Forecasters 'slightly optimistic' about Erie weather on solar eclipse day

No fooling, the April 8 solar eclipse is one week away and it's still a little too early to say what the weather will be like in Erie that day. But forecasters are leaning to the hopeful side.

"It's a long way out still," David Marsalek, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cleveland, said Monday morning. "The sky cover element is one of the hardest things to forecast."

But he said conditions were "looking on the slightly optimistic side" with only partly cloudy skies, dry conditions and temperatures in the mid-50s.

"Details will be ironed out over the next several days," he said Monday morning.

2024 eclipse guide: How and where to watch the April 8 total solar eclipse in Pennsylvania

What AccuWeather is saying

AccuWeather, which last week was predicting April 8 high temperatures in the mid-60s, on Monday had the high temperature during the eclipse as being 55 with partly sunny skies, no chance of precipitation and 38% cloud cover.

Sky cover

With everyone looking up on April 8, the chance of clouds is a big deal.

"The current climatological outlook suggests El Nino conditions will be present during the time of the 2024 solar eclipse," a National Weather Service solar eclipse webpage states. "The primary area this will impact looks to be along the lakeshore where there is historically more cloud cover compared to years without an El Nino pattern."

The National Weather Service's Marsalek said that if it is overcast in Erie that day, eclipse watchers wouldn't see the moon obscuring the sun but would still experience the dimming effects and possibly a drop in temperature.

Forecast leading to April 8

The forecast this week for Erie from the National Weather Service in Cleveland on Monday included the possibility of snow showers Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday morning.

But Marsalek said snow isn't expected by next Monday, solar eclipse day, because temperatures in Erie are expected to rise over the weekend.

Typical April in Erie

The normal high and low temperatures for Erie in April are 56.8 and 38 degrees, respectively, according to National Weather Service information. For just April 8, the average high temperature in Erie, based on NWS records from 1874 to 2023, is 48.8 degrees and the average low is 33.9.

Normal precipitation for Erie in April is 3.47 inches. Average precipitation for Erie on April 8 is one-tenth of an inch of rain.

Normal snowfall in Erie in April is 2.6 inches. The average for April 8 is two-tenths of an inch of snow.

Overcast was the most frequently observed cloud cover on April 8, between about 1 and 5 p.m. at Erie International Airport, going back to 1948, according to NWS information. Skies were overcast 57.9% of the time.

Dana Massing can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie PA weather forecast 'slightly optimistic' for 2024 solar eclipse