Future Solar Eclipses in Oregon

by Clay Kelleher

We will never see another total eclipse in our lifetime unless we leave Oregon, however eclipsewise.com has links to small scale world maps, each showing paths all eclipses in a chosen 20-year interval, with the date of each.

If the above website yields a date you are interested in, use the following Nasa Eclipse Website map with the exact date substituted for yyyymmdd. This will display a Google map with the eclipse path that you can zoom in on.

Using these I learned the following. There will be an annular eclipse visible over about a third of Oregon in 2023, but that's just a weirdly shaped partial eclipse, fun to watch through your eclipse glasses, but lacking the awe of totality. Refer to the Wikipedia illustration of this eclipse on the right. To see another total eclipse in the US "lower 48", there will be a path from Texas to Maine in 2024 and another one from northern California to Florida in 2045.

The next total eclipse visible anywhere in Oregon will occur as the sun is setting on Oct 5, 2108, visible on a thin zone along the coast from about Yachats to Taft. Our great great grandchildren can enjoy that if the weather cooperates. Other future eclipses will catch corners of the state in 2254, 2317, and 2345.

Future Oregonians will have to wait until 2618 and 2744 for total eclipses visible in the Willamette Valley. Each will have broad paths of totality covering about 2/3 of the state.