Weather predictions

Hey gals and pals,

I'm trying to plan a trip to see the transit of Mercury on 10 November 2006. It will be visible from beginning to end, west of the Rockies. I am becoming very frustrated looking on line for weather resources to determine likely cloud cover so that I can choose between locations, ie, Grand Canyon (very evocative!), Phoenix, San Diego, elsewhere CA coast, somewhere in Hawaii. Hawaii would of course be the best choice for observing (sun's altitude at end of transit is 43 deg in Honolulu, 3 degrees for Arizona, 8-9 degrees for CA coast) but is a real pain to travel to for only a few days. Does anyone have a recommendation here?

I went to Spain for the annular eclipse in Ocbober and although the tabulated data suggested a 50% chance of clouds, "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain" and so hilly Madrid was utterly clear. Wonderful!

With my sons, I went to France for the millenium's last eclipse in 1999 and was nearly clouded out, we took our rented mini-Mercedes and a Michelin map and found a field with a hole in the clouds at about 2 minutes to go before totality. What a great time that was!

Ciao

Robert Howe

I have not looked into it yet, but I would suggest skipping Hawaii. Any place you are on the mainland, you can be somewhere else 300 miles away, in a completely different weather pattern, within five hours. In Hawaii this may or may not be true.

Otherwise--you are welcome to try southern California. It is often clear here that time of the year. And if you have never seen Mt. Wilson and Palomar, you should add this to your list.

Alex