Will it rain in NJ for the solar eclipse on April 8? We checked past weather for the date

There’s obviously growing anticipation in North Jersey as the solar eclipse approaches on April 8. It will be a near-total eclipse for us, with just a sliver of the sun visible from behind the moon at its peak at about 3:25 p.m.

But — will we actually get to see anything?

Could the day turn cloudy?

Extended forecasts are pretty unreliable.

Story continues below photo gallery.

Dominic Ramunni, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Upton, New York, office, said Monday that April 8 is still pretty far out "on the bounds of useful forecast information."

But at this point, he's "cautiously optimistic" for possibly good viewing weather. He said a high-pressure system is expected to set up over the Eastern Seaboard by then, which would mean "more sun than clouds" for that day. "There's certainly cause for hope," he said.

John R. Scala, a private weather consultant and past president of the National Weather Association, said this first week of April will send a blast of cold air into the region from Canada, bringing colder temperatures, rain and a chance of some snow squalls.

If that pattern remains blocked or stagnant into the weekend, it could be bad news for eclipse viewing. If it moves out, warmer and sunnier weather will surely follow.

We also checked with AccuWeather. On Tuesday, its extended forecast for Hackensack called for "plenty of sunshine."

That’s encouraging, since the eclipse will start at 2:10 p.m. and end at 4:36 p.m.

And Weather Underground and the Weather Channel were forecasting “mostly sunny” for eclipse day. Perfect! That’s similar to the weather on the day of the last total solar eclipse in North Jersey, on Jan. 24, 1925. The Bergen Evening Record that day described "ideal conditions."

But, clearly, weather happens. Forecasts change.

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Predicting based on the past

So we thought we’d take a look at past weather in North Jersey for April 8.

We checked out the weather for that date each year over the past 25 years.

Sure, it’s no scientific predictor of how April 8 will play out this year.

But we can have fun looking at the odds, right?

So here goes. We looked at historic weather data from the websites timeanddate.com and Weather Underground, which had four basic descriptions of the weather on that date — clear, scattered clouds, mostly cloudy and cloudy.

In the past 25 years in North Jersey, it was cloudy on April 8 six times. Ugh.

It was mostly cloudy four times.

The day had only scattered clouds four times.

And the day was clear — fingers crossed — 11 times.

So if you’re looking to see the eclipse, know that over the past 25 years, April 8 brought us clear or mostly clear skies 15 times.

That’s better than 50/50 odds!

Guess this is where we should mention that phrase financial investment firms always use. How does it go? “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: See the NJ weather forecast for the April 8 solar eclipse