Total solar eclipse in Evansville: What if it rains?
EVANSVILLE — Weather matters to planners who are bracing for as many as 100,000 out-of-town visitors to Evansville and surrounding areas in one weekend in April.
Evansville is directly in the narrow Texas-to-Maine path of the total solar eclipse that will occur April 8. The sun gradually will be eclipsed by the moon, bringing total darkness for three minutes and three seconds just after 2:02 p.m. in Evansville and six seconds later in Henderson, Ky. Henderson is expected to have about two minutes and 30 seconds of totality.
More: Coming to Evansville in April 2024: 80,000 visitors and one solar eclipse
The good news is, the visitors likely will spend millions on lodging, transportation, retail, recreation and food and beverages. But there might be clouds ahead — literally, clouds — hence bad news for some.
What if it rains?
It's entirely possible. According to climatology datasets issued by the National Weather Service, there was "measurable rain" in Evansville on April 8 in 42% of years from 1897 through 2023. The weather service offered the same data for six select cities within the path of the total solar eclipse, including Evansville. The others were Paducah, Ky., Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff in Missouri and Carbondale, and Mount Vernon in Illinois.
None of the other five had rain percentages higher than Evansville's.
Planning has been underway for more than a year
The current focus of planners is the weekend immediately preceding the total solar eclipse, which occurs on a Monday.
Regional Eclipse Task Force meetings have been happening for more than a year, with nearly 200 stakeholders sharing information and advice about how to help businesses and organizations plan for the influx of people. There are planning committees for advertising and promotion, lodging and accommodations, community engagement, events and education and public safety.
"The rain plan is probably going to be a little bit different from site to site," said Alexis Berggren, president and CEO of Explore Evansville, which has taken the lead in local eclipse planning.
"Based on what I understand about the eclipse itself, except for really bad conditions like really dark skies or snow, you will still be able to perceive darkness," Berggren said. "There will still be the perception of totality. The animals will still act as if the sun has gone down. The spiders will unspin their webs."
Berggren said NASA and astronomy associations will offer live feeds from above the cloud lines. Locally, indoor watch parties will be held at as yet-undetermined locations.
"There will be options," she said.
Lt. Erik Nilssen, one of three Vanderburgh County sheriff's lieutenants who regularly attend eclipse planning meetings, said area law enforcement agencies will be out in full force. Not only to enforce the law, but to help direct traffic. There will be that many people.
"I think right now the preliminary guesstimations are anywhere from 60,000 to 80,000 to even at the high end, 100,000 people," Nilssen said. "We're going to have additional patrols, meaning we're going to limit who can take vacation during that time frame so that we have additional deputy sheriffs working."
Nilssen said Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin has assured him the Evansville Police Department is doing the same thing.
On the day of the big event, organizers expect crowds will gather in all manner of large open spaces — riverfronts, parks, Evansville State Hospital, Deaconess Sports Park. Bleachers and road barricades may be part of the equation.
When it's all over, planners expect a mass exodus that will pose its own challenges.
Indiana State Police and the state Department of Natural Resources will help in the overall effort, Nilssen said.
"Anytime we have that large of an influx of people, traffic is going to be a huge concern, so we've also gotten in touch with our friends with the Henderson County (Kentucky) police and fire," he said.
The 2017 eclipse was different
Evansville was only on the fringes of the "path of totality" traced across the Earth by the moon's shadow as it crossed the sun on Aug. 21, 2017. That year's total solar eclipse was the first such celestial event to hit North America in 38 years.
The Evansville area wasn't in position to see a total eclipse, which happens when the moon completely blocks the sun from the sky. Local residents still bought shareable, reusable and inexpensive protective glasses in numbers that forced convenience stores, sporting goods stores and other suppliers to scramble to meet demand.
And they flocked along with people from other states and nations to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, dubbed the ideal place to watch. As the moon made its trek across the country, it would be closest to the Earth when it passed Hopkinsville. It was the darkest point along the path of totality.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Total solar eclipse in Evansville: What if it rains?
