Cloudy with a chance of darkness

Cloudy with a chance of darkness

The National Weather Service has bad news for eclipse chasers. The forecast for Hays County, and much of Texas, is predicting that it will likely be cloudy all day, and there is a chance of rain in the afternoon. But all is not lost as Hays County Emergency Services Director Mike Jones said you will still get to experience the drastic change from day to night as well as the nocturnal critters emerging for their nightly routines.

“We are forecasting mostly cloudy with a thirty percent chance of thunderstorms; though that will mainly be [in the] afternoon, so probably after the eclipse,” said Bob Forgarty, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “But it’s not looking encouraging as far as cloud cover.”

According to the Visit Wimberley website, the moon will begin to block the sun from view on Monday at 12:16 p.m., and the total eclipse will occur at 1:34 p.m. At that point, a viewer in Wimberley, which is in the path of totality whereas San Marcos is just outside of it, can experience 2 minutes and 2 seconds of darkness during the day; something that will be apparent even if the sun is not visible through the clouds. Jones said Dripping Springs and Hays (the town) will also have 100% totality, and are good options for viewing as well.

With a massive amount of people flocking to the area to experience this interstellar event, Jones said that preparation is key. If one is traveling he said to be sure that the gas tank is full, and just in case of an emergency a one gallon steel container could be helpful. If one is using an electric vehicle, ensure that it is fully charged as charging stations are sparse in the area. He recommended jumper cables and a spare tire in case there are problems with one’s vehicle as emergency services are going to find it challenging to navigate the traffic.

Jones said the county will be shutting down all offices except public safety organizations. The city of San Marcos said that additional staff from its public safety departments are scheduled to work on April 8 to respond to emergency incidents or traffic concerns as needed. City staff have been in contact with business partners to ensure operational needs are met for first responders, including dedicated fuel supplies and radio operations.

Traffic is going to be much worse than on any other day, so hours stuck in traffic is to be expected.

“I would say stick around those places after the viewing, and enjoy some of the festivities that are going on there,” Jones said. “You’ll get to enjoy the rest of the day, and you won’t be in traffic. The average distance that people travel to see this totality is 7,500 miles. So you’ll have people flying into Austin-Bergstrom [airport] and then traveling out towards Fredericksburg, Dripping Springs [and] Kerrville.”

Jones added that the worst time for traffic will be right after the eclipse ends. He said that compared to holiday traffic, the traffic directly after the totality will be three or four times worse.

Jones said to go to the store for groceries and all needed supplies as early as possible because “you may not like it when what’s normally a 15 minute trip to the grocery store takes 45 minutes to an hour and 15 [minutes].” The city of San Marcos encourages residents and visitors to plan ahead by running errands and picking up essentials before the eclipse event, including fuel, groceries or medications. It asks that one avoids over-purchasing. The city also recommends that one carry cash just in case of service interruptions. If possible, enable Wi-Fi calling on cell phones.

If the weather service is wrong in its cloud cover predictions, which is a not so unheard of event, then Jones said to be sure to wear your ISO rated glasses. According to NASA, safe solar viewers are thousands of times darker than regular sunglasses and ought to comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard. Don’t stare at the sun without them, but that should really go without saying. The city of San Marcos agreed that it is not safe to look directly at the Sun without specialized eye protection during the event, except during the totality phase of the eclipse. Specific eclipse glasses designed to protect eyes are available for purchase from retailers.

“I don’t recommend using anything beyond rated glasses,“ Jones said. “I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the alternatives like smoked glass, multiple pairs of ordinary sunglasses, X-ray film, [etc]. No. It’s all a bad idea.”

There are many viewing parties occurring in Hays County and a map of those can be found at haysinformed.com.