The Weather for the 09 Eclipse

The Ecliptomaniacs, along with a group of Swedish and English eclipse chasers are in Sizhou to the west of Shanghai and are keeping their fingers crossed for a clear sky tomorrow morning at least. It doesn't look too good at the moment cloud wise. It's all down to luck now.
Best wishes to all eclipse chasers for the big day from those who couldn't make it this time.
Brian

Brian,

I am 180 km southwest of you in Hangzhou and it is also very cloudy. All of this is supposed to clear overnight supposedly for my area.

As late as yesterday, predictions were for heavy rains and which never materialized and this forecast has been consistent the past few days. Let's hope it remains to be off-base and or at least a few minutes centered on the midpoint of totality.

Best of luck to all of those concerned, for we are quite well under 12 hrs away from the main event.

Anthony.

Well, we were greeted with heavy rain, thunder and lightning this morning. However it stopped raining but cloud remained as the eclipse approached. We caught fleeting glimpses of the sun between 1st and 2nd contact. However totality was completely clouded out. Went very very dark, much darker than in turkey or Russia because of the cloud cover. Thousands of people at this site 30deg 24.19n 120deg 32.173E. The site was located at a tidal bore where we saw the tidal surge a couple of hours after the eclipse which was cool ( 2m high wave surging up the river) - not enough to balance the loss of missing a clear sky for totality though. Fireworks went off during totality. 20mins after totality and the sky cleared. What a difference a few minutes can make!

Well the weather was so bad in China that the Ecliptomaniacs saw nothing. They even had time to ring me just before Totality! (I was here in Dublin) They were near Suzhou, north of the centreline and along with many thousands of others and probably millions across China and India are bitterly disappointed with the weather. I know the prospects were never good for this eclipse but most mornings for the last week have been clear over this area of China. Sometimes the weather gods don't play ball!
They were situated beside a giant statue of a smiling Buddha and there was one comment which raised a smile, a rare thing on such a dismal morning.
"Now I know what that ****er is smiling at"!

So I am afraid only touristy photos this time around.
Regard,
Brian

yea, that reminds me of the 1999 eclipse when we were in Paris for the week, great weather in the days before and after it, but hailing on the day itself.
Bummer.