The Rare Natural Phenomenon In Arkansas That Will Go Down In History

Head’s up, guys: the sun is about to go dark across the entire United States. Don’t panic. Take deep breaths. It isn’t an omen of the apocalypse, it’s just a totally normal, but extremely rare solar eclipse that hasn’t occurred for a long, long time. The sun will not go completely dark in Arkansas, but it will go partly dark when the moon passes between the earth and the sun on August 21, 2017. You’ll find the details you need to know about viewing the eclipse in Arkansas right here.

The Great American Eclipse will take place on Monday, August 21, 2017. As you can see in the graphic below, the eclipse doesn’t go directly overhead here in the Natural State, but you can still view an impressive partial eclipse on that date.

In Arkansas you’ll be able to see about 90% coverage of the sun. The best views will happen in the northeast, with the percentage tapering off toward the southwest region of the state. The communities near Texarkana will see the least coverage of the sun, at around 80%.

The best place to see the most coverage is in extreme northeast Arkansas, where you can see over 96% coverage of the sun.

Towns like Jonesboro, Pocahontas, & Paragould (or any of the surrounding communities, actually) are great places to see the eclipse. You’ll want to be there at around lunch time.

While I can’t know where exactly you all live, of course, I can tell you that the eclipse will be observable in your area between about 1:13 p.m. and 1:22 p.m. However, the window for viewing is fairly short, so you’ll want to check out this extraordinarily helpful link to make sure you know when to go outside.

If you’re planning to view the eclipse, please make sure you protect your eyes. You can seriously damage your retinas by staring directly into the sun, and that would be a sorry state of affairs.

In the immortal words of grandmothers, "act like you’ve got some sense," and in the words of high school chemistry teachers, "safety always looks cool."

For times the weather in Arkansas was a good reason to worry about the sky, click here. You might also want to check out these weird Natural State occurrences.