The skies are looking mostly clear for Monday, the day of the total solar eclipse, according to meteorologists.

With near-optimal viewing conditions predicted here, and cloudy skies predicted in many areas along the April 8 path of totality to the south and west, Adirondack Sky Center and Observatory President Seth McGowan said he’s been hearing from eclipse chasers who are changing their plans and coming up here to see the sun blotted out.

“The entire southwest is looking pretty crappy,” McGowan said. “We’ve been fielding calls all week long from people that are changing their plans. From Georgia, West Virginia, the Carolinas.”

But while the weather locally is turning around, the inches of snow that have fallen over the past few days will still be in the backcountry, where many people are planning to hike out into to view the eclipse, though local and state officials have urged hikers not to hike due to the wintry conditions.

Matthew Clay, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service station in Burlington, Vermont, said the NWS is predicting “mostly sunny skies” and dry conditions on Monday afternoon, when the eclipse will take place. They are expecting high, thin and wispy cirrus clouds to form later in the day, potentially post-eclipse.

Though they could intrude during the event, Clay added, “They would probably have very low impact on the actual viewing of it.”

Heavier clouds are predicted to be hanging in the south and west of the U.S.

For weeks, months and maybe years, people have wondered what the weather will be like on April 8, 2024. Now that they have a three-day prediction, McGowan said some are changing their plans.

ASCO Trustee Marc Staves said the eclipse die-hards book rooms in several places along the path of totality to not take any chances. If one location looks like it’s going to be cloudy, he said they bail and go to the next one.

“That’s what they do,” McGowan said.

Currently, the Adirondacks are in a low pressure system from the late-season nor’easter which blanketed the region in snow yet again for the past three days, Clay said. He said a high pressure is expected to be coming in to push that off shore.

“If you’re going to get clear skies, you pretty much need high pressure,” he said.

The sky is expected to remain cloudy through Saturday and break its cloudy pattern on Sunday.

Clay said temperatures on Monday are predicted to be in the low- to mid-50s on ground level. In the mountains it will be lower, in the mid-40s, he said.

The Tri-Lakes were hit with between 4 and 8 inches of snow in the storm this week. Clay said with temperatures warming into the mid- to upper 30s — and then into the 50s — over the weekend, this could fully melt the snow in low elevations before the eclipse-watching crowds head out to their viewing locations.

But there will still be plenty of snow around on the mountains. Clay said the snowfall and warming present dangerous potentials for slippery ice and avalanches.

“If people are going to go out there they definitely need to be prepared for the conditions,” Clay said.

While snowshoes and foot traction devices are recommended for hiking on Monday, Clay added that “There’s plenty of places you can see the eclipse without being on the top of a mountain.”