Eclipse 2024 Was Almost a Disaster - Saved By Last Minute Change of Plans

I was going to Texas but canceled the night before the eclipse and went to Paragould Arkansas. Clear blue skies and I was so grateful.

The air traffic view from that few hours is fascinating. Glad some people got a view above the clouds!

As a former Montrealer, our former cottage at Pike River was smack in the middle of the eclipse path, but fortunately, my buddy's cottage was near Sherbrook, QC which had 3.5 minutes of totality. We planned this months ahead and got our eclipse glasses in January to avoid the rush. As a space buff, my bookshelves are full of eclipse pictures, but nothing came close to the real thing. I had my camera set up, but so overwhelmed and not wishing to miss anything while fiddling with my camera's settings, I abandoned my camera for a pair of binoculars as no picture was ever going to come close to this majesty. I'm still in awe. It was worth the bumper-to-bumper traffic coming home to Ottawa.

I live in Maine. Been planning this event since 2017, and the weather is NEVER clear here this time of year. We had 18 inches of snow two or three days before, but on the day of the eclipse, not a cloud in the sky. Amazing!

I live in Buffalo and had planned on staying home, but when I woke up that morning and saw the clouds and storms here, I threw all my things in the car and raced as fast as I could towards Cleveland, fleeing West until I could see the Sun. I didn't know whether I was going to make it, but I'd be damned if I wasn't going to try. I'm so glad I did! I wound up running into clear skies ~50 miles shy of Cleveland with only an hour to spare, and found myself near Lake Erie Bluffs State Park just off of I-90. I got to catch it from the Southern shore of Lake Erie, on the edge of a gentle cliffside about 40 feet above the beach with a clear view of the Lake. I made a last minute purchase of high-powered binoculars at the next Walmart over before going to the park. It was so beautiful, I literally cried all the way thru totality. SO worth it 🥹

Stuck with Texas (Sulphur Springs), and, just in time, the skies cooperated! It was amazing!

In Dallas it cleared up just a few minutes before totality. Maybe because of the temperature drop? It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen tho.

Clouds parted to blue sky just before eclipse in Sulphur Springs TX , almost 4.5 minutes of totality was amazing.

We were going to Texas, almost did a last minute change and went to upstate NY, then decided to not change anything and stayed north of Dallas Texas. Beautiful day 80 degrees perfect view of the eclipse with no clouds at all blocking it, it was fantastic!

My brother was in Mexico on the pacific coast and they had great views.

I flew from Croatia with my wife to Texas for this, scrached head what to do with the clouds and on saturday decided and went to St Louis and saw it in Salem Illinois, used Uber driver payed him lunch to wait us out at Arby parking lot! Got in time to fly back to San Antonio! Crazy adventure!

I was so lucky because my grandparents' house in northeast Ohio was very close to the center of totality, so we had a family gathering planned for the event six months prior, but NE Ohio is traditionally overcast 365 days a year because of lake effect weather, but we lucked out and only had the very thinnest clouds! It was really surreal hearing the animals like the birds and spring peeper frogs react to it suddenly being dusk, and all the streetlights suddenly coming on in the middle of the day. It truly was an incredible experience!

That's hillarious... I too had taken a trip to Texas and bailed up to Montreal once the clouds were predicted in TX. I ended up driving out to the eastern townships (including my mother's home town) and had a great, cloud-free, 3.5min totality of awesomeness. :)

Went to Cape Girardeau Missouri for the eclipse, weather was beautiful and the sky completely clear save a little bit of extremely thin cirrus. Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

Friend of mine and I drove from Toronto all the way to Sherbrooke, QB for the eclipse. Expecting major crowds and traffic we left at midnight and arrived shortly after 7 and set up in Jacques Cartier Park. Beautiful place and plently of open space. Joined a fellow astro-photographer and watched as the part slowly got more and more people. By ther time the eclipse began there were a fair number of telescopes and filtered cameras around us along with several just enjoying the event. All in all a great time and I got to see totality for the first time in my life.

Traveled from Nashville, TN, to St. Louis for the weekend, and then decided to just drive wherever we could on Monday. Almost zero traffic going into Marion, IL, outside of Carbondale (coincidentally driving through Nashville, IL in the process). Stopped at the Cracker Barrel, where the lot was only half full and got 100% clear skies. No crowds, good food, and an amazing experience... Until the 10-hour drive back to Nashville on a route that is usually only about three.

We were in Fate, TX for the eclipse. It was really looking like there would be cloud cover all day, but at the last minutes the clouds cleared up and we enjoyed an amazing total eclipse.

I went to Kansas for the 2017 eclipse and the clouds ruined it. Was super exited that it would go over my house here in north Texas, but was really disappointed with the clouds rolling in before the eclipse. But then they cleared up and we got a hell of a show! I can see why people travel around the world to see total solar eclipses. It's a completely different experience when you don't have heavy cloud cover.

I'm from the southshore of Montreal and that day I was working outside in just my t shirt. It was warm enough for me to break a sweat, but when the eclipse came I had to put on a sweater. The fact that 2 days before there was a snow storm, we could definitely feel the temperature drop.

I booked two different Texas campsites and canceled them both. Almost decided to drive to Northern New York then settled on Southern Illinois. The skies were fantastic.