It is the season for clouds in western Washington, and forecasts point to a likely overcast Saturday morning, blocking viewing of the partial annular solar eclipse in western Washington.
As of Wednesday evening, cloud cover is expected to be at 80% or greater around Puget Sound, though less cloud cover east of the Cascades could provide a better chance of viewing.
An annular solar eclipse is different than the complete solar eclipse that was all the buzz in August 2017 and they happen a bit more frequently too.
In an annular solar eclipse, the moon is farther away from the Earth when it moves between the Earth and the sun, thus not blocking the entire sun’s surface.
Instead, in areas in “totality” where a maximum amount of the sun’s disk is obscured, the result would be a “ring of fire” where the moon is surrounded by a very bright ring of complete sunlight.
In the 2017 eclipse, the moon completely obscured the sun’s surface, revealing the fiery corona.
The closest area of totality for this annular solar eclipse on Saturday morning will be from the central Oregon coast through southern Oregon, then farther southeast across the southwestern United States.
In Washington state, about 75% to 85% of the sun’s surface will be obscured by the moon, and if we’re able to view it (and only with eclipse safety glasses or indirect eclipse viewing equipment), the sun would appear to become a crescent, just like the crescent moon.
In Seattle, the eclipse will start at 8:07 a.m. Saturday with 80% maximum obscuration by 9:20 a.m., with the annular eclipse ending at 10:39 a.m.
If there is cloud cover preventing viewing of the eclipse, you’re likely to notice a significant darkening of the sky as the moon blocks most of the sun’s light.
We’ll be updating the forecast for Saturday morning’s eclipse on KIRO 7 News leading up to the event.
For information on eclipse viewing safety visit the NASA website.
©2023 Cox Media Group
