Who pulled the shade over the sun?
A rare cosmic event, Kent and the rest of valley temporarily were cast in dimness during Monday morning’s brief solar eclipse.
The Puget Sound and the Pacific Northwest joined the rest of North America in watching the come-and-go eclipse of the sun. Anyone within the path of totality could see one of nature’s most awe-inspiring sights – a total solar eclipse.
Kent and most of the Puget Sound region caught 92 percent totality of the eclipse, peaking around 10:20 a.m.
The path, where the moon completely covered the sun and the sun’s tenuous atmosphere – the corona – could be seen, stretched from Lincoln City, Ore., to Charleston, S.C. Observers outside this path still saw a partial solar eclipse where the moon covered part of the sun’s disk.
For brief moments, the sky over various U.S. cities plunged into darkness and temperatures dropped as much as 12 degrees. The National Weather Service reported a 6 degree drop at Sea-Tac Airport.
The last time a total solar eclipse was visible across the entire contiguous United States was during the June 8, 1918, eclipse, and not since the February 1979 eclipse has a total eclipse been visible from anywhere in the mainland United States.
The path of totality will touch 14 states, although a partial eclipse will be visible in all 50 states.
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