UpToWhereWill terrain block the 2026 eclipse from your spot?
The total eclipse crosses Spain with the Sun only 1–12° above the west-northwest horizon, so a single ridge can delete it. Search your town, or click anywhere on the band, and this map tells you whether the eclipsed Sun clears your own skyline — computed cell by cell on 30 m elevation data.
Find your own spot
A real map of the whole path: pan and zoom to your village, your pass, your beach. Green means the eclipsed Sun clears the skyline from there; red means a ridge is in the way. Click anywhere for the numbers and a link into the calculator.
Each square is one computed cell, about 30 m of ground — zoom past that and they just get bigger, because the terrain model itself is 30 m. In towns that model includes buildings, so a street-level reading can look pessimistic; click through to the calculator to settle a specific spot.
What green and red mean
Green is ground where the eclipsed Sun sits above the terrain horizon at mid-totality. Red is ground where a ridge is in the way. Grey is outside the path of totality, where you only get a partial eclipse.
How precise it is
Each cell is about 30 m of ground, from Copernicus GLO-30 elevation, with Earth’s curvature and atmospheric refraction applied along every sightline. In towns the model includes buildings, so a street-level reading can look pessimistic.
If it says you are blocked
Usually you do not have to go far: 56% of blocked ground has clear ground within 100 metres, and 88% within 400. Walk to the end of the street, or the edge of the village, and check again.
Questions
What is an eclipse horizon checker?
A tool that answers whether terrain — a mountain, a ridge, a hillside — will hide the eclipsed Sun from a specific spot. It matters for the 12 August 2026 eclipse because totality happens with the Sun almost on the horizon over Spain, between about 1° and 12° up, so an obstacle only needs to rise about 140 metres per kilometre of distance to block it.
How do I check my exact location?
Search your town in the box above, or click any point on the map. The popup gives the Sun’s altitude, the time of mid-totality and your clearance in degrees — positive means the eclipsed Sun clears your skyline, negative means terrain takes it. For a full 360° horizon profile from an exact coordinate, open the point in the UpToWhere calculator.
Is this the same as a cloud forecast?
No, and you need both. Cloud forecasts tell you whether the sky will be clear; this tells you whether the ground is in the way, which is fixed and knowable today. About 28% of the land inside the Spanish path of totality cannot see the eclipsed Sun because of terrain, regardless of the weather.