South – A solar eclipse was here to spice up your boring and tiring Monday this week. April 8th, 2024 was the day a solar eclipse passed over Mexico and traveled through the United States, and finally left up north to Canada. If you were lucky enough to see the eclipse, be thankful because many spots along the path of totality had cloud coverage blocking out the unique event that won’t take place again in the United States until 2033 in Alaska. The path of totality in the United States started in southern Texas and moved up towards New York. Most of the United States was able to see some part of the eclipse, if not, the total coverage of the sun.
We were warned many times by the news and the internet to not stare directly into the sun without proper eye protection. Sunglasses do not pass the test unfortunately, but special solar eclipse glasses do, which thankfully many public libraries gave out for free, while some businesses had a small fee to pay so you could view the eclipse safely. As expected, these supplies ran out quickly so solutions were made to try and view the eclipse without losing your vision, and some actually did work. Creative people found out that using a strainer that you would use to drain water out of your pasta would actually let you see the progression of the eclipse without looking at the sun at all. Placing your strainer in the sun would allow the light to pass through and the bite taken out by the moon was visible.
The solar eclipse affected something that you may have forgotten about or maybe want to forget about: the economy. With many travelers going to areas that the path of totality passed through, hotel bookings and Airbnb bookings increased and along with them, the price. In some areas, hotel prices increased by as much as 100%. Cities that were in the path of totality are expected to bring in increased taxes for this year as travelers visited and also spent money in these areas. This event was expected to bring a $6 billion dollar boost to the U.S. economy. Some cities and states expected so much traffic from the event that emergencies were declared that allowed for police to set up and prepare to control traffic and other preparations made for emergency services to be more efficient. As expected, traffic on local roads and highways were packed as many travelers started to return home, causing traffic jams that some described as some of the worst traffic they had experienced.
If you want to see the next solar eclipse, your travels will take you to Greenland, Iceland, or Spain in 2026. If you want to stay more local, the next solar eclipse in the mainland United States will be in 2044.
