MAP: 2024 total solar eclipse path goes right over Arkansas

Zone of totality a sunny prospect

A map showing the path of 2024 total solar eclipse across the U.S. and across Arkansas.
A map showing the path of 2024 total solar eclipse across the U.S. and across Arkansas.

Arkansans who didn't travel a few hours to see the total solar eclipse Monday will get another chance to see one April 8, 2024, when the moon will blot out the sun over much of Arkansas for a few minutes.

The eclipse will come up from Mexico, cutting a wide swath through Texas and Arkansas, then on through parts of the Great Lakes region, New York, New England and Newfoundland.

The zone of total eclipse will include Little Rock and will stretch 188 miles to the west, almost to Fort Smith. It will include Hot Springs, Hope, Arkadelphia, Texarkana, Conway and Jonesboro, in addition to many other cities.

Southeast Arkansas won't see the total eclipse. Neither will a section of the state northwest of a line from Fort Smith to Harrison. But at least a partial eclipse will be visible across Arkansas on April 8, 2024.

In Little Rock, the eclipse will begin at 12:33 p.m. and end at 3:11 p.m. Totality will begin at 1:51 p.m.

The amount of time that different cities will be plunged into darkness depends on how far they are from the center of the zone of totality. Little Rock will get 2 minutes and 31 seconds of total darkness. In Jonesboro, the eclipse will be about 7 seconds longer. Hot Springs will get 3 minutes and 33 seconds.

The Wonderview School District in Conway County is close to smack dab in the middle of the zone of totality. The school will get 4 minutes and 15 seconds of total darkness on that day, according to Google Maps. That's considerably longer than Monday's eclipse, which had a maximum duration of 2 minutes and 40 seconds of total darkness at the epicenter in Carbondale, Ill.

Wonderview Superintendent Jamie Stacks said the next eclipse has everybody at the school excited because the sky didn't get very dark there Monday.

"It was very interesting, and it was fascinating, but it wasn't total," Stacks said Tuesday. "I actually thought it would be darker than it was. So talking about 2024 was a big topic of conversation yesterday."

There is no town of Wonderview, she said. Never has been. The school is about 13 miles north of Morrilton. It was built to serve primarily the communities of Hattieville, Saint Vincent, Jerusalem and Cleveland.

The schools were built on a hill that provides a wonderful view, so it should be a great place to see the next eclipse, Stacks said.

Mountain View will get 4 minutes and 13 seconds of total darkness April 8, 2024.

[COUNTDOWN: How much time is left until 2024 eclipse? ]

Mayor Roger Gardner said he was glad to hear it. He thought Mountain View was going to get only a 98 percent eclipse.

A total eclipse is considerably more dramatic than a partial eclipse because total darkness accompanies a total eclipse.

"Well, that'll be great then," Gardner said. "We're kind of excited that we're going to see some darkness, I guess. As excited as you can be to see some darkness come over."

Gardner said he hopes the eclipse attracts tourists.

"We've got plenty of RV parks and plenty of motel rooms," he said.

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Gardner said he suspects that roosters will crow twice that day.

Mount Ida will get 4 minutes and 16 seconds of total darkness in the 2024 eclipse.

The mayor of the Montgomery County town, Jo Childress, said she heard that Tuesday.

"I was so disappointed in the other one," she said of Monday's partial eclipse. "I was disappointed that it didn't get darker. They told me we're in the path next time to be completely out, so that'll be wonderful."

Childress said she was in her office during Monday's eclipse. She looked out the window to see two people wearing welding helmets. Others were wearing special eclipse glasses or making pinhole cameras to view the eclipse. (NASA advises only using welder's glass of Shade 12 or darker to view a solar eclipse.)

Pencil Bluff, also in Montgomery County, will get 4 minutes and 17 seconds of total darkness during the next solar eclipse.

"It's going to be awesome," said Colby Kennedy of Pencil Bluff, a senior at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. "I'm really looking forward to it. Something I will keep on my radar for the next seven years."

If you just can't wait until 2024 and don't mind traveling, the next total solar eclipse will occur July 2, 2019, with totality running through Chile and Argentina, according to NASA.

photo

This photograph captures Monday’s total solar eclipse in Jefferson City, Mo. Arkansans won’t have to leave the state to see the next continental U.S. total eclipse on April 8, 2024.

Metro on 08/23/2017

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