How can the solar eclipse affect the temperature in central Ohio?
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The total solar eclipse on Monday afternoon, April 8, will darken skies along the path of totality, which will average 115 miles from Texas to Maine across 13 states.
In Ohio, the path of totality will cover a corridor from Dayton to the northern suburbs of Columbus, Marion and Cleveland. The longer length of time that parts of Ohio will experience darkness is because the moon is closer to Earth than in a previous total solar eclipse observed in western Kentucky in August 2017.
The amount of time any region in the path spends when the moon completely blocks out the sun will determine how much the air cools at the surface.
Other factors include the time of day, existing cloud cover, and daylight which determine how much the temperature drops when the sun is briefly masked by the moon in the path of totality.
Current indications are that a band of cloud cover will overspread much of the Ohio Valley late Sunday, with a few showers, but begin to thin out on Monday afternoon. Although cloud forecast model data is based on probabilities that will be refined in the coming days, coverage will likely range from 40 to 80 percent of the sky in most areas by 3:15 p.m.
How much the air cools when sunlight disappears on Monday afternoon will also be affected by the type of local cloud cover present. The loss of sunlight will result in a decrease in winds, briefly, due to less vertical mixing of the atmosphere.
Thicker low clouds composed of water droplets will make the change in air temperature much less apparent. Patchy mid-level clouds prior to totality will allow much more sunshine to filter through, which creates a more dramatic cooling when the sun is covered by the moon's shadow for several minutes.
At that time, skies will grow dark like evening dusk, and animals are apt to grow quiet, reflecting their response to nightfall.
During the last total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, the National Weather Service in Morristown, Tenn., looked at weather stations that had experienced several minutes of totality, which revealed a quick drop in temperature of 5 to 10 degrees.
During an annular eclipse on May 10, 1994, the National Weather Service office at Capital Airport in Springfield, Ill., witnessed a dip of 4 degrees in the forenoon, under clear skies within the period of maximum eclipse, when a thin ring of outer sunlight was visible. (An annular eclipse does not fully cover the sun because the moon is farther away from Earth than in a total solar eclipse.