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Travel the path of the solar eclipse

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Travel the path of the solar eclipse

#31

Post by tzs »

They should have mentioned which of the listed places have an airport that is served by one or more major airlines. Those places provide the opportunity of simply flying in, hanging out at the airport until the eclipse and watching from there, and then flying home.

I checked a few, looking for round trip flights from Seattle leaving Seattle the day before and returning the day of the eclipse. For some it may be possible to arrive the morning of the eclipse, but I didn't get into sufficient detail to check that.

Casper, WY: many flights, around $800. One week later is around $300, so it looks like the eclipse has driven prices up.

St. Joseph, MO: Many flights, $400-500, including a few nonstop so only 3.5 hours (as opposed to 6 to 7 for all the ones with a stop). (I did check same day for this one. There are leaving very early Monday morning from Seattle arriving before the eclipse).

Carbondale, IL: many flights, $700ish and up.

Metropolis, IL: Many, $1000ish.

Nashville, TN: Many, $500ish.

Clemson, SC: Many, $600-2000.

That was just cities that the article highlighted. There are also many fairly significant cities, some near the center of totality, that they left out. Columbia, SC (which has many flights staring at $700), for example.

Re: Travel the path of the solar eclipse

#32

Post by repiret »

tzs wrote: post #25

> Unfortunately for residents of Oregon’s historically cloudy coast, NOAA scientists have calculated the chances of a clear day at about 44 percent. ... > A few hours east, however, the odds increase dramatically. Because the Cascade Range creates a significant rain shadow across central and eastern Oregon, chances are high that the view will be unobstructed. How good are the short term forecasts for Oregon? If the d…

In Eastern Oregon, summer weather is either clear or thunderstorms; thunderstorms develop in the afternoon, while the eclipse is in the morning. You're exceptionally likely to get a clear day East of the Cascades.

I leave in rural Eastern Oregon. The population here is expected to swell by a factor of 5-10x during the eclipse, and this is expected to overwhelm local services. If you're headed to rural Oregon -- or probably any non-metropolitan area nation-wide -- to see the eclipse, I would recommend arriving at least two days early, plan on staying up to two days afterward, bring with you all the food and gas you'll need, and try to avoid any critical illness or injury.

Speaking specifically of Madras, its East of the Cascades, so the weather should be good. There's a rumor that they're planning to make the highways one-way between Madras, Bend and Prineville to accommodate the extra traffic. I wouldn't want to travel by car in that area during the eclipse.

Re: Travel the path of the solar eclipse

#33

Post by repiret »

zeotroph wrote: post #30
tzs wrote: post #25

> Unfortunately for residents of Oregon’s historically cloudy coast, NOAA scientists have calculated the chances of a clear day at about 44 percent. ... > A few hours east, however, the odds increase dramatically. Because the Cascade Range creates a significant rain shadow across central and eastern Oregon, chances are high that the view will be unobstructed. How good are the short term forecasts for Oregon? If the d…

> clear day That is not enough though. Since the temperature drops during any eclipse the air can suddenly hold a lot less water and you have fog ruining your view. So a place with lower humidity is the second thing to consider after the cloud cover itself.

Will less than three minutes of darkness actually cool the air very much?

Re: Travel the path of the solar eclipse

#34

Post by amelius »

This is a nice opportunity for navigation software to set themselves apart: let the navigation along the given path be time-constrained. Thus, if the user is lagging behind, send them to a highway; if the user is ahead schedule, let them wait for a while.

Re: Travel the path of the solar eclipse

#35

Post by dboreham »

tzs wrote: post #25

> Unfortunately for residents of Oregon’s historically cloudy coast, NOAA scientists have calculated the chances of a clear day at about 44 percent. ... > A few hours east, however, the odds increase dramatically. Because the Cascade Range creates a significant rain shadow across central and eastern Oregon, chances are high that the view will be unobstructed. How good are the short term forecasts for Oregon? If the d…

Beware that a million other people may have the same idea.

