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July 21, 2009

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Bad weather forecast for astronomical event

POOR weather tomorrow morning could ruin people's view of the solar eclipse - an event that was last visible from the Shanghai area in 1575 and won't be seen again until 2309.

The Shanghai Meteorological bureau said yesterday that the city would be overcast with heavy cloud and even thunderstorms at the time of the eclipse - from 8:23am to about 11:30am.

Temperatures will drop to 30 degrees Celsius at the highest and 27 at the lowest because of the rain. During the eclipse, the temperature will range from 27 to 29 degrees Celsius.

"According to the present analysis, it will be almost impossible to see the eclipse in Shanghai," said Li Jinyu, chief service officer of the bureau. "Even if there is no rain, the heavy clouds will also block the view."

However, people will still be able to experience the sky changing from bright to dark.

But a view of the eclipse will be possible on television. Local stations, including Dragon TV and Shanghai Oriental Pearl Mobile TV, will be providing live broadcasts of the eclipse from more than 10 venues at home and broad.

It is the first time that local TV stations have organized a 220-minute live broadcast for an astronomical event.

The programs will be on between 7:40am to 11:20am and they are expected to attract an audience of 300 million to 400 million viewers.

Meteorologists said the eclipse might have a negative effect on the city's telecommunications.

Short-waves will disappear because of the change of the electron density in the ionosphere and global positioning systems may be affected.




 

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