• Water Survey program to monitor weather effects of the solar eclipse

    Apr 3, 2024 8:45 am by Lisa SheppardWater Survey
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    CHAMPAIGN, Ill., 4/3/24: As the solar eclipse brings a spectacular show in the sky on April 8, viewers can also follow its path online as the Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring (WARM) program at the Illinois State Water Survey offers real-time monitoring of changing weather conditions during the event. Monitoring will begin about 10 a.m. central time on the WARM website, https://warm.isws.illinois.edu/warm/eclipse/.

    Besides Illinois, weather station networks in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Indiana, New Jersey, and New York are also taking measurements that can be viewed on the American Association of State Climatologists website, https://stateclimate.org/mesonets-eclipse2024/.

    “I’m excited by the fact that the various stations are all publicizing our efforts together,” said Jennie Atkins, WARM program manager. “The public can theoretically start in Oklahoma and go from network to network to see the eclipse. In Illinois, viewers can choose the station location to see what’s happening with air temperatures and solar radiation over the course of the day and what’s happening as the eclipse passes through.”

    All 19 stations in the Illinois Climate Network across the state, a part of WARM, will be measuring weather impacts and updating the data every minute.

    Atkins anticipates similar impacts to those seen in 2017 when solar radiation dropped from 88% in northern Illinois where a partial eclipse was observed to 100% in the path of totality and air temperatures fell 1 to 5 degrees. While wind speeds have been seen to decline during eclipses by other researchers, storms during the August 2017 event obscured any observed impacts.

    Data will be available by request for researchers interested in comparing the two events. 

    “This is a way to show what our network can do and it’s an interesting event impacting the state,” Atkins said about the eclipse. “We want to be a part of it.”

    Daily and monthly summaries of weather and soil conditions can be found at the WARM website (https://warm.isws.illinois.edu/warm/) and in the Illinois Water and Climate Summary (https://warm.isws.illinois.edu/warm/climate.asp).   

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    Media Contact: Jennie Atkins, Ph.D., (217) 333-4966, jatkins@illinois.edu