That’s what I have heard from a lot of people. Partial versus total are two completely different creatures.
We are in the path of totality here with a 99% chance of cloud cover. So we will be driving several hours west into north central Ohio. I have always been an astronomy nerd with 100’s of hours at the eyepiece look at faint fuzzies. So this is something I would really like to see.
Some group is already suing the local government over the decision to declare a state of emergency for a solar eclipse.
And I kinda see their point.
For starters, Niagara Falls is literally one of the biggest tourists attractions in the world. It’s built to handle a ton of people. This isn’t that much different than peak tourist season. They can handle it.
But even if that wasn’t true, you can’t just declare a state of emergency because a bunch of people are coming to town. What if there was a music festival? It’s a bad precedent. Because there’s all kinds of things that are required to take place now, because a state of emergency is typically a mass casualty event.
So hospital workers who would normally have Sunday off had to go in to work today so they could transfer patients out of the region and prepare beds for the injured, idk, people who looked at the sun I guess?
All police are on duty tomorrow, they aren’t allowed to call in sick, police are coming in from other cities. Why? When it gets dark people are just going to start rioting? Lol
And its for the entire region. The region is big. Like idk, 40-50 miles across. And the falls themselves are small. Everything is focused into one main tourist area. Like the Vegas strip but tiny. Unless you’re working in the area you won’t notice anything special going on.
Seems unnecessary.
I experienced a total eclipse in 1979 in Canada. It was very cool to see and experience. We had proper viewing filters. But as well as the darkness when it was supposed to be sunny seeing the bird behavior and feeling the drop in temperature made it a whole experience that was better than any photos or videos can convey. That said, I would not go very far out of my way to be in mobs of people seeking the experience.
At the time we just locked the front door to the camera store and posted a sign that we were out back in the parking lot watching the eclipse.
One million people descending upon a town of 80,000 people. The State of Emergency is to allow the allocation of resources needed for traffic control and any other possibilities. Better safe than sorry, but I guess some people are overly sensitive after the convoy protests in the past.
Better to be over-prepared than caught unprepared. Niagara Falls is used to influxes of tourists, just not all at the same time. Even Nick Wallenda walking over the Falls had about 50,000 people. Everyone is being hyped to come down to the Falls Tourist Area, if they do then the density will be incredible. Try find parking for everyone in that town of 80,000 people.
Hopefully attendance will fizzle but I don’t see any issue with having first responders prepared to assist if needed.
So much is happening.
The last total eclipse in the UK was in 1999, I wasn’t in the path of totality but we got most of it and it went surprisingly dark which was weird during the day. I enjoyed seeing it from my back garden, but wouldn’t travel for one and certainly not if it was going to be crowded. I absolutely hate being in crowds.
There’s something about the experience that, to me at least, is utterly captivating. Darkness in the middle of the day not preceeded by a sunset nor caused by clouds, seeing the solar corona. In the leadup colours and shadows change. It’s weird to the animals too as everything goes eerily quiet.
It’s pretty and interesting in pictures but being there is so out of the ordinary that a flight to see it is justified imo.
We are going to have ~92% - 93% here.
I’ll put a large sheet of paper out and let the leaves of the trees act as my pinholes.
Funny - some I know are excited - others could care less.
In other news, Saturday was a charity BBQ cookoff fundraiser. With 30 teams.
Partway through the winds ramped to 50mph gusts.
Glad I didn’t go.
All the Best,
Jeff
It’s neat of course. It’s a relatively rare occurrence to catch a full one. (If you’re in the right spot for that)
In my area the eclipse will only be about 73%. I guess any dire mystical consequences related to full eclipses do not apply to me 
Was right under the 1999 one in the UK (in one of the few areas it wasn’t obscured by cloud cover too). It was definitely fun and interesting, but I think some people are making too much of a big deal out of this one as well.
For me it’s a nothing-burger. I can simulate a similar phenomenon by holding a basketball between me and the sun.
No big deal.
Up to million people descend upon Honeymoon Capital of the World, where millions of people have been descending upon constantly for the last 200 years.
Looks like the same kind of crowds as a sunny Canada Day long weekend.
Was kinda cool though.
I went for a walk into the woods, was pretty funny to see. The animals were acting like it was dusk. You could tell the squirrels were caught with their pants down as it got darker, all running around trying to find a spot to hide for the night. Birds were doing their nighttime chirping, mosquitoes came out. Then one minute of spooky. Didn’t think to bring a flashlight. And then normal again.
Was kind of a fizzle here, too. As expected. 10% sunlight is still pretty f’n bright.
So the effect was like a cloudy day. Which is about right, as the clouds were rolling in throughout. A few peeks of sunlight, could see the crescent-shaped splotches of light in “holes” in shadows poking through tree-branches.
And yeah, the gnats were coming out as it got darker/cloudier. Joy…
At least the birbs et for a bit and the squirrel picked up the bread and absconded with it.
Mmmmmmm, nothingburger…
It was even less impressive than expected here. It was already extremely cloudy so it passed before I even realized.
Mildly interesting.
Made a pinhole camera so I could watch a projection of it. Nice and sunny weather, but the eclipse only reached 30% in my location.
Could see the eclipse happening without using the glasses. It was cloudy but it just filtered out most of the light. Saw the moon crossing slowly, would have been better with less cloud but at least it was mostly visible. Full eclipse, would have been nice to see the corona but nope.
Everything got quiet, birds stayed roosted, some clowns decided it was time for fireworks??? Didn’t get fully dark but was pretty dark.
Snipped from CBS news when KJ was covering the eclipse in Viagra Falls…
The inset pic is not realtime, so that inset of the crescent just stays as-is, even when they’re all oohing and aahing at how black it got. Took me a while to figure it out. Same with the inset pic of the horizon. Why they did that, I have no idea.
It is striking how the 6min clip starts out just before it (totality) starts and there are still remnants of light, then it does go almost completely black, and by the end of the clip it’s already getting light again.
THAT I would’ve loved to have seen. But here, like I said, 10% of full sunlight is still pretty f’n bright, so it was kind of a fizzle.
I remember it being a big deal back in 1979 I was in grade school, but living in Oregon it was kinda a bust as we had clouds covering our view.
This time living where I do, I would not have known it was happening as we were so far out of the line of being effected we had 0% chance of seeing anything but the sun.
Agree. Was in Tennessee for the 2017 Total. Was a hot day, and the temp suddenly changed 20º f. An owl came out and perched on a powerline wondering wtf is going on? Saw a bunch of cattle in a nearby field all heading towards the barn all at the same time.
Could see the contrails of the two NASA jets at 40k ft. One about 10 miles ahead of the other. They both take videos of the eclipse at the same time, splice them together and end up with a live video that is twice as long as a normal eclipse to study.
Stayed home this year, but still had a 95% eclipse where we are in Michigan