the big story on "action news" this noon is the start of the great american eclipse. just minutes away from oregon to south carolina, millions have made their way to the path of the first coast to coast total solar eclipse in 99 years. even here in the path of a partial eclipse there's plenty of excitement. safety glasses are hard to come by and there will be dozens of watch parties. the "action news" team is spread far and wide to bring it to you. melissa magee is at an official nasa watch event in wayne. ali gorman is in center city with eye safety reminders, but first meteorologist adam joseph just filed this report from saint joseph, missouri which is in the path of totality. >> reporter: today everyone has been anticipating it is here. totality is here, let the sun shine. however we've been dealing with thunderstorms popping all over the area. you can see a thunderstorm in the distance there. it's raining temporarily

covering the telescopes. no matter if the sun shines or cooperates, even if it is not, clouds or sun it's not stopping people from packing the field at across thecran airport. they rolled in by the thousands on a dirt road to where the biggest show on earth is about to happen. refound people from the south, the northeast and out of the country they are fueling up with midwest barbecue and enjoying a cool treat on a hot summer day. you can't go wrong with either. folks are snatching up merchandise to remember where they were in the path of totality. saint joseph's is one of the phew places in the country in the 70-mile path. they watch and wait and smile and wait for the opportunity to capture the place where they will be when the moon blocks the sun. >> we're happy to be here from

saint joseph, the hospitality is amazing. we are in the epicenter of this experience and we're really happy we made the journey. >> as you can see philly is representing with the franklin institute. the chief astronomer has been camped out through the week, through storms and sunshine. he is here right now and doing lots of interviews with people. we'll be tagging along with him all afternoon long as the moon crosses over the sun and hits totality. i got to do my job as a meteorologist to get the clouds out of here. for now, i'm adam joseph channel 6 "action news." >> thank you, adam let's check out a watch event going on in our area, melissa magee is live at the mccabin nature center in wayne. hi, melissa. >> reporter: hi, sarah, it is exciting to get ready for the solar eclipse and it is fun to watch it with family and friends

here at the nature education center they are doing just that getting ready for the great american eclipse watching party today. tents went up earlier this weekend they will be up as folks trickle in to watch the event. 300 tickets have been sold and they sold out a week and a half ago. people are arriving to pick up their proper eye gear and proper solar eclipse glasses. nasa has deemed this education center an observation site as potential future scientists will observe the temperature and the wind speed and the darkness in the sky. take a listen. >> they will have to look at the darkness. we have an eye chart on a piece of paper. as it gets dimmer it will be difficult to read the eye chart they will determine the darkness based on on -- on that.

>> reporter: of course they have sunnization streets for the students. we have sunny d and sun chips for the celestial event that's taking place in the sky later on today. it's about safety first, as we've been saying you have to have the proper eye gear and tip make sure you stair at the sun 3 minutes at the time, if you're staring at the sun, make sure you're equipped with these today, reporting live from wayne the education nature center i see the sun up there, it will be a blast later on today. i'll send it back inside to you. >> it's a good look, melissa we like it. >> sky6 live hd looking live at the center city skyline. you can see almost pretty blue and clear out there. let's go live outside to david murphy with the first check on the accuweather forecast. >> reporter: sarah if the eclipse was happening right now we wouldn't have too much

trouble. there have been times when the clouds get thick and it was like you ut-oh, will we get it in. most viewers will get a decent look at the eclipse. there's a streak of clouds coming through right now, some clear spaces to the west they could fill in in a little bit, but generally mixing sun and clouds today. it's warm, too, make sure you have cool drinks and prepared to stand around in the high warmth for a while. we're already 84 degrees in philadelphia. 83 in allentown. similar numbers from trenton all the way out to lancaster and down to millville. on the beach in cape may, 81 degrees. the reason to keep cool drinks handy, the humidity is up today. dewpoints climb to 65. we have spots in the 70s that's oppressive humidity. future tracker 6 between now right up until 2:30 p.m., you

can see at 2:30 p.m. we're looking at a a mix of clouds and sun. you advance the 4:00 p.m. when the eclipse is beginning to wind down and just about over one minute past 4:00 p.m. there's a chance of late afternoon showers and thunderstorm to the west of philadelphia. this model run has it mainly down south of wilmington and by dover, delaware. generally speaking, sarah it is looking like we'll get a look at the eclipse in between the clouds this afternoon and what's funny, even though we're at 80% totality here, some folks with the 100% totality are not going to get as good a look as we are where we'll have sun an clouds mix. elsewhere there's clouds out in the midwest. we'll have more of this and giving you the times of the eclipse coming up. >> if you plan to view the eclipse eye safety is a must. ordinary sunglasses is not enough it could damage your

