Partial eclipse details - Record warmth coming

Almost to the end of the week and several things are happening both in the weather and in space. I touched on the comet viewing details back on Tuesday, but that's not the only thing happening as we head into the weekend. We have a partial lunar eclipse taking place Friday evening. We might have some high clouds passing through during the event, but not the kind of clouds that will block our viewing.

When does it start? - Moon enters the Earth's shadow around 5:14 p.m. (granted, this is before sunset, so it won't be very dark out yet)
When is the best viewing? - Max eclipse will be at 6:44 p.m. with only a piece darkening down
When is the eclipse over? - The visible part will be over by 8:14 p.m.

This is the kind of eclipse when the moon passes through the Earth's shadow and causes a part of the moon to darken down. It will not turn a dark shade of red like ones we've had in the past. Only a part of the moon will darken, but it will still be visible.

DON'T FORGET: We still have a very rare TOTAL solar eclipse (moon passes between Earth and the sun) coming up on August 21st of this year! The next total lunar eclipse will happen on January 31st 2018. Mark your calendars (if you have one that goes out that far)

Alright, we are tracking a HUGE warming trend into Friday. This is pretty exciting if you like spring weather and want a warm up to start the weekend. Too much of this warmth right now will trick our trees and plants into coming out of dormancy, and we don't want that with so much winter left to go. We certainly don't want our spring, flowering trees to get nipped by a late frost.

Some colder weather is expected to be back on Sunday, but it definitely won't be Arctic air and not cold enough for snow. Other than a slight chance for some sprinkles on Sunday, there won't be much moisture around here for awhile yet.

The Northeast is about to get hit with a big snow storm. Some places will have snow coming down at 2-3 inches per hour. That can certainly pile up pretty quickly. It will likely end up being the biggest snow storm to hit the Northeast this winter... but then again, there's still plenty of winter left to go yet.