h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's starting to look like a wet and cloudy day next Monday

Although there were reports of up to 3" hail during the storms overnight, Austin didn't get too much and it didn't wake me up.

Yesterday 69/85 (20% chance of rain) (actual: 67/83, trace of rain)
Today 61/78
Wednesday 51/82
Thursday 52/86
Friday 56/83
Saturday 61/77 (20% chance of rain)
Sunday 64/81 (20% chance of rain)
Monday 61/83 (60% chance of rain)

Yesterday's departure from the historical daily average: +8
Average min/max for today's date: 56/78
Record high temperature for today: 99 (1939)
Record low temperature for today: 32 (1924)

Since I decided to skip this eclipse, to not spend $250 for Brian Brushwood's picnic and more money for gas, I could be petty and be glad for the likely poor viewing conditions, but I won't. I do hope the one week forecasts are wrong and central Texas has clear skies for the millions of people that will inundate the area and the folks that live there.

It would be... I don't know, ironic? No, not that, but something, if for the second time in my life I had a chance of seeing a total eclipse (1999 in Cornwall) and having it obscured by the weather.

Yesterday 61/78 (actual: 57/76, 0.06" rain)
Today 51/82
Thursday 53/87
Friday 59/86
Saturday 60/76 (20% chance of rain)
Sunday 65/81 (20% chance of rain)
Monday 63/81 (50% chance of rain)
Tuesday 69/80 (70% chance of rain)

Yesterday's departure from the historical daily average: 0
Average min/max for today's date: 56/78
Record high temperature for today: 93 (2023)
Record low temperature for today: 35 (1919)

I didn't go to Cornwall that day, by the way. It was a Monday and I'd worked the previous night as I usually did, then slept until about noon. I woke up at around the time of the eclipse I think, and I remember the sky being heavily overcast, as it was in Cornwall. Yep, sounds like August in Britain.

August, cold and dank and wet,
Brings more rain than any yet.

Flanders and Swann

I don't feel I've ever been able to experience any really special astronomical events. Ever since Haley's comet, it's been one let down after another. It definitely doesn't help to be so close to the light and atmospheric pollution of such a large metropolitan area.

The UK eclipse was on Wednesday 1999-08-11
I did much the same, I was in Dorset on the day before and thought about driving to Cornwall, then decided it wasn't going to be worth it, with the clouds and crowds.
So drove back to London and watched the partial eclipse during a gap in the clouds.

Heh, xkcd has something to say about how we feel about Monday's forecast.
http://xkcd.com/2915/

The previous comic concerns the amount of eclipse coolness as related to distance from center of path of totality.
http://xkcd.com/2914/

I saw those. Very good.

Yesterday 51/82 (actual: 50/84)
Today 53/87
Friday 58/87
Saturday 62/79 (20% chance of rain)
Sunday 62/84 (20% chance of rain)
Monday 62/84 (60% chance of rain)
Tuesday 69/83 (70% chance of rain)
Wednesday 64/77 (70% chance of rain)

Yesterday's departure from the historical daily average: 0
Average min/max for today's date: 56/78
Record high temperature for today: 92 (2019)
Record low temperature for today: 37 (1920)

Yesterday 53/87 (actual: 48/89)
Today 58/87
Saturday 61/79 (20% chance of rain)
Sunday 63/84 (10% chance of rain)
Monday 63/83 (70% chance of rain)
Tuesday 70/79 (90% chance of rain)
Wednesday 64/73 (80% chance of rain)
Thursday 55/75 (10% chance of rain)

Yesterday's departure from the historical daily average: +2
Average min/max for today's date: 57/78
Record high temperature for today: 96 (2022)
Record low temperature for today: 33 (1920)

Yesterday 58/87 (actual: 53/88)
Today 61/79 (20% chance of rain)
Sunday 64/84 (20% chance of rain)
Monday 63/82 (70% chance of rain)
Tuesday 70/78 (80% chance of rain)
Wednesday 61/77 (40% chance of rain)
Thursday 56/79
Friday 52/79

Yesterday's departure from the historical daily average: +3
Average min/max for today's date: 57/79
Record high temperature for today: 92 (1948)
Record low temperature for today: 37 (1937)

