Scientists issue urgent warning ahead of tomorrow's solar eclipse
How do you organise a solar eclipse party? You planet.
A total solar eclipse is set to be visible for most of North America tomorrow as the moon is expected to fully obscure the sun.
Thirteen states could see the full thing, including Texas, New York, Ohio and Oklahoma.
Mexico and Canada should also be able to experience the momentous occasion from about 11.07am PDT and 5.16pm NDT respectively.
How can I see the solar eclipse in the UK?
For us Brits, however, we can expect a partial eclipse - only a part of the sun will appear to be covered, giving it a crescent shape.
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Some lucky sky gazers might be able to see it in the UK tomorrow evening (8 April).
The best view is most likely to be from Glasgow, as about 12 percent of the sun will be obscured at around 8pm, according to Professor Don Pollacco from the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics.
Meanwhile, the rest of the UK is going to experience a 'a small grazing' of the eclipse in the west and north, says Dr Edward Bloomer, senior astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
Dr Bloomer said: “I’m afraid the south and the east are out of luck this time around.
“We won’t ourselves get to see anything from the observatory, which we’re a bit sad about.”
Prof Pollacco said: “The totality track ends in the Atlantic hundreds of miles west of Ireland at sunset.
“Going west the obscuration is greater, east less. Either way you will need some eye protection.”
The beginning of the partial eclipse is predicted for 7.52pm in Scotland, 7.54pm in Northern Ireland and England and at 7.55pm in Wales.
Now, a grim warning has been issued by University of Toronto researchers.
Why is there an increase in fatal car crashes on the days surrounding a solar eclipse?
The researchers found that there were over 1,000 extra road deaths across the US three days before and after the solar eclipse back in 2017.
Researchers found that around the eclipse, about 10.3 people were involved in a fatal car crash per hour, in comparison to 7.9 people per hour in other comparison windows - with the eclipse linking to a 31 percent increase in fatal car crashes.
"This averaged to 1 extra crash-involved person every 25 minutes and 1 extra crash fatality every 95 minutes," researchers wrote.
It’s said that this reason for the increase of driving is due to there being so many more people taking to the roads to travel over to places to be able to see the eclipse.
"The problem is the surrounding hours, when people are traveling to their place of observation and especially afterwards," the report's co-author Dr. Donald Redelmeier, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto told Live Science.
"We're especially concerned about the drive home."
Anish Vij