This eclipse path touches ONLY mainland United States soil!
That may not sound like much, but it turns out to be an amazingly rare event! You see, the paths of totality for most eclipses wind and meander over oceans and islands and continents, with no regard whatsoever for human borders or the geography of the landscape over which they pass. For an eclipse path to touch only one county and no other, is reasonably rare. (Though admittedly, it did happen in 2012, in Australia.) Even the great eclipse of 1918, which swept across the U.S. from west to east as this one will, did not fit the bill - it hit the Bahamas as well! Upcoming eclipses (such as the one in 2024) will have the same outcome, touching down in Mexico, Canada, and Central America -- as well as the USA. It is an astounding fact that you have to go all the way back to the total solar eclipse of 13 June 1257 (!) in order to find another eclipse which touched only American soil! (And of course, America wasn't a country at that time!) When will the next eclipse like this happen? One that touches only American soil? Not until 25 January 2316! Make sure you see this one! (...and purists may argue that the 1257 eclipse doesn't count anyway,
as it went over land in the Hawaiian Islands. |