Want to see the solar eclipse? Go to Dallas
Mar 25, 2024, 6:30 AM
(Scott G Winterton/ Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — You’re not going to see the total solar eclipse here in Utah when it happens on April 8th, so many people are going to travel to see it.
Tracking more than 150-thousand geotagged posts on X, the car seat company Diono determined that Utahns are more likely than people from any other state to travel to see the solar eclipse.
The eclipse’s path spans from Mexico to the northeast, from Texas to New York.
Michael Zeiler, an eclipse cartographer from GreatAmericanEclipse.com, said the closest part of the eclipse’s path to us is Dallas.
“Probably between the Dallas, Fort Worth area and Waco, Texas,” he said.
If you can travel to see the eclipse, Zeiler said now is the time.
“We won’t see another one in the contiguous United States until 2044,” he said.
Jeanette Harris from Bountiful said she’s going to see the eclipse in Dallas, because her son’s family told her it was life-changing.
“They’re like, ‘You can’t imagine how cool this is.’ When they told us that a couple years ago, I was like ‘I don’t care where the next one is, we’re going,'” she said.
If you can’t muster up the ability to travel to see the full solar eclipse, Zeiler said you’ll still be able to see a partial eclipse in Salt Lake City.
“People in Salt Lake City will see about 50% of the sun disc obscured, so sunlight will be about half the normal brightness,” he said.
Related reading:
- April’s total solar eclipse is a month away. Here’s why it’s worth the watch and how to stay safe
- How to safely view the April 8 solar eclipse, yes even in Utah