The 2 August 2027 total solar eclipse in Ceuta (Ceuta)
Ceuta
Within the path of totalityOfficial timings (IGN)
| Moment | Time (CEST) |
|---|---|
| Eclipse begins (C1) | 09:40:52 |
| Totality begins (C2) | 10:45:13 |
| Eclipse maximum | 10:47:37 |
| Totality ends (C3) | 10:50:01 |
| Eclipse ends (C4) | 12:01:06 |
| Duration of totality | 4m 48s |
| Magnitude | 1.07 |
| Sun altitude | 38° |
| Sun azimuth | 95° |
Observing index: 71.4/100
Rank 39 of 105 along the path
Index = 100·(0.5294·duration + 0.2941·sky + 0.1765·view). Duration normalised against 240 s; view normalised logarithmically over the ray-march range. The horizon margin does not weigh in 2027: it comes out identical across all 105 municipalities.
The sky at eclipse time (1996-2025)
- Clear years in the 10:00-11:00 window
- 56.7 %
- Clear years (whole-day average)
- 70.0 %
- Under 20 % cloud cover
- 46.7 %
- Under 10 % cloud cover
- 43.3 %
- Mean low cloud in the window
- 23.6 %
- Years with rain
- 0.0 %
- Mean maximum temperature
- 27.1 °C
- Mean minimum temperature
- 20.6 °C
ERA5 series 1996-2025 via Open-Meteo over cell +35.875_-005.375. Climatology for the window around maximum, not a forecast.
How long totality lasts in Ceuta
Totality in Ceuta lasts 4m 48s, the longest of the entire Spanish path: none of the other 104 municipalities in totality spends as long inside the shadow. The shortest is Casarabonela, with 10s.
The path of totality is about 238 km wide as it crosses southern Spain. Ceuta sits roughly 21 km north of the centre line and about 97 km from the north limit of totality: driving that far north would drop you out of totality and into a partial eclipse. Going south, on the other hand, lengthens it.
At 4m 48s, Ceuta sits in the third of the path that spends longest in darkness. That is enough time to look at the corona without rushing, hunt for prominences on the limb and look again before daylight returns.
Timings and duration: Instituto Geográfico Nacional. Path width and distance to the centre line: computed from the two published limits of the path of totality.The Sun, the shadow and the terrain
Maximum eclipse reaches Ceuta at 10:47:37 mainland Spanish time. The Sun will be 38° above the horizon at azimuth 95°, that is, towards the east. The magnitude of the eclipse will be 1.07.
That altitude is the deep difference from the 2026 eclipse, which happened with the Sun almost touching the horizon and the terrain to the west deciding who saw totality and who did not. Mid-morning on 2 August the problem disappears: in Ceuta the margin between the Sun and the terrain profile in that direction is 38.7°, and across the whole path the tightest margin is Benalauría, at 27.8°. All 105 municipalities clear the visibility test.
The shadow, however, does not arrive from where the Sun is: the umbra comes in from the west (261°), crossing in from the Atlantic. From Ceuta the line of sight in that direction stops at 0.4 km, which at this scale means the terrain blocks it right there: you will not see the shadow front coming, darkness will simply arrive.
The sky at eclipse time, from 30 years of data
Across the 1996-2025 series, the sky over Ceuta was clear during the 10:00-11:00 window —the hour that brackets maximum— in 56.7 % of years. Under a stricter test, less than 20 % cloud cover, the figure is 46.7 %; under 10 % cloud cover, 43.3 %.
The whole-day average gives 70.0 %, clearly better than the eclipse window, and that gap is not noise: mid-morning the low cloud off the Strait and the coast has not burned off yet, and it does so as the morning wears on. In that hour the mean low cloud over Ceuta is 23.6 %. That is why this page publishes the window figure rather than the daily one: the daily average paints a sky that does not exist yet at eleven in the morning.
The mean maximum temperature for 2 August in this grid cell is 27.1 °C and the mean minimum 20.6 °C, and it rained in 0.0 % of the 30 years. None of this is a forecast: it is climatology, an answer to what is normal here at that hour, not to what the weather will do on the day.
ERA5 series 1996-2025 via Open-Meteo, aggregated over the 0.25° cell containing the municipality. Not a weather forecast.Observing index for Ceuta
Ceuta scores 71.4 out of 100 on the observing index for this eclipse and ranks 39 of 105. The index weighs three things measured on the spot: the duration of totality (52.94 %), the sky in the window around maximum (29.41 %) and the line of sight in the direction the shadow arrives from (17.65 %).
Its three components, normalised from 0 to 1, come out at 1.000 for duration, 0.626 for sky and 0.000 for view. The heaviest drag is the view towards the shadow, and that is what you would have to make up for by choosing the exact observing spot well.
The index ranks the path; it does not replace a forecast. It also knows nothing about access, parking or permits: that fourth component was in the design at 15 % and is not published because the dataset does not exist, so the other three are renormalised rather than padded out with an invented estimate. The horizon margin, which carried 30 % of the 2026 index, does not weigh here: with the Sun at nearly 40° it came out identical in all 105 municipalities.
Nearby municipalities inside the path of totality
- Algeciras10:47:32 · 4m 26s
- La Línea de la Concepción10:47:39 · 4m 23s
- Tarifa10:47:19 · 4m 38s
- San Roque10:47:38 · 4m 17s
- Los Barrios10:47:30 · 4m 20s
- Castellar de la Frontera10:47:37 · 4m 4s
Related guides
- How to watch the eclipse without damaging your eyes
- Thirty years of clouds: where to gamble and where not to