The August 12, 2026 total solar eclipse in Viniegra de Arriba (La Rioja)

Two municipalities topped La Rioja's index on an identical 78.6 points, and they got there by opposite routes. Aguilar del Río Alhama did it with the best statistical sky and a modest duration; Viniegra de Arriba, seventy kilometres to the northwest, did it by betting on seconds: 100 of totality, the province's third longest, from 20:28:35 to 20:30:15.

What made that bet more than brute force was the ground. At 1,457 metres, the second highest point among the 174 Rioja towns under the shadow, the disc sat 5.3 degrees above the west-northwest skyline, more than double what the valleys immediately below managed, where several neighbours were left with two degrees or with none at all. And with 40.9% of the 12 August dates measured since 1996 coming up clear, it ranked 23rd in the province, well above the mountain average, though that remains a thirty-year mean rather than a retrospective forecast for that evening.