Sky conditions Thursday night should co-operate for viewing of the partial lunar eclipse in the Maritimes. A weather front arriving Friday brings areas of rain, showers and risk of thunderstorms to the region. A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon moves into the Earth’s shadow. It doesn’t completely “black out” the moon but rather gives it a muddy reddish hue. Where the eclipse is full, this is commonly referred to as a “blood moon.” We don’t quite get a full eclipse here in the Maritimes, but it’s close. You’ll need to stay up late for this one. The partial eclipse begins near 11:33 p.m. and reaches its maximum at 1:12 a.m. It won’t be a perfectly clear sky for most of the Maritimes Thursday night. There will be a few clouds around though much of that is expected to be thin, broken cloud. Some of the best viewing conditions are most likely in New Brunswick, western Prince Edward Island and northern/eastern Nova Scotia. That said, all areas of the region have at least a chance of enough night sky to view the lunar eclipse. Showers, thunderstorm risk The next system arriving will be a cold front moving in from over the St. Lawrence River Valley. The front will develop bands of rain and showers through the day in New Brunswick. Isolated showers are possible in southwestern Nova Scotia and western Prince Edward Island during the day. The remainder of the Maritimes will get rain and showers Friday evening and night. This front is not expected to bring in as much heavy rain as the one that moved through Sunday into Monday. In areas of showers, rain amounts will mostly total a few to several millimetres. The exception will be any areas that have a thunderstorm move directly over. In that case, locally higher rain amounts of 25-to-40 mm are possible. Weekend outlook The Maritimes will be behind the front by Saturday morning. The day will be mostly a mix of sun and cloud, though with a chance of pop-up showers for Prince Edward Island, and northern and eastern areas of Nova Scotia. High temperatures will be in the low-to-mid 20s both Saturday and Sunday. Less humid air will arrive through the weekend in a westerly wind. That will give the air a “fresher feel”. Expect that in New Brunswick Saturday, and for Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia Sunday.