vision permanent. wills eye gave out thousands of glasses and they went fast. ali gorman has more of that. >> reporter: this is the calm after the storm, earlier this morning, wills eye actually gave out two thousand of these free special eclipse glasses and they gone in just about an hour. take a look at the video here. thousands of people lined up outside the hospital of all ages just to get their hands on the special eclipse glasses. is a reminder you need nasa approved glasses to safely watch the partial eclipse. doctors have been warning about this, late last week, the glasses became difficult to get. people were excited to snag a pair of free glasses just in time. >> i said i feel like i won a million dollars. i got the glasses. >> if we don't have another one for seven years, i don't know

fill be around then, it would be nice to see this one. >> reporter: very important you do need these special nasa approved eclipse glasses if you don't have these you can make the box hole out of a cereal box, if you don't have either, tune into 6abc we'll have it online and on tv. ali gorman channel 6 "action news." >> we did it with shoe boxes at my house. >> reporter: i could see that. >> we'll see if it works. stay with abc for live coast to coast cover annual of the great american eclipse starting at 1:00 p.m. after the newscast. we have complete coverage of the eclipse online go to 6abc.com/eclipse. there are answers to everything you want ton about the celestial show. we'll have live cameras from coast to coast covering the total eclipse as it sweeps its

way across the country. 2:00 p.m. join us for a special edition of "action news" on 6abc.com as the delaware valley experiences the 2017 solar eclipse. still to come on "action news" at noon, the president lays out as afghanistan strategy today. it reportedly includes more troops and spain may have captured the man who drove the man in last week's terror attack in barcelona. meteorologist david murphy will have the seven-day forecast when "action news" comes right back.

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ooohh.... are there really...? 25,000 of them? yeah. want more changes to win? go to palottery.com and enter your non-winning tickets for the gold fish second-chance drawing with $10,000 prizes. >> prurch -- president trump delivers a prime time address. he has been anxious to end the role in afghanistan. military commandsers want forces to reverse gains made by the taliban and isis-related groups. former presidential advisor steve bannon wanted to use private contractors. ships from several nations

joined the search for sailors off singapore because of a collision that ripped a gaping hole in the destroyer's hull of u.s.s. john mccain. >> head to fight the ship to keep it above the surface. >> it did get to the singapore naval base, four sailors were taken to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries. french police ruled out terrorism for a motive as a van ran into two bus stops, the 35-year-old man at the wholly of the van was being treated for psychological problems. a spanish newspaper said the driver in the deadly van attack in barcelona has been captured. police have not confirmed that. this morning they released a

wanted poster of the 22-year-old moroccan man. security cameras showed the man in the open market as he fled the crash scene. he feels the last member of the 12 member extremist cell at large. the mysterious attacks in cuba have hit more u.s. and canadians than first thought. ten people needed treatment and five reported symptoms in june meaning the attack continued always castro's administration was investigating them. cuba is taking the attack seriously even allowing the u.s. and canadian agents to investigate. u.s. and south korea kicked off their annual war games as north korea issued a warning calling them a reckless rehearsal for invasion. the drills are largely computer

similars. south korea -- computer simulations. south korea said they usually hold these drills. one of the british -- icons of the british empire has gone quiet for a while. that and more when "action news" continues. >> more than 200 liberty

university alums have signed on to a facebook group proposing they return their degrees in protest. the alums are upset about the jerry falwell's tweet applauding

president trump's response in charlottesville, virginia. it's a wake up call for falwell. on abc this week, fall well said the a alums misinterpreted his comments. university of texas removed robert e. leann other leaders from public view yesterday. all three statues are being placed at a research center. a 4th statue honoring a texas governor is being removed to another site. he is not part of confederacy. in "healthcheck," summer is not over, but it's time to thing about flu vaccination, 70 million doses have been shipped for the winter ahead and many doses have arrived at doctors offices and clinics and drugstores. they protect against four strains, two type a and two type

b. the cdc recommend everybody 6 months older to get a shot. "action news" team is working on stories for news tonight at 4:00 p.m. here's alicia vitarelli. >> reporter: illinois father have a frightening warning about a popular app that many children use. we'll share that with you. from lunch boxes to backpacks green your back to school supplies is easy, things that are good for the kids and the planet. a lot of you checking out those list right now. we'll get you that at 4:00 p.m. thank you, we'll check accuweather when we come back, not long to go before the eclipse happens stay with us. >> if you have any doubt about

