This map shows if clouds will block the solar eclipse in your state

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August 16, 2017 11:06 PM

Cloudy weather could affect the likelihood of seeing the total solar eclipse on August 21. This map estimates the cloud cover in every state.

A student testing a self-made filter to view the sun.

The United States will see a total solar eclipse on Monday for the first time in decades. Some people are traveling hundreds of miles to cities in the line of totality, like Nashville, Tennessee, and Salem, Oregon.

But there is one thing that could put a damper on the event: clouds.

Esri, an international supplier of geographic-information-system software, has created a cloud-cover prediction map for the time of the eclipse in every state. Michael Zeiler, a geographer at Esri, produced new maps every day leading up to the eclipse.

According to the map below, clouds could obscure the eclipse in many states in its path of totality, including Nebraska, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Tennessee; Idaho and Oregon are the only states expected to have clear skies.

"Today's forecast shows an overall improvement in most other places in the path, except for Nebraska," Zeiler told Business Insider.

A total solar eclipse is an astronomical phenomenon that occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun and appears to cover the latter. The two other types of eclipses are annular and partial, where the moon doesn't completely mask the sun.

Solar eclipses look different depending on the location. On Monday, the total solar eclipse will cut through only a 70-mile-wide band of the country, stretching from the Northwest to the Southeast. Everyone in the US — from Maine to Alaska — will be able to experience at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting.

For most of the US, the eclipse will happen around lunchtime.

"This is the subject of intense interest for millions of people interested in going to see the eclipse," Cameron Lowe, an Esri representative, told Business Insider. "Weather will be a huge factor."

Dave Mosher contributed to this story.

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