Webcams and the 2017 Eclipse

Several people and area webcams caught some good looks at the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse here in Kentucky. The webcams below go a few of the various sites that we monitor for weather information here at the National Weather Service in Louisville. Click on each image for a bigger picture. Thanks also to all who submitted imagery of the eclipse!

Greenville (courtesy of WBKO, Bowling Green, in Totality zone for 1 min. 45 sec.)


1:24 PM CDT	1:27 PM CDT	1:31 PM CDT

Franklin (courtesy of WBKO, Bowling Green, in Totality zone for 2 min. 28 sec., note the street lights coming on)


1:24 PM CDT	1:27 PM CDT	1:31 PM CDT

The following is a loop of a Kentucky traffic camera in Smith's Grove, just northeast of Bowling Green, KY, where the sun was 99.85% eclipsed. Click on the link to go to a youtube video of this camera that runs from Noon to 3 PM CDT. There are a few things interesting to note in this loop:

1.) The small puffy clouds that typically form early in the afternoon show up and then start to die down. These clouds form because of the solar radiation heating up the lower atmosphere. In the animation, you note that as the sun gets more eclipsed, those clouds start to fade away.

2.) At totality, brief image right in the middle, those clouds are gone.

3.) As solar radiation picks up again, those clouds make a return.

4.) And so does the traffic heading away from the total eclipse zone.

The following is a loop is from a webcam courtesy of White Squirrel Weather, at Western Kentucky University, in Bowling Green, KY, in the totality zone for 1 min. 8 sec. Click on the link to go to a youtube video of this camera that also runs from Noon to 3 PM CDT. Of note in the thumbnail image below, during that totality, is the number of airplane contrails. There were several travelling along the path of the moon's shadow, trying to extend the viewing of totality.

John Paschal, at VAON LLC, provided his webcam imagery from just south of Franklin, KY, in the totality zone for 2 min. and 30 sec. This loop shows the change in lighting on both sides of the total eclipse time the best of the other images.

Another weather enthusiast, Mike Sparks, in northeast Frankfort, KY, had one of his webcams pointed at the sun. While you cannot see the sun itself getting blocked out by the moon, the color of the sky does change in this location, which peaked at 94.62% of the sun's disk being blocked. Click on the image below for another youtube video.

Princeton, KY (courtesy of Michael Montgomery, in Totality zone for 2 min. 42 sec.)

Franklin, KY (courtesy of Johnnie Nicholson, in Totality zone for 2 min. 29 sec.)

NWS forecaster Dan McKemy compiled these images he took of the eclipse down on the south side of Bowling Green, in the totality zone for 1 min. 32 sec.

Lastly, Matt Pedigo at the Citizen-Times in Scottsville (in totality for 1 min. 52 sec.), took these photos, and noticed a 9.8-degree temperature drop was recorded in the peak half-hour. This image is a composite with waxing on the left from bottom to top, waning on the right, top to bottom, and totality in the middle.