(Radio Iowa) – The view of today’s (Monday) solar eclipse will range from excellent to so-so to lousy, depending on where you’re located in Iowa at mid-day. Meteorologist Dylan Dodson, at the National Weather Service, says folks in the northern few tiers of counties may have to hop in the car and head south if they want to see the spectacle.  “Partly to mostly cloudy as you get further north in the state, but for the south, you’ll see mostly clear skies through most of the day today,” Dodson says. “Then central Iowa, you’re going to be kind of right on that gradient between the clouds as they’re kind of hanging out across northern Iowa.” Veteran eclipse watchers say even when high, thin clouds partly obscure the sky, the eclipse may still be visible.

“I don’t have any personal experience on that, but I would imagine, just gauging off of how you see the sun through the clouds sometimes,” Dodson says. “If it’s more of a thinner cloud deck, you might be able to see it through the clouds. It’ll be more of a filtered sunshine, but if it’s really caked in, it might still be kind of difficult to see.”

The 2017 eclipse (NASA photo)

While parts of the nation will see a total eclipse, the sun will be about 90-percent covered in southeast Iowa, and more like 75-percent in northwest Iowa. The moon will start covering the sun around 12:45 P-M, the peak should be around 2 o’clock this afternoon, and it’ll all be over by about 3.