Tuesday morning would have been a great time for a lunar eclipse because skies were clear across the state.
But when a occurs in the hours just before sunrise on Wednesday, we may not be so lucky. Meteorologists say clouds will be moving in from the west right around the time the eclipse is set to occur. Itap possible they will ruin the show. They could actually enhance the view, though. And they might actually arrive after the moon sets.
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To review, if you haven’t been following along: The partial eclipse will begin above the southwestern horizon Wednesday at 3:44 a.m. The moon will be half in eclipse around 4:20 a.m., and it will be in total eclipse from 5:11 to 5:25. Sunrise is at 5:36. The moon will set officially at 5:43, although much of the Front Range will actually see it dip below the mountains before then.
“Itap looking to me like there’s probably going to be a decent amount of cloud cover,” said Zach Hiris, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Boulder. “Itap going to be high clouds, though, so itap not necessarily thick clouds that you won’t be able to see through. Itap kind of that hazy sky you see at night with those high cirrus clouds.”
Cirrus clouds are composed of ice crystals, occurring at elevations of 16,000 feet or more, and tend to be wispy. So itap possible they could make the eclipse even more beautiful than it would have been in a clear sky.
“I’m wondering if those high clouds are thin enough to make a nice little haze, really bring out some of the color,” Hiris said. “They’re going to be developing right in that window from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. But from what I’m seeing, it doesn’t look like itap going to be too bad at 4 or 5 a.m. I think itap going to get a little bit thicker after sunrise.”
Fox 31 meteorologist Kylie Bearse offered some hope that the clouds could arrive after the moon sets.
“I’ve got one model bringing it in around 4 a.m.,” Bearse told viewers Tuesday morning, “the other one bringing in the clouds around 6 a.m.”
