As viewing prospects for Tuesday (March 3) morning’s total lunar eclipse is concerned, it seems that about half the nation will have at least some occasional glimpses of the moon plunging through Earth’s dark shadow. The whole – aka blood moon phase — starts at 6:03 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, which corresponds to 3:03 a.m. Pacific Time. The totality lasts 58 minutes.
The regions of the country likely to have the best overall weather conditions for the moon show will be southeastern New England, much of the Florida peninsula, the northern Rockies, the Southwest deserts, Nevada, and most of California.
Other areas where eclipse weather will be problematic will be over parts of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, where light rain and snow may fall, as well as parts of the Northern Plains to the upper Great Lakes, where a cold front will drop south from south-central Canada. In addition, an inverted low pressure trough developing near the coast of the Carolinas will induce a moist Atlantic air flow that will lead to widespread cloudiness over the Piedmont region of the southeastern United States
Also, near and along the Pacific coast of Washington, Oregon, and California, a marine layer of low clouds will be in place at eclipse time, which may hide the moon.
In the case of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New England, it is unfortunate that the eclipse does not take place 12 hours earlier. Tuesday night, for these locations, skies will likely be beautifully clear and moonlit thanks to a large high-pressure dome sitting over southeastern New York. But as the night progresses, the protective shield of clear skies will rapidly shift eastward and out over the Atlantic and will allow lowering and thicker cloud cover to move in from the west, which—depending on how quickly the cloud shield advances—could partially or completely obscure the moon at eclipse time. Those who want to be guaranteed a good view of this shadowy little sky drama should travel east to be ahead of the clouds. Places that hold the most promise for clear skies include eastern Massachusetts, southeastern New Hampshire, and southern Maine.
We have provided a map of the percentage of cloud/sky cover, valid for Tuesday at 7 a.m. EST, from NOAA’s National Digital Database. It shows the areas where the sky conditions look best. . . and worse, for eclipse watchers. We can divide things into three categories:
GOOD: Cloud cover varies from clear to scattered cloud cover; generally a sky cover of no more than 30%.
FAIR: Cloud cover varies from scattered to broken cloud cover; generally 30% to no more than 70%. Despite the existing clouds, there will likely be large breaks and openings that will allow intermittent views of the moon entering eclipse, especially for locations with no more than 50% sky cover.
POOR: Cloud cover varies from 70% to completely cloudy. At worst, a complete blackout of the eclipse. At best, perhaps some occasional glimpses of the moon like what the poet Alfred Noyes described in “The Highwaymen”: “The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed on cloudy seas.”
For any late updates in your local weather forecast, of course, check with your local National Weather Service Forecast Office. Just click on the part of the map where you live and it will take you to the NWS office that serves your area. There you will find all the latest weather information for your area.
Also, check for the latest satellite images from your region thanks to the weather satellite GOES 16.
If you’re overcast, the next chance to see a total lunar eclipse from the contiguous United States will be the night of 25–26 June 2029. It will be an unusually long whole, lasting 102 minutes. Later this year, the night before 27-28 Augustan “almost” total lunar eclipse will take place, where 93% of the Moon will be immersed in the Earth’s dark umbral shadow.
You can also watch all the action unfold from home with these for free lunar eclipse live streams and follow our lunar eclipse live update blog.
