Sunday night’s AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs seems to have a chance to coincide with a total lunar eclipse, although the height of event won’t take place until after the game has come to an end.
As pointed out by a fan on Reddit, the eclipse is due to occur throughout the evening of January 20 and into the morning of January 21, with all of North America and South America able to see the entire event. Nicknamed the “super blood wolf moon,” the eclipse will take place during the first supermoon of 2019, and at the event’s peak the moon will take on a reddish color.
The event, according to a chart at Space.com, will start at when the moon enters the penumbra at 8:36 p.m. central time, which is just under three hours after the 5:40 p.m. scheduled kickoff for the Patriots and Chiefs. The total eclipse will begin at 10:41 p.m. central time and will last for just over an hour, ending at 11:43 p.m. central time. Joe Rao of Space.com says the event will be a rare example of a total eclipse visible in its entirety for the entire continental U.S. that takes place before midnight on a holiday weekend, which will give a large number of people a chance to see the show.
The weather may not cooperate for everyone in the continental U.S., but most of the country will experience either fair or good viewing conditions, according to AccuWeather. Among the areas to fall into the fair/good category is Kansas City, although as already mentioned this week, the temperature on Sunday is expected to be bitter cold. Early forecasts are calling for a winter weather event in Kansas City Friday night and Saturday that could include snow, wind, and freezing rain, followed by clearer weather on Sunday accompanied by temperatures that could dip below zero by kickoff and wind chills that could be 15 below zero earlier in the day. The Associated Press reported Monday that the temperatures at kickoff could be the coldest for a game in Arrowhead Stadium history, so with the weather, the eclipse, and Arrowhead Stadium seeing its the first AFC Championship game, Kansas City will be in for a truly unique evening this Sunday.
https://247sports.com/nfl/kansas-city-chiefs/Article/Lunar-eclipse-AFC-Championship-game-127857801/
I can’t wait for the Gillette ad. Too bad the Patriots blew the game against Buffalo, or it would be taking place in the Razor (Gillette Stadium.).