Rarely have we so desired a perfectly clear sky — except perhaps for weddings.
Clouds could be what stands – or not – between the sky and the crowds gathered in the “band of totality” of the solar eclipse on Monday afternoon.
Gerald Cheng, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, is reluctant to make specific predictions about what eclipse watchers might expect to see during such a brief period Monday afternoon. Weather forecasts can be very fickle, he recalled in an interview on Friday.
A forecast of cloud cover three days in advance, for a very short period of time, “can be really wrong”, recalls the meteorologist, who has never been so asked to comment on clouds. “Let’s just say that cloud cover is not the reason meteorologists get into the profession,” he admits.
But with all the caveats in mind, Mr. Cheng ventures a brief preliminary forecast above the solar eclipse’s “band of totality.”
And good news for Quebec: forecasts look favorable for regions located on the path of the total eclipse, said Mr. Cheng.
“It seems to be the best conditions, according to our official forecasts and based on the information I have,” he said on Friday. The weather “should be nice” in Montreal and Sherbrooke, based on what he has seen so far.
Less well in the Maritimes and Ontario
In the Maritimes, a low pressure system generates some uncertainty, admits Mr. Cheng. “It could be a mix of sun and clouds” for parts of New Brunswick, including Prince Edward Island, the tip of Cape Breton and the Magdalen Islands.
“It’s really a mixture [soleil/nuages] because the system [dépressionnaire] is disappearing,” he explained. “It depends on the speed of the system. »
In Ontario, Cheng said conditions looked slightly better in the eastern part of the province, around Kingston and Cornwall, than to the west, but still favored clouds.
A sign of how quickly things can change in meteorology: Mr. Cheng points out that the forecast for southwestern Ontario changed within a few hours on Thursday.