MPR News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard live from the eclipse

CATHY WURZER: This is a big day. In just over an hour, many parts of the country will see a total solar eclipse. Now here in Minnesota, we will experience a partial eclipse. But the clouds may block many from seeing the full thing.

The eclipse begins-- let's see now, right now at 12:00-- well, it's already underway, 12:52. As the moon is slowly crossing the sun, the peak isn't until about 2:00 PM Central time. Sven Sundgaard is in the path of totality in Indiana. And he's on the line. All right, where are you right now?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: I am in beautiful Fairbanks Park in Terre Haute, Indiana, on the banks of the Wabash River, which I might add is high. They have had flooding here. Very different than Minnesota where they've had a lot of rain lately and the river is high. You got trees underwater.

And yes, the eclipse has begun. I'm staring at it right now as we speak, Cathy. And in the lower right, you can see the little sliver of the sun has disappeared. So obviously, not noticing anything in terms of lightness or anything yet. But it has begun just about five minutes ago here in Terre Haute, Indiana. And this is the path of totality, so it will be completely blocked in about an hour and 10 minutes.

CATHY WURZER: Wow. Hey, let me ask you real quick there. In terms of your decision to go to Terre Haute, I mean, is it almost like tornado chasing in a sense where you're trying to find the path of totality? Because it's kind of tough with the cloud cover.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, you know where the path is going to be. It's a matter of weather. And so I was at the annular eclipse, which covered up 97% of the sun. They call it the ring of fire because you still have a ring of light around it in Utah back in October.

And a lot of people were asking, Are you going to do the total eclipse? And I'm like, I'd like to, but trying to book something and planning a trip for anywhere East of the Rockies in early spring is pretty dicey because it can be cloudy the whole way through. And sure enough, about half of the people in the path of totality will not see the sun.

So yeah, I'm calling it eclipse chasing because starting about a week ago, I'm like, OK, this is where it's looking pretty good. And luckily, it's held. It looked like Missouri, Illinois, Indiana would be a good spot. And that's holding.

But also some spots that looked bad are improving. So northern Texas, I know NASA has the stadium there rented out for an event in Dallas. And it's looking a lot better than it did. Not completely clear, but it doesn't need to be for the eclipse. You just want enough of some clear breaks to see it.

So yeah, we were chasing the clear skies. And we lucked out here in Terre Haute.

CATHY WURZER: Good for you. OK, so you have the clear skies. Of course, we have the clouds around here. Someone told me that the clouds make the eclipse less dramatic. I mean, obviously, but other folks say a cloudy scenario actually produces a much more pronounced, almost midnight-like darkness. Is that right?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: It may very well. So in 2017, people will remember that we had a partial eclipse in the Twin Cities and across much of Minnesota. And there were a lot of clouds, but there were clear breaks.

But yeah, it is going to dim because 74% of the sun will be obscured in southern Minnesota. And I am looking at satellite, and there are clear breaks developing in southwestern Minnesota and South of the Minnesota River. So if you're in the southern quarter of the state, don't totally discount this. There are breaks in the clouds.

So if you've got the glasses or you can create a pinhole projector, you will get some opportunities, I think, to see that partial eclipse in the southern part of the state, maybe even the Twin Cities. There are some holes in the clouds breaking right now.

CATHY WURZER: OK, or a strainer, is that right? If you have a colander, can you use that?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Anything that you can poke a hole and-- because what you're going to see is a projection of the sun. And normally, of course, it's a circle. But you'll see that circle disappear as the moon moves over the sun up to that point of about 3/4 of it will be covered. You'll just see a crescent sun at that peak totality, which is about 2:02 PM for the Twin Cities in southern Minnesota.

CATHY WURZER: I thought I heard like a little bird behind you there. Someone also told me to listen to the total eclipse, that they're-- it's interesting because there is a lack of sound that's almost very eerie. Is that right?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Eerie. Yeah, you know, this is my first total solar eclipse. So I'm going based on what I've heard from others too. I'm excited. But that's why we wanted to pick this park.

A lot of people filling in this park that are set up with-- it's like tailgating for a Vikings game but for a solar phenomenon. And yeah, there are birds around, and I'm excited to hear because I've heard the same thing. Birds stop chirping because nature gets confused. They think it's night.

It will get dark here. We'll see enough darkness to see a few stars. We should see Jupiter and Venus and potentially, they call it the Devil's Comet, between Jupiter and the sun, could be dark enough to see that. Maybe even a coronal mass ejection, which leads to Northern Lights eventually. The sun is at a peak activity right now. And it's possible because we'll see the corona, the sun's atmosphere. It's only visible to us in a total solar eclipse.

CATHY WURZER: OK, so how many people do you think are around you right now?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: I would guess hundreds, for sure. But the park-- there's still space here. And it's a beautiful spot. But yeah, I'm looking at-- everybody's staring up at the sky right now camped out. People are excited in this town.

I talked about earlier in Morning Edition, it's been 819 years since Terre Haute was in the path of totality. And not many people remember that.

CATHY WURZER: Of course, no.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: It was probably cloudy then too.

CATHY WURZER: Probably. As a meteorologist, in meteorology, in astronomy are kind of different, you know?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Why are you excited about this event?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: You know, I'm excited because I've heard from-- I know other meteorologists who've become eclipse chasers. They go to every total eclipse right now. And when I was at the annular one in Utah, a friend of mine said, you got to see a total. It's life-changing. It's a spiritual experience.

And every astronomer says that too. And so I'm just excited to see what the experience is with. I'm with family, my partner, friends. And it's just going to be a real cool thing to experience together, plus with total strangers. I've heard that people just kind of stop what they're doing, and you feel your presence in the universe, this little speck that we are in terms of time and physical space.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, my gosh. I'm going to have to-- it's cloudy here. But I'm going to have to go out and just look skyward and just kind of experience this, whatever it is around here for myself.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: And you will be leaving tomorrow morning?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: I'll be headed back towards Milwaukee. We're going to try to beat that traffic. So follow along on Instagram. I'm posting stories, and we'll see how bad the traffic is. But there's been signs that said, beware.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Sven, enjoy yourself. Thank you so much.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: That's MPR meteorologist, Sven Sundgaard.