The following scenes are show a selection of weather patterns along the eclipse track in October. Satellite images were acquired by the Terra and Aqua satellites over the past 20 years.
This Terra satellite image shows the weather situation over the U.S. at 10:30 am on October 14, 2017. A weak cold front stretches from Kansas to southeast New Mexico, gradually tapering off in Western Texas. Scattered thundershowers are forming over New Mexico and northern Texas in this 10:30 am image. Toward the Gulf Coast, a flow of low-level moisture has spawned a field of small cumulus clouds that are lined up along the flow of the wind. The low-level cloud is heavier in central regions where the moisture has met the Balcones Fault and been pushed upward.
This morning image from the Terra satellite shows an extensive cloud cover over the Northwest States as a strong southwest flow crosses the Sierra Nevadas. Wave clouds are visible over Oregon and central Nevada, and are probably also embedded in the heavier cloud shield between them. Over New Mexico, a small patch of fog has yet to burn off. The cloud over the Llano Estacado in Texas is a mixture of fog and stratus, and though it’s dissipating on the edges, is too thick to completely burn off during the day. Over the Texas Coastal Plain, cumulus clouds are starting to build; heavier convection is growing deeper along the coast.
A fine day across most of the eclipse track in this Terra satellite view from 2012. A cold front is sweeping through coastal Texas on its way southward and another frontal system is approaching the Oregon coast in the northwest.
A large storm is forming over Texas and New Mexico in this morning scene from the Terra satellite in 2008. Over the northwest, convective clouds linger on the Coast and Cascade Ranges. Coastal Texas, though out of the main cloud shield of the building storm, has blossomed into a variety of convective clouds, including thunderstorms.
Clouds rule the day in this afternoon scene over Central and South America from 2019 in this afternoon image from the Suomi satellite. Multiple layers of cloud cover nearly the whole of Central America from the Yucatan southward. Over Colombia, lines of convective clouds with intervening open strips mark the three cordilleras that make up the Andes Mountains. Convective cloud across the Amazon Basin is dominated by a line of heavy thundershowers in the middle of the track. The cloud-free sertão in eastern Brazil holds up to its sunny reputation, but small cumulus clouds cover the coastal plain against the Atlantic Ocean..This view from Suomi shows a more eclipse-friendly landscape than that in 2019. Over Colombia, the gaps in cloud cover that form over the Magdalena River Valley and the Cauco River Valley are readily apparent. Convection over the Amazon Basin of Brazil and Colombia is mostly small cumulus. The sertão also has its cumulus blanket, but lighter than farther inland.
