Dark Side of the Moon

Since witnessing my first total solar eclipse in 2017, I had Monday, April 8th, 2024 circled on my calendar. I chose Austin, Texas because, out of all of the locations in the US in the path of totality, the weather in Texas, historically speaking, would give us the best chance to see the eclipse. 

But as the day approached, the forecast for Austin was not good. It bounced around from cloudy, to showers, even thunderstorms. Definitely not sunny. I was super depressed. Several days before our departure date, I told my friends and extended family making the trip with me that it might be a total bust, and that they could still opt out. None did. 

On the morning of the eclipse, as expected, high level clouds streaked across much of the state. And, to make things worse, also as expected, warm tropical moisture was advancing northward from the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to create severe thunderstorms over much of Texas later that day. 

Looking out of the window of our hotel at the cloud cover, it was obvious that Austin was not going to work. After hours in front of the weather channel and studying the latest local satellite imagery from NOAA, I figured our best chance for clear skies was to outrun the tropical moisture by heading to the northwest. So, into the caravan of cars we all went, racing to the north and west through the Texas Hill Country. As we got further and further out of Austin, the skies started to clear, some patches of blue sky even started to appear. My spirits began to soar. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get to witness some it, I thought.

With the moment of totality fast approaching and having made it to an area with partial sunny skies, we finally pulled off the main road somewhere north of Burnet (population 6,700) and south of Lampasas (population 7,600). Time had finally run out for us, it was going to be here that we would witness totality or maybe nothing, or maybe something in between. A crisscrossing cloud pattern gave us just a few quick glimpses of the moon slowly advancing across the face of the sun. I lowered my expectations, just hoping for 30 seconds or so of clear skies during totality. 

About a minute before totality was scheduled to begin, my son excitedly announced that there seemed to be a break in the high clouds coming from the west and an opening in the lower clouds coming from the south. Could it actually happen? At precisely 1:35pm at our location somewhere in the middle of Texas, the clouds miraculously parted as if by divine intervention, and the supernatural spectacle that is a total solar eclipse began.

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