Cloud layers block the Bay Area’s view of ‘ring of fire’ eclipse

In true Bay Area fashion, the region’s view of Saturday morning’s highly anticipated “ring of fire” eclipse was mostly blocked by multiple layers of clouds. 

A front passing over the area caused mid- and higher-level clouds to form above low-level clouds typical of this time of the year, said Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office. This resulted in a blanket of cloud cover over the region and less-than-stellar eclipse viewing conditions. 

“It was really just not the greatest setup to see the sun today,” Murdock told SFGATE.

Clouds aside, other parts of California got better views of the phenomenon, as the Bay Area was outside the eclipse’s path of annularity, or path on which the sun was most blocked by the moon. The Bay Area was set to experience a partial eclipse of only about 77% to 78%, in which the moon appears to take a “cookie bite” out of the sun, Chabot Space and Science Center adjunct astronomer Gerald McKeegan previously told SFGATE. Modoc County in California’s far northeast corner was the only part of the state to experience the full “ring of fire” eclipse, in which the sun sits directly behind the moon and forms a glowing circle of light.

Despite the gloomy conditions, breaks in the cloud cover created gaps in which the eclipse may have been visible to Bay Area viewers throughout the morning, Murdock said. 

“Even though it was a blanket of clouds, there were gaps in between, and the higher clouds were a bit on the thinner side. So people were using pinhole eclipse viewers and were actually able to see the eclipse, but again, it wasn’t a perfect view,” Murdock said.