Yesterday 61/79 (20% chance of rain) (actual: 63/79, trace of rain)
Today 64/84 (20% chance of rain)
Monday 62/80 (80% chance of rain)
Tuesday 70/78 (80% chance of rain)
Wednesday 60/76 (20% chance of rain)
Thursday 55/81
Friday 53/81
Saturday 57/82

Yesterday's departure from the historical daily average: +3
Average min/max for today's date: 57/79
Record high temperature for today: 97 (1971)
Record low temperature for today: 34 (2007)

It's not looking too promising for seeing the eclipse today. Right now, at just after 7.30am, there's thick, heavy cloud cover. For most of last week we had clear skies with not a cloud in sight, then mostly sunny days over the weekend, but on the big day... a chance of severe weather. Oh bum

Yesterday 64/84 (20% chance of rain) (actual: 61/83, 0.06" rain)
Today 62/80 (80% chance of rain)
Tuesday 70/80 (70% chance of rain)
Wednesday 60/76 (20% chance of rain)
Thursday 54/80
Friday 51/81
Saturday 56/84
Sunday 63/87

Yesterday's departure from the historical daily average: +4
Average min/max for today's date: 57/79
Record high temperature for today: 95 (2020)
Record low temperature for today: 34 (1938)

Yeah, I think we're in for The Great American Disappointment.

I suspect it's mostly The Great Texas Disappointment.
http://twitter.com/NWSSanAntonio/status/1777385978690441369

My Twitter acquaintance and accomplished astronomical photographer in Liberty Hill managed to get a mighty fine shot of it.
http://twitter.com/philostrophy/status/1777410512231260289

We were lucky. The clouds thinned out enough to see it play peek-a-boo with us.
That's definitely the thinnest eclipse I've seen at a little over 94% coverage.
So my eclipse spectacles didn't go unused. (Well, the right side didn't at least.

Plenty of rain, maybe storms, was the forecast for yesterday afternoon. I didn't see any although Camp Mabry apparently recorded 0.16". There's already some on the radar for this morning though, including a small area of red heading this way, maybe arriving within the hour, and an 'enhanced' chance for severe weather later in the day.

Yesterday 62/80 (80% chance of rain) (actual: 61/80, 0.16" rain)
Today 70/80 (70% chance of rain)
Wednesday 58/73
Thursday 52/81
Friday 54/81
Saturday 58/84
Sunday 64/87
Monday 69/88 (20% chance of rain)

Yesterday's departure from the historical daily average: +3
Average min/max for today's date: 57/79
Record high temperature for today: 98 (1963)
Record low temperature for today: 32 (1914)

I declare yesterday, April 9th, to be the opening day of spring weather season in central Texas. Plenty of storms, severe weather watches and warnings including a couple of tornado warnings, one of which was close enough to Austin for the NWS to interrupt my radio listening, and lots of hail. One of my friends who lives in Elgin says his car got battered by tennis ball to baseball sized hail yesterday. No details yet of the damage. Only small hail, and briefly, here at Gosho Mansions, but a very impressive lightning display after the sun went down.

Yesterday 70/80 (70% chance of rain) (actual: 64/84, 1.54" rain)
Today 58/73
Thursday 52/81
Friday 52/82
Saturday 57/82
Sunday 63/84 (10% chance of rain)
Monday 68/86 (20% chance of rain)
Tuesday 70/87 (40% chance of rain)

Yesterday's departure from the historical daily average: +6
Average min/max for today's date: 58/79
Record high temperature for today: 94 (1963)
Record low temperature for today: 34 (1938)

Would you Adam and Eve it. The radio has just been interrupted again by... a test of the emergency alert system. It worked perfectly well yesterday

We avoided the hail this morning, but we got our share of rain, wind, thunder & lightning. We got over an inch of rain in about an hour. But the wind is what really kept me up. For a while I thought the cats were jumping around on the bed, but they were in the other room. It actually felt like someone was shaking my bed to get me up an hour early. For a good twenty minutes, I had thoughts of my garage apartment being blown down. (Mostly because I wanted to go back to sleep and my brain had other ideas, scary stupid ideas.)

By the time I left for work (after 6:00am), the rain had ended and the lightning was on the Eastern horizon.