Longest partial lunar eclipse in 581 years, lake effect snow occurs Thursday night, Friday
A nearly total lunar eclipse will occur during the late night and pre-dawn hours of Thursday night into very early Friday morning!
While it is not the longest total lunar eclipse, it is the longest partial lunar eclipse in 581 years.
Even though it is technically a partial eclipse, it will appear nearly full as about 97% of the moon will be hidden by the Earth's orbit passing in between the sunshine and moon.
So, you probably want to know what time to look and what the moon will look like if the skies are clear enough to see the lunar eclipse. Get a strong cup of coffee ready!
Here are specifics below:
--The biggest part of the eclipse starts at 2:29 AM Friday and ends at 5:47 AM Friday.
--The moon will appear red between 3:45 AM and 4:20 AM.
--The maximum nearly total eclipse will be at 4:03 AM Friday.
When to look and what will the moon look like:
Approximate appearance of the eclipse via NASA Scientific Visualization Studio:
(Remember to subtract 5 hours from this picture below):
Will the weather cooperate to see the lunar eclipse?:
--In short, not everyone will be able to see this.
--There will likely be lake effect precipitation and cloud cover east of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.
--This will cause the lunar eclipse to be obstruct completely east of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.
--However, portions of the immediate CNY area including potentially the Thruway, Route 5 and Route 20 corridor may be able to have enough breaks in the clouds to see this.
How much lake effect snow will stick?:
--Like many of our previous lake effect events, this one will have a big difference in elevation and location.
--The highest risk for accumulating snow will be the north of Route 49 and east of I-81.
--The heaviest snow will occur over the Tug Hill Plateau.
--Note below that the lower elevations and areas around the Thruway corridor have the lowest amount of snow.
--That is due to the fact that when the Lake Ontario bands finally move southward into CNY, the temperature will likely be too warm for accumulation.
Forecast for new snow Thursday night through Friday for much of upstate NY:
Forecast for new snow Thursday night through Friday east of Lake Ontario:
Here are the areas that have winter weather alerts in effect:
Get even more specifics about our weather coming up for the beginning of Thanksgiving week here:
