millions of people were gathering across 15 states, and in Mexico and Canada, on Monday in anticipation of this afternoon’s total solar eclipse that is expected to deliver a dazzling celestial show.

Undeterred by gloomy forecasts of low cloud cover and rain spoiling their view, hordes assembled in the US from Texas to Maine, clutching safety glasses and cameras with solar filters, in readiness for the rare spectacle.

Travelers were up early on Monday to stake a good spot for watching the eclipse beneath the 115-mile wide path of totality. In Maine, where clear skies are expected to offer some of the best views, authorities reported heavy traffic long before daylight.

Forecasters had gloomier news for many other parts of the country, although predicted conditions have been generally been trending better in recent days. Clouds are still expected across much of the eclipse route, with severe weather including thunderstorms and hail for parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana later in the day.

“Northern New England remains to be the region where cloud cover will likely be minimized along the path of totality this afternoon,” the National Weather Service said in a Monday morning bulletin.

Other locations will have a fair chance of cloud covers at various levels, although locations across Arkansas to the Midwest could see breaks in the clouds or high thin clouds during the time of totality.

What is a total solar eclipse and why is this one special?

Total solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, blocking the sun’s face completely, and causing the bright sky to darken to twilight in just seconds. The track of the moon’s shadow is called the path of totality.

The most recent total solar eclipse in the US was in 2017, but an interval of only seven years is unusual. The previous one before that took place in 1979, and the next one visible in the contiguous US will not be until August 2044. Only 16 other total solar eclipses have occurred over at least a part of the lower 48 states in the last 155 years.

An estimated 31.6 million people, almost three times as many as in 2017, live in the path of totality – which is longer, and also wider, than almost every other total eclipse before it, because the moon is closer to Earth and casts a broader shadow.

The time of totality in any given location is also longer. Seven years ago, the longest duration anywhere was two minutes and 42 seconds. On Monday, it will be four minutes and 28 seconds in Torreón, Mexico, while almost every place along the path can expect between three and a half to four minutes of totality.

Updated

Total solar eclipse to sweep across Mexico, the US and Canada

Hello and welcome fellow eclipse watchers to the Guardian’s coverage of Monday’s total solar eclipse, which will traverse across the Pacific Ocean, through Mexico, the US and Canada, and end over the Atlantic Ocean.

The total solar eclipse will be visible along a “path of totality” that will measure about 115 miles (185km) wide and extend across the continent.

The first spot in North America that will experience totality is on Mexico’s Pacific coast at about 11:07am PT. The eclipse will sweep across 15 states in the US in a north-east direction, from Texas to Maine, for roughly an hour, beginning at 1.30pm CT and ending at about 3.35pm ET. An estimated 31.6 million people live in the path of totality.

Along that path, the moon will fully obscure the sun, and block its face completely, causing the bright sky to darken to twilight in just seconds. Weather permitting, people in the path will see the sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere, which is otherwise usually obscured by the bright face of the sun.

North America won’t see another coast-to-coast total solar eclipse for 21 years, prompting millions of people across the country to travel to witness the celestial event.

Updated

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