Follow Monday's eclipse with USA TODAY
Monday’s long-awaited total solar eclipse will dazzle millions of viewers from coast to coast, and USA TODAY will follow it every step of the way.
The USA TODAY Network will be broadcasting on Facebook Live across all of its 110 news sites, including USA TODAY. It will feature feeds from NASA, the Associated Press and local network properties.
The USA TODAY Network has also created a one-stop day-of experience page, solareclipse.usatoday.com, that will go live Monday with interactive content. The page will feature the immersive rotating livestream, as well as a real-time map of the eclipse’s path that will serve as a “countdown clock.”
Users will be able to search FAQs on the eclipse and view an Instagram feed of our hashtag, #EclipseLive. Network-wide coverage will begin in Oregon at 9 a.m. PT (noon ET).
After the eclipse ends, viewers can return to the site to see the best footage of the event.
The first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse to take place in the USA in almost a century is expected to be viewed by Americans in the so-called "path of totality," the area in which the moon will completely cover the sun.
Though the total eclipse will last just two or three minutes in any location, it'll take about an hour and a half for the eclipse to move across the entire country.
The eclipse will traverse portions of 14 states, but the path of totality is just a tiny sliver 67 miles wide. The path will first reach the USA near Salem, Ore., and sweep eastward to Charleston, S.C.
Anyone looking up who happens to be outside the path will see a partial eclipse as the moon covers much of the sun's disk.
The total eclipse begins in Oregon at 10:16 a.m. PT. By the time it ends in Charleston, it'll be 2:48 p.m. ET.
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A few larger cities directly in the path: Nashville, Kansas City and St. Louis.
In Oregon, a wildfire near the prime eclipse-viewing town of Sisters forced an evacuation order for about 600 residents; another 1,000 were warned they could also be forced to leave.
Though much of the West is forecast to have good viewing weather, a few clouds are possible along the Oregon coast; clear skies are expected in Salem, as well as Boise, Idaho; and Casper, Wyo., according to the National Weather Service.
In the central U.S., a few clouds and some scattered showers could mar the view in portions of Nebraska and Missouri, but a complete washout isn't likely.
South Carolina, which is expecting as many as 2 million visitors for the event, may offer some of the worst viewing weather, especially near the coast, where mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast. The weather service said there's also the potential for showers and thunderstorms Monday morning and early afternoon.
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Contributing: Doyle Rice, USA TODAY. Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo