UpToWhereThe Moon's shadow comes back to Spain on 2 August 2027, and this time it arrives in the morning. Totality crosses the Strait of Gibraltar at around 10:47 local time, sweeping the whole province of Cádiz, clipping Málaga, brushing the southern edges of Granada and Almería, covering Ceuta and Melilla, and then running the length of North Africa to Egypt.
If you saw the August 2026 eclipse from northern Spain, forget almost everything about how you chose your spot. That one happened minutes before sunset with the Sun just one to twelve degrees above the horizon, which meant a single ridge could delete the whole thing. In 2027 the Sun sits 37 to 43 degrees up. A mountain would need to rise about 840 metres for every kilometre of distance to get in the way. Terrain is no longer the question.
Two questions replace it: how long does totality last where you are standing, and will the sky be clear.
The map below answers both. Click any point, from Cádiz to the Horn of Africa, for the duration and the contact times in that point's own local clock, and switch to the clear-sky layer for the historical odds of actually seeing it, from twenty years of ERA5 weather reanalysis at each point's own eclipse hour. The rest of this article is what the map cannot tell you: where to aim, and why.
How long does totality last where you are?
The path of the 2 August 2027 eclipse runs from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Horn of Africa. Click anywhere, or search a town, for the duration, the local clock times and how much of the Sun goes.
Duration is computed from the Besselian elements for this eclipse, not read off a published map.
Click any point for its own times.
The centre line misses Spain, so go south
Here is the fact that should shape your whole plan: the centre line of this eclipse does not cross mainland Spain at all. It runs over the Strait of Gibraltar and into northern Morocco. Mainland Spain sits on the northern half of the band, which means the further south you get, the longer totality lasts.
That inverts the intuition most people arrive with. Cádiz is not a centre-line city; it is a fair way toward the northern limit.
| Place | Totality | Sun altitude |
|---|---|---|
| Ceuta | 4m 48s | 38° |
| Tarifa | 4m 39s | 38° |
| Gibraltar | 4m 27s | 38° |
| Estepona | 3m 38s | 39° |
| Marbella | 3m 18s | 39° |
| Cádiz | 2m 54s | 37° |
| Málaga | 1m 52s | 39° |
| Ronda | 1m 20s | 39° |
| Seville | none (deep partial) | — |
Ceuta gets the longest totality of any Spanish territory: 4 minutes 48 seconds. On the mainland the prize goes to Tarifa, the southernmost point of the peninsula, at 4 minutes 39 seconds, because it pokes out into the Strait and comes closest to the centre line.
Compare that with Cádiz at 2m54s and Málaga at 1m52s. Standing in Tarifa rather than Málaga is not a marginal improvement; it is two and a half times the totality. That is the difference between an event you have time to actually watch and one that is over before your eyes have adapted.
So the practical advice is not "drive west", it is go south. From anywhere on the Costa del Sol, the coast road toward Tarifa buys you minutes, not seconds.
Seville misses it entirely. The city gets a very deep partial eclipse (about 98% covered), which looks dramatic and is not remotely the same event. If you are in Seville on the day, you are 90 minutes from the band and should be in it.
The clocks jump two hours across 14 kilometres of water
This is the strangest practical detail of the 2027 eclipse, and it will catch people out.
Spain is on CEST, UTC+2, in August. Morocco moved to permanent GMT, UTC+0, in September 2026. The Strait of Gibraltar is about 14 km wide at its narrowest.
So the same shadow, the same instant, is read as two different times on the two shores:
- Tarifa: totality at about 10:47 in the morning
- Tangier: the same totality at about 08:48 in the morning
If you are crossing on the ferry, or coordinating with anyone on the other side, use UTC and convert once at the end. Half the mistakes people will make on this eclipse are going to be timezone mistakes.
North Africa continues the pattern eastward. Algeria and Tunisia are UTC+1, Libya UTC+2, and Egypt is on UTC+3 in August, so the Luxor crowd sees mid-totality at around 13:00 local while Spain saw it before eleven.
Clouds, not ridges: go inland
August in Andalusia is not a cloudy month, but the coast and the interior are genuinely different places to stand.
Long-run satellite climatology of the region shows the Cádiz area clear about 88% of the time at that hour, and the stretch of coast around Tarifa and Atlanterra closer to 74%, because Atlantic marine stratus creeps inland overnight and can take until mid-morning to burn off. Move away from the water and the picture improves sharply: inland Andalusia averages under 15% cloud.
Gibraltar has its own local problem. An easterly levanter wind piles a banner of cloud against the Rock, which is spectacular to look at and ruinous to look through.
Our own reduction of twenty years of ERA5 cloud data, read at each point's own eclipse hour, tells the same story, and the map's clear-sky layer paints it. It also extends the story east, where it gets remarkable: the Tunisian and Libyan coasts come out above 90% clear, and Upper Egypt at 96 to 97%, the most dependable sky anywhere under the band.
There is one thing no forecast can help with. Saharan dust blown north can put a pale haze across the entire sky without a cloud in sight. It is not predictable a year out, it is not predictable a month out, and it is the honest asterisk on every clear-sky number above.
Climatology tells you where to book. Only the forecast in the last week tells you where to drive.
Morocco, and the long band east
Morocco is where the centre line actually runs, and the durations show it. Tangier gets 4m51s and Tétouan the same, both longer than anywhere on the Spanish mainland. Chefchaouen (4m13s), Al Hoceima (4m26s) and Nador (4m15s) are all comfortably inside, and the Rif offers high, dry ground away from the coastal cloud.
Further south the band runs out: Fès, Meknès, Rabat and Casablanca all miss totality, getting deep partials of 97-99% instead. Marrakesh, at 89%, is well outside. If you are flying into Casablanca or Marrakesh for this, you still have a drive ahead of you.
Then it keeps going: Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and finally Egypt, where the eclipse becomes something else entirely. The point of greatest eclipse sits on the Nile in Upper Egypt, near Girga, where totality reaches 6 minutes 23 seconds; Luxor itself gets about 6m21s. That is the longest totality anywhere on land until the year 2114, and it happens under that 96 to 97% clear sky: the best duration and the best weather odds of the entire eclipse land in the same place. It is not a marginally better version of the Spanish eclipse. It is roughly the length of the 2026 and 2027 Spanish eclipses put together, twice over.
The band then crosses the Red Sea into Saudi Arabia, where Jeddah gets 5m59s and Mecca 5m08s of totality, before running out over Yemen and the Horn of Africa. And here is the honest warning for the eastern half: the Yemen highlands are in their summer monsoon in August. Sanaa sits inside the band, and in those same twenty years of ERA5 records the eclipse hour there has essentially never been clear. Chase this eclipse east of the Red Sea coast with open eyes.
Serious eclipse chasers book Egypt two to five years ahead, and it shows: Luxor hotels were already selling out for eclipse week during 2026, with rooms normally around $80 a night being marketed at several times that. If Egypt is the plan, the accommodation decision is not a 2027 decision.
What to do now
- Go as far south as you can. The centre line is over the Strait, so in Spain south means longer. Tarifa and Ceuta are the two best places in Spanish territory, and the difference between them and Málaga is over two and a half minutes.
- Book early if you are travelling. Southern Spain in the first week of August is already peak season before you add an eclipse to it.
- Do not trust a duration you read without a source. Numbers vary between sites because some quote the centre line, some quote a city centre that sits well off it, and a few are simply wrong. Ours are computed from the published Besselian elements and checked against the Spanish national geographic institute.
- Check your own spot. The Eclipse Horizon Checker gives you the duration, the local contact times in the correct timezone for that point, the Sun's position and the historical clear-sky odds, for anywhere you click. There is also a computed page for every town near the path: 1,129 of them, from Cádiz to the Horn of Africa.
And then it happens again
Spain gets a third eclipse eighteen months later. On 26 January 2028 an annular eclipse (the "ring of fire") crosses the country near sunset, and this one puts the Sun back down on the horizon where terrain decides everything all over again.
Seville, which misses totality in 2027, sits near the centre line in 2028 and gets 7 minutes 15 seconds of ring with the Sun about 8 degrees up. Further east it gets extreme: around 2 degrees at Valencia, and under half a degree at Tarragona, where the ring will be setting into whatever happens to be on your skyline.
That one is the 2026 problem again, and the horizon tool that answered it will be waiting.
Frequently asked questions
Will the 2027 eclipse be visible from Madrid or Barcelona?
Not as a total eclipse. Both cities are well north of the band and will see a partial eclipse only. Totality in mainland Spain is confined to the far south: essentially Cádiz province, part of Málaga, and the southern fringes of Granada and Almería, plus Ceuta and Melilla.
How long will totality last where I am?
Between zero and about 4 minutes 48 seconds in Spanish territory, depending entirely on how far south you are. Because the centre line runs over the Strait rather than across the mainland, southern spots win: Ceuta 4m48s, Tarifa 4m39s, Gibraltar 4m27s, Cádiz 2m54s, Málaga 1m52s, Ronda 1m20s. It drops off steeply near the northern limit, so two towns 40 km apart can differ by more than a minute. Check your exact spot rather than assuming your province's number applies to you.
Where is the longest totality in Spain?
Ceuta, at 4 minutes 48 seconds. On the mainland it is Tarifa, at 4 minutes 39 seconds, because the southern tip of the peninsula reaches furthest toward the centre line. Both beat every other Spanish location by a wide margin.
Where is the 2027 eclipse longest overall?
Upper Egypt. The point of greatest eclipse falls on the Nile between Sohag and Luxor: about 6m23s near Girga, with Luxor itself at about 6m21s, the longest totality over land anywhere this century. The same stretch has been clear at eclipse hour on 96 to 97% of early-August days across twenty years of ERA5 records, so the best duration and the best sky coincide. Mecca (5m08s) and Jeddah (5m59s) are inside the band too.
Why do Spain and Morocco show times two hours apart?
Because they are in different timezones, and Morocco changed its recently. Spain observes CEST (UTC+2) in August, while Morocco has been on permanent GMT (UTC+0) since September 2026. The eclipse happens at one instant; the clocks simply disagree about what to call it.
Is terrain going to block my view like it did in 2026?
Almost certainly not. In August 2027 the Sun is 37 to 43 degrees above the horizon over Spain, so only an extraordinarily close and tall obstruction could interfere. The 2026 eclipse was a terrain problem because the Sun was nearly setting. The 2028 annular eclipse will be a terrain problem again, for the same reason.
What are the chances of clear skies?
Good, and better inland. The map now shows them point by point. Long-run August climatology puts the Cádiz area near 88% clear at that time of morning, the immediate coast around Tarifa nearer 74% because of marine stratus, and inland Andalusia below 15% average cloud. Our own twenty-year ERA5 reduction, on the map's clear-sky layer, agrees and adds the east: coastal Tunisia and Libya above 90%, Upper Egypt at 96 to 97%, and the honest exception of the Yemen highlands, where the August monsoon means the eclipse hour has essentially never been clear. Saharan dust haze is the wildcard that no climatology captures.