North Texas witnessed an other-wordly event this year.
The last time Texas saw a total eclipse of the sun was July 29th, 1878. So the one on April 8th came with plenty of hype.
UNT solar physicist Dr. Rebecca Pervis says when the moon orbits the earth monthy, the orbit is a little tilted, above or below the sun and the sky, and it's rare for it to pass on a line exactly on a line that connects the earth and the sun and most of the time.
From Canada, the eclipse path took it over Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Little Rock and finally into Texas. On a swath from Paris to Dallas, Ft Worth, southwest to Waco, Killeen, Temple, Austin, and San Antonio, Uvalde to Eagle Pass. Some areas had longer periods of totality. In fact, the entire metropolitan area of Dallas and Fort Worth, a megalopolis of more than 7 million people was entirely inside the path of totality! In fact, 12 million people in Texas reside within the path of totality, by far the largest of any state in the US.
Dallas hosted hundreds of thousands of people and the Dallas office of Emergency Management activated a joint operations center. Some serious words from Emergency Management Director Travis Houston who told people to get there early and be ready to stay late.
It started as a partial eclipse, strange shadows...and then a wait for the moon to completely eclipse the sun, and when it did, KRLD's reporters were everywhere. With totality came the ring of fire, a safe and short span to ditch the eclipse glasses when the skies briefly darkened.
The consensus, a plus, five stars, two thumbs up. And we hope you enjoyed the event. The next one isn't going to happen until 2317.
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