Courtesy: Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science, Fall 1994
As the event draws near, follow the National Weather Service Forecast.
In the Twin Cities, 83% of the sun will be covered by the moon at 1:06pm CDT August 21, 2017. Looking at recent 1 PM observations in the Twin Cities since the year 2000, skies were mostly sunny (3/8 cloud cover or less) seven of the past 17 years, partly sunny (3/8 to 5/8 cloud cover) five times, and cloudy (7/8 cloud cover or greater) five times. Temperatures have ranged from 65 degrees in 2004 to 84 degrees in 2013. It can occasionally be quite windy with a sustained wind of 17mph with gusts to 24 mph in 2008.
And what should we expect from the August 21st, 2017 eclipse? We should see a noticeable loss of daylight, even if it's cloudy, because up to 83% of the available sunlight will be blocked by the moon. Partial eclipses of the past have produced dusk-like sunlight levels, even during the middle of the day. The 2017 eclipse will occur at a time when temperatures normally would be climbing by a degree or two per hour, but we should expect temperatures to lose ground for an hour or so, possibly affecting our ability to reach what would have been the high temperature otherwise. Although we will not be in the "path of totality," observant Minnesotans will have no problem recognizing the partial eclipse.
Below is a list of sky conditions and weather at 1pm August 21 for past years in the Twin Cities.
Year location SKY/WX TMP DP RH WIND PRES --------------------------------------------------------- 2000 TWIN CITIES CLOUDY 67 60 78 SE10 30.10F 2001 TWIN CITIES MOSUNNY 79 64 60 S13 29.83F 2002 TWIN CITIES PTSUNNY 69 67 93 SE14 29.86F 2003 TWIN CITIES CLOUDY 77 61 57 NW15G22 29.96R 2004 TWIN CITIES MOSUNNY 65 34 31 S13 30.05F 2005 TWIN CITIES MOSUNNY 71 52 50 NW9 30.12F 2006 TWIN CITIES MOSUNNY 83 57 41 VRB3 30.11F 2007 TWIN CITIES CLOUDY 74 67 78 NE6 29.84F 2008 TWIN CITIES MOSUNNY 83 62 49 S17G24 29.94F 2009 TWIN CITIES PTSUNNY 68 54 60 NW13 29.87S 2010 TWIN CITIES CLOUDY 77 68 73 NE6 29.93R 2011 TWIN CITIES MOSUNNY 74 51 44 SW7 30.03S 2012 TWIN CITIES MOSUNNY 76 44 32 S8 30.07F 2013 TWIN CITIES PTSUNNY 84 72 67 SW8 29.90R 2014 TWIN CITIES PTSUNNY 82 71 69 SE8 29.76F 2015 TWIN CITIES CLOUDY 74 58 57 S12G18 29.86S 2016 TWIN CITIES PTSUNNY 71 48 43 NW8 29.99R