cyclone77

That was absolutely phenomenal. Hype definitely met expectations. Stressed out all morning about the damn clouds/rain, and hurried further southeast as far as I could get and still get time to sit and enjoy it for awhile. Set up north of Nelson MO, or just southwest of Arrow Rock. Cirrus canopy from the decaying storms was very slow to move out. It did slowly thin though and allowed more and more of the sun to shine through. By the time totality arrived the cirrus was pretty thin so was able to see the eclipse quite nicely. The diamond ring at the beginning and end of the totality was what really surprised me. Was absolutely stunning. Had sort of a violet color to it, possibly caused by that thin veil of cirrus. The whole thing was just awesome. Can't wait until 2024! Short time lapse. You can see the shadow of totality pass overhead courtesy of the thin cirrus canopy. (Next eclipse I want to have footage shooting in all directions.)

Found a great spot south of Arrow Rock MO. Drove through a lot of rain and grunge to get here. Skies are clear in sw and southern sky. Don't know if that clearing will make it here quite in time or not. At least I can see the sun through the clouds already though. Saw a lot of people camping along the highway at various locations along the way. This is like one giant chaser convergence lol. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

HRRR now blowing up convection right over my target area around 18z for the past two runs. Lololol, you gotta love it. None of the models had indicated anything like that there up until now. Thinking about heading back to Beatrice NE now. Probably be a nice dense cirrus canopy there at the least. I seriously just want to forget it and head home but have already come this far.

Looking pretty stormy outside here. Some thunder in the distance. Gonna head down towards Marshall MO and hope for the best concerning the clouds. Definitely won't be clear there, but hopefully the cirrus canopy won't be too thick. Should be about a 6hr drive back home after the event.

Yeah kind of crazy that it's now the night before the event after all this buildup of anticipation over the past several weeks/months. I ran a timer on my phone down from 2 minutes and 38 seconds to kind of get a sense of how quickly it will pass lol. Good luck to all you guys, and drive safe tomorrow. EDIT: Some storms popping up a little west of here. May have to head out for some lightning pics in a bit.

Sweet. You won't have to go too far tomorrow. Still a good 2hr drive to get into the totality path from here. Plan on leaving between 8 and 9 so should have plenty of time to get into position. Gonna have the gopro take some vid but other than that I'm just gonna watch and enjoy.

Yeah I'm staying off the interstates tomorrow. Gonna take various highways and zig-zag my way south.

Made it to Osceola. Saw quite a few patrol vehicles on the way in on route 34.

Probably be taking off from here around 4 to get down to Osceola by around sunset. My secondary target of near Beatrice NE is looking pretty sketchy at this point. Probably going to stick with my original target between Cameron and Marshall MO. May end up bouncing back north and do some chasing up in Iowa after the eclipse. Total eclipse and severe weather in the same day?

I'll be looking at a lot of these simulated sat images going forward.

I basically have two targets picked out now. Either somewhere south of Cameron MO, or near Beatrice NE depending on cloud issues. Staying in Osceola IA Sunday night. Will make the decision first thing Monday morning as to which target to go to. If both areas are compromised then I guess we'll just have to roll with it and try to enjoy it even with cloudy skies.

Good idea. Think I'll do that with my atlas as well.

GFS and Euro showing an active convective signal for Sunday night/Monday morning with that potent LLJ over the Plains/MO valley. Euro has focused the convection further to the north the past few runs compared to several earlier runs. This would be good news for the eclipse corridor further to the south. It's looking like the LLJ and associated convection is pretty much a go at this point, but the question is how far north/south will this set up. I'm really hoping the MO area is good to go as I really don't want to drive all the way to Nebraska. Also don't want to go to southern IL.

GOES-16 imagery from COD is the best that I know of. http://weather.cod.edu/satrad/exper/?parms=cenplains-07-24-0

Euro continues to show a complex of storms near the MO valley area Monday morning/early afternoon. LLJ pointing into the region Sunday night/Monday morning. Long way off but it's becoming a concern.

00z Euro showing a fat MCS rolling right into my target area for the eclipse around noon lol. Sure hope it's wrong, but if it isn't will have to head into Nebraska. Clouds/rain in areas along the path will only act to make things even more crowded in areas that will be sunny.

Best video I've seen yet. This guy explains how it was for him when he saw a total eclipse for the first time. https://www.ted.com/talks/david_baron_you_owe_it_to_yourself_to_experience_a_total_solar_eclipse?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=talk&utm_term=science#t-134500

Long vid, but pretty informative.

Just booked a room in southern Iowa (Osceola) for Sun night. Less than a 2hr drive to the center from there.

Very well done video here. The last half of it is particularly interesting.

Pretty cool 360° view of an eclipse in Indonesia last year.

Watching that made me even more excited about next month. Sad that the anchor of this segment died just 4yrs after this, and has now been gone 34yrs.

Yeah the relatively short duration of totality makes the whole drive thing sound a bit crazy if you think about it lol. It's a once in a lifetime kind of experience though, so I think a long drive is gonna be worth it. I like the idea of finding somewhere out in the country away from large cities, and even smaller towns. An area where on a normal night there is little if any light pollution from surrounding cities. I think the maximum effect will be seen in areas like that.

I'll likely be heading to northwest Missouri if clouds aren't an issue. Nebraska will be the 2nd choice, and if clouds impact both of those areas then southern IL it is. I'll likely have a gopro capturing the scene, but I'm not going to be snapping any pics other than that. Just gonna hang out and watch it go down and soak in the experience.

Yeah I've been waiting for this for years. I'm already off that day, and kind of thinking about taking Tuesday off in case I have to drive further away if needed due to clouds. It's going to be a surreal experience to be sure. Can't wait!