ROANOKE, Va. – It's finally here! The Great American Eclipse is ready to live up to the hype nearly a century in the making. The moon will pass in front of the sun at the perfect point creating an illusion that the two are the same size. The shadow created by the moon will be cast on Earth turning light into darkness for a couple of minutes for those in the path of totality.
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The celestial show will get underway just after 1:00 this afternoon with the peak eclipse for us happening at 2:40 p.m. Locally, we will see a partial eclipse so the atmospheric phenomenon such as seeing the sun's corona or the sky going pitch black in the afternoon will occur about 3-4 hours south of us.
For us, 90 percent of the sun will be covered. This means NASA certified glasses must be worn during the full duration of the eclipse as a sliver of the sun will be exposed.
The weather locally isn't going to be perfect, we'll have clouds and maybe a stray shower around, but it shouldn't prohibit viewing too much.
If you're heading to totality, you'll likely be battling heavy traffic and few clouds. Your best bet now will be to head toward Central Tennessee. There will be heating of the day clouds around, just like here, but there should be less in the way of clouds than say the South Carolina portion of totality.
Safety is definitely the number one concern as we've been talking about for some time now. You must have and keep on NASA certified eclipse glasses. If you couldn't find a pair or think yours might be fake, there is a very easy method to indirectly view the eclipse. It involves two pieces of cardboard, a pen, tin foil, scissors, and a white sheet of paper. Here's how to make it.
https://www.today.com/food/safely-watch-eclipse-pizza-box-projector-t115186
Even if you have the NASA certified eclipse glasses, you shouldn't look directly at the sun for more than a couple minutes at a time.
If you miss this eclipse, the next total solar eclipse will come to America in 2024. That eclipse will be about 86 percent for Southwest and Central Virginia.