If the clouds cooperate, and (that’s a big if), we could see a partial solar eclipse on Saturday afternoon. If you miss this eclipse, there will be a near total eclipse visible in Southern New England in April of 2024.

In the western United States into Texas is where the best of this weekend’s eclipse will be. A ‘ring of fire’ could be seen along the path of the annular eclipse.

The moon won’t quite cover the entire disk of the sun, so the edges of the sun will appear around the moon. In some ways, this is better than a total solar eclipse.

If it is visible, DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN. You could hurt your eyes. To see it safely, you need to use ISO certified glasses. They’re available on the internet.

Here in Southern New England, we’ll only have a partial solar eclipse….about 20% of the sun will be covered by the moon.

In Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, the eclipse will begin at 12:16PM when the moon begins to cover the sun’s eastern limb.

The maximum eclipse for us will be at 1:26PM.

The show comes to an end at 2:34PM.

Of course we’ll need some breaks in the clouds. While the eclipse is starting, we may have some breaks in the clouds.

The clouds will likely be thickening up during the celestial show, however….eventually some showers move in Saturday afternoon.

If we can’t see this eclipse due to the clouds, we have another solar eclipse in April of next year.

Meteorologist T.J. Del Santo

T.J. Del Santo (tdelsanto@wpri.com) is the weekday morning and noon meteorologist for 12 News. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.