Re: Travel the path of the solar eclipse

#36

Post by LeifCarrotson »

dboreham wrote: post #35
tzs wrote: post #25

> Unfortunately for residents of Oregon’s historically cloudy coast, NOAA scientists have calculated the chances of a clear day at about 44 percent. ... > A few hours east, however, the odds increase dramatically. Because the Cascade Range creates a significant rain shadow across central and eastern Oregon, chances are high that the view will be unobstructed. How good are the short term forecasts for Oregon? If the d…

Beware that a million other people may have the same idea.

For better or for worse, I suspect that while a significant percentage of HN readership may be planning to travel to see the eclipse, a far smaller percentage (certainly not 1/3 of Seattle) of the general population is going.

Re: Travel the path of the solar eclipse

#37

Post by onychomys »

If, like me, you're planning on being on the Wind River Reservation for it, don't worry too much about the permit you supposedly need. The town of Pavillion is charging five bucks for parking, but that's literally the only thing I can find anywhere that mentions any cost at all. This site, which is linked to by the city of Riverton, seems pretty official, and doesn't mention permits of any sort (...guess we'll see on eclipse day!):

http://www.windrivereclipse.org/

Re: Travel the path of the solar eclipse

#38

Post by xtreme »

amelius wrote: post #34

This is a nice opportunity for navigation software to set themselves apart: let the navigation along the given path be time-constrained. Thus, if the user is lagging behind, send them to a highway; if the user is ahead schedule, let them wait for a while.

Cars, and even planes are way too slow to track the moon's shadow across earth. The speed seems to vary from ~1500-3000 mph depending on how close you are to the equator. An SR-71 Blackbird would have a hard time keeping up with that.

Re: Travel the path of the solar eclipse

#39

Post by Diederich »

repiret wrote: post #32
tzs wrote: post #25

> Unfortunately for residents of Oregon’s historically cloudy coast, NOAA scientists have calculated the chances of a clear day at about 44 percent. ... > A few hours east, however, the odds increase dramatically. Because the Cascade Range creates a significant rain shadow across central and eastern Oregon, chances are high that the view will be unobstructed. How good are the short term forecasts for Oregon? If the d…

In Eastern Oregon, summer weather is either clear or thunderstorms; thunderstorms develop in the afternoon, while the eclipse is in the morning. You're exceptionally likely to get a clear day East of the Cascades. I leave in rural Eastern Oregon. The population here is expected to swell by a factor of 5-10x during the eclipse, and this is expected to overwhelm local services. If you're headed to rural Oregon -- or pr…

We reserved an RV back in October with the intent of seeing the eclipse somewhere in your neck of the woods.

We're picking it up a full 3 days ahead of time. We're going to overnight around Shasta, and arrive almost two full days before the eclipse. We will be 100% self sufficient in the RV. That's the plan at least. (:

Here are some questions: how appropriate is it for us to park in 'some random place' for a couple of days somewhere up there?

Would you recommend being more 'east' or 'west' along the line of totality?

Do you mind me peppering you with a lot of other questions? (:

Thanks friend!

Re: Travel the path of the solar eclipse

#40

Post by timmaah »

Diederich wrote: post #39
repiret wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Eastern Oregon, summer weather is either clear or thunderstorms; thunderstorms develop in the afternoon, while the eclipse is in the morning. You're exceptionally likely to get a clear day East of the Cascades. I leave in rural Eastern Oregon. The population here is expected to swell by a factor of 5-10x during the eclipse, and this is expected to overwhelm local services. If you're headed to rural Oregon -- or pr…

We reserved an RV back in October with the intent of seeing the eclipse somewhere in your neck of the woods. We're picking it up a full 3 days ahead of time. We're going to overnight around Shasta, and arrive almost two full days before the eclipse. We will be 100% self sufficient in the RV. That's the plan at least. (: Here are some questions: how appropriate is it for us to park in 'some random place' for a couple…

> how appropriate is it for us to park in 'some random place' for a couple of days somewhere up there?

Public lands have certain areas you can disperse camp. Other than that it is usually not ok to just random camp.

These won't be ordinary times though. I'd _expect_ people will be looking the other way or be too busy to worry about running off RV's in parking lots.

We are planning on find a spot in Idaho a week and a half before hand. Hoping the weather holds out. It won't be easy to travel day of from where we picked.

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