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<p>Getting ready to watch the solar eclipse? Bring a sweater along with those special glasses because the mercury could dip as the moon&#8217;s shadow crosses the land.</p><p>Millions of Americans across a 70-mile-wide corridor from Oregon to South Carolina will see the sky darken as the sun disappears from view, albeit for only a few minutes at a time.</p><p>Temperatures in those areas could tumble by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5.6 Celsius), according to Paul Walker, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College. Other parts of the nation will experience only a partial eclipse.</p><p>&#8220;That is assuming a totally sunny sky,&#8221; Walker said by telephone. &#8220;We will see a temperature drop where totality happens,&#8221; he added, referring to the path the eclipse will take across the U.S. where the sun will be completely blocked out.</p><p>The eclipse will disrupt the sun&#8217;s power to heat the ground, warm the atmosphere and supply electricity. It could also be ruined by a rainy day, patch of fog or even just a sudden thunderstorm in the wrong place. Given the limits of modern-day forecasting, predicting any one of those days in advance for an event that only lasts minutes is near impossible.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a difficult forecast challenge,&#8221; said Bob Henson, a meteorologist at Weather Underground in Boulder, Colorado. &#8220;You&#8217;re not forecasting a day&#8217;s weather, but for two minutes.&#8221;</p><p>The chill in the air will peak about five to 20 minutes after the moon&#8217;s shadow passes by. Temperatures could take three hours to rebound across the Great Plains and East Coast, said Brad Harvey, meteorologist with MDA Weather Services in Gaithersburg, Maryland.</p><p>&#8220;The change in temperature may be larger and take longer to recover in the West,&#8221; Harvey said. The eclipse will start to be seen in the morning which is &#8220;the time of day when temperatures are rising most rapidly.&#8221;</p><p>On the West Coast, the eclipse is due to start a little after 9 a.m. local time and peak about 10:15 a.m. In the central U.S., that will happen at 1:18 p.m. in St. Louis. The East Coast will see the biggest effect after 2:30 p.m.</p><p>As many as 12,000 megawatts of solar power will vanish along the path of the moon&#8217;s shadow along with the decrease in temperatures. Natural gas generators as well as hydroelectric plants and other sources will help fill in the gaps.</p><p>There will be little impact on winds, according to Harvey. &#8220;Gusts may be reduced because of stabilization of the air,&#8221; he said. The effect could be similar to a sea breeze, said Henson.</p><p>One of the odd things that could happen on a micro-scale is for fog to occur as sunshine fades and temperatures drop.</p><p>That the path of totality crosses three distinct weather zones also has to be factored in by meteorologists.</p><p>One is the Pacific Northwest, which is often clear and sunny at this time of year, except along the coast, Henson said. So people living inland will likely have a good chance of seeing the eclipse.</p><p>Smoke from wildfires could threaten to obscure the celestial event, said Frank Pereira, a forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. &#8220;In terms of cloud cover, it will be minimal across a good portion of that area.&#8221;</p><p>Showers and thunderstorms forecast to cross the region from Nebraska to Missouri Sunday night could linger into Monday, Pereira said. Southern Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee should all have good weather.</p><p>Finally, east of the Mississippi, the typical summertime pattern can be one of afternoon thunderstorms that are difficult to forecast in advance and could make viewing the eclipse that much harder.</p><p>&#8220;If they pop up over you, you aren&#8217;t going to see it,&#8221; Henson said.</p><p>And it that happens? Well, North America gets another crack at a total solar eclipse in April 2024.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Brian K. Sullivan</p><p>Bloomberg News</p></bylineMeta></div>

Monday’s solar eclipse to send temperatures tumbling