Will the weather Aug. 21 overshadow the total solar eclipse?

ASHEVILLE - Things aren't looking so hot for the Aug. 21 total eclipse of the sun.

One week away from the big day, meteorologists have a slightly better ability to forecast next Monday's weather and the outlook is less than favorable, said Steve Wilkinson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service at the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport.

All the hype might turn to hash if the weather in Western North Carolina stays the usual August summertime track.

Weather is constantly changing in the mountains, but a week out, weather forecasters can start to reasonable predict the weather.

“It is now looking partly cloudy and remaining in a similar pattern that we have been experiencing – morning clouds,” Wilkinson said of Aug. 21. “Hopefully as the day goes on the clouds will break up and we’ll have sunshine, but it can go the other way.”

The total solar eclipse will hit parts of Western North Carolina, including Robbinsville, Andrews, Bryson City, Sylva, Cashiers, Brevard and Rosman, at about 2:30 p.m. and last for varying times, from a few seconds to nearly 2 minutes, 40 seconds.

That’s about the time when August rain showers also typically hit.

“There will be some clouds, but do they break up or do we remain socked in? We don’t know yet,” he said.

So far through Monday at the Asheville Airport there has been 3.45 inches of rain, which is 1.6 inches above normal, Wilkinson said. There are other places in the mountains that have received more rain, including Transylvania County, which gets much more rain than Asheville.

On average, Transylvania County received 90 inches of rain, compared to 45 inches in Asheville, making it technically a rainforest.

The high temperatures on Aug. 21 will be around 83 and in the higher peaks it will be 70-73 degrees, pretty typical for August.

Wilkinson said the National Weather Service will be keeping a closer eye on Aug. 21, releasing more weather forecasts as the time grows closer.

Astronomers say that when the skies are cloudy during a total solar eclipse, it will get dark, and the temperature will drop a little, but the spectacular show of the sun’s corona will not be visible.

See more solar eclipse news at http://avlne.ws/2vJn6iw.