the global excitement about the eclipse, go to was par wyoming, not only is the town bursting with visitors you'll be hearing accents from all over the world. >> we're from south africa. >> reporter: town leaders can't believe two minutes of darkness has become the biggest tourist event ever in that town. >> reporter: i can tell you that, and i was there last week, they they were telling me you're lucky you're here now, because hotel rooms are going for 600 a night which is four times more than usual. excitement everywhere. it's getting cool. storm tracker 6 live double scan shows us we're dry to start out, as we head into the afternoon, as we take a look outside, i'll see if there's any sun down the beach. there's a little bit breaking through in cape may. we're into a sun and clouds mix the rest of the way. it may be where you are you may

not always see the sun this afternoon, but at times it will break through. at cape may looks like it's one of those times. 84 degrees is the current temperature, dewpoint, 65. it's moderately humid in philadelphia. there are a lot of outlying areas that are oppressively humid. the humidity up a bit today. be mindful of that if you're hanging outside. winds are light, ocean temperature, 73. temperature, 83 in allentown, 82 in reading. 8 # in lancaster. 83 this trenton. similar numbers in millville and dover. cape may, 81. looks like the numbers will add another four or five degrees before we're done. satellite and radar we have cloud cover pop up over the last couple of hours. occasionally it is thick enough to block out the sun. it tends to be a clouds and sun mix across the region, but we are expecting to maintain that pretty much through now and the height of the eclipse. it could get thicker in some neighborhoods cloud wise later

in the afternoon. in allentown, sun and clouds, i'm posting a late shower, but that is likely after the eclipse is done. 87 is the high there humid in the lehigh valley. down the shore, sun and clouds, warm, fairly nice, more humid today than yesterday, a low rick risk of rip currents if case you want to watch the eclipse from the water, 73 degrees in the water. 8 # -- 73 in cape may and high 80s in bethany beach. 88 degrees is the high, that's warm, of course, winds are light. here's the eclipse, sun and clouds today, the eclipse begins at 1:21 p.m. that's when the moon starts to go across the face of the sun. the peak time with the 80% coverage is around 2:44 p.m. that's the time you're hoping to get a break in the clouds and then it ends at 1 minute past

4:00 p.m. some areas out west in plar could see a shower -- in particular could see a shower. from now until 2:30 p.m. we're looking at clouds and sunny breaks, this will probably trade out, stick with it if you got the clouds there, you might see a break ten minutes after you got the clouds. 3:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. there's a chance of a pop-up shower or thunderstorm. i can't vouch for this being the exact location, i think the best chance is to the west. later on tonight you can see the action gets on out of here. overnight and evening thunderstorm tapering off. the exclusive accuweather seven-day forecast, today's high, 88. warm on the humid side and sun and clouds for the eclipse. hopefully in your neighborhood you'll get sun to enjoy it. hot and humid tomorrow, 93. there's a chance of a afternoon or evening thunderstorm. lingering shower possible earlier wednesday, it does look like it dries out quickly at this point, sun comes back and

humidity lowers high of 86 that will be good news for the ac air show. hoping conditions improve as we go through the morning and afternoon in the ac. afternoon that, thursday, friday, saturday, sarah we're looking at highs around 80. lots of sun and low humidity, great august weather, eagles, union and phillies fans will be happy with the end of the week forecast. sounds good. thank you, david. that's the sound we won't hear regularly for a long time. london's big ben clock rang for the last time at noon before it undergoes four years of conservation work. the chimes have running for 157 years, have been turned off for the safety of to your workers. it will ring for special occasions, including new year's eve. a party is happening right now at the franklin institute. folks are counting down to the eclipse. play ball, new jersey little

leaguers are taking to the field during the eclipse, we'll tell you the precautions being taken. looking live, big summit prairie oregon, the eclipse is beginning, the moon is starting to move in front of the sun. this is one of the first places in the continental u.s. on the path of totality. get your glasses ready "action news" will be right back. ♪

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eclipse be visible in north america. >> the long wait ends this afternoon we're minutes away from a spectacular show in the sky. a total solar eclipse the first in 99 careers to stretch across the entire continental u.s. >> we'll get one today, this reminder we're on a planet going around the sun with the moon. it's going to be a great reminder of where we are in the universe. >> you'll guess or shout or scream or feel an emotional wave run over you. it's a very profound experience. >> welcome back "action news" continues with the excitement almost hitting a fevered pitch for the total solar eclipse. from coast to coast, people will gather to take in the breath taking show in space. you can have a show from your yard or sofa as 6abc