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The total solar eclipse of 2 August 2027, from Tarifa, Spain

Tarifa, Spain: the longest totality in mainland Europe, at the continent's southern tip.

Planning to stand here? Your Eclipse Day prints this morning to the second for your coordinates, as a printable plan, a pocket field card and a calendar file with alarms.

Local contact times

All times are for Tarifa on Monday, 2 August 2027, in local clock time, computed for latitude 36.014, longitude -5.607 at sea level. A few hundred meters of elevation moves these by well under a second.

Sun altitude at maximum

38 degrees (a bit under halfway up, so an open view toward the east matters)

Most of the Sun covered

100 percent

Duration of totality

4 min 38 sec

Whole eclipse lasts

2 hr 20 min

Time zone

Europe/Madrid

Coordinates used

36.014, -5.607

Which way the shadow moves

The Moon's shadow reaches Tarifa from the west and leaves toward the east, crossing at about 4,500 km/h. In the final minute before totality the darkening builds in the west sky, sweeps over, and races off toward the east. CycleCalcs computes this from the local timing gradient around the town.

How much room is there

Tarifa sits about 84 km from the nearest edge of the path, measured along its own meridian (the perpendicular distance is less), which is comfortable margin.

It is close enough to the center line that a short drive gains little.

Distances are measured due south along this town's meridian. The path runs east here, so the true shortest hop is a little less than these figures: treat them as an upper bound. And on eclipse morning every road toward the center line carries everyone else's identical plan, so be in position early.

What 4 min 38 sec of totality actually is

For 4 min 38 sec the Moon covers the whole of the Sun's disk. Daylight collapses into a deep, strange twilight, the temperature dips, and the corona, the Sun's outer atmosphere, invisible from the ground at any other time, stands out around a black disk. Because the shadow is only a few hundred kilometers wide, the horizon glows with sunset colors in every direction at once. The brighter stars can come out; among the planets, Jupiter stands about twenty degrees from the eclipsed Sun, while Venus, the showpiece of most total eclipses, sits within three degrees of it that morning and stays lost in the glare. Nothing at 99 percent resembles this. A deep partial eclipse dims the day but never reveals the corona, which is why the margin section above matters.

What to expect here

Tarifa is the southernmost point of mainland Europe and the best-placed town in Spain for this eclipse: over four and a half minutes, against under two in Malaga about 160 km away along the coast road. That gradient is the whole story of eclipse travel in Spain. The Sun is low, near 38 degrees, so an unobstructed view toward the east matters more here than it does in Egypt.

On climate, this is about as good as Europe offers in August: the coast is among the continent's least cloudy places at that time of year, and the eclipse comes in mid-morning, before heat cloud builds. The local wildcard is the levante, the east wind that funnels through the Strait: when it blows hard it can push low cloud and haze onto the shore, so watch the wind forecast as well as the sky in the final days.

Frequently asked questions

What time is totality in Tarifa?

Totality in Tarifa begins at 10:45:09 GMT+2 and ends at 10:49:47 GMT+2 local time, lasting 4 min 38 sec. In UTC, that is 08:45:09 to 08:49:47. CycleCalcs computes these times for latitude 36.014, longitude -5.607.

Is Tarifa in the path of totality on August 2, 2027?

Yes. Tarifa is inside the path: the Sun is completely covered for 4 min 38 sec, with maximum eclipse at 10:47:27 GMT+2 local time.

Which direction does the eclipse shadow come from in Tarifa?

The shadow reaches Tarifa from the west and leaves toward the east, crossing at about 4,500 km/h. In the final minute before totality the darkening builds in the west sky.

Can I see the eclipse from my location?

These times hold for Tarifa and a few kilometers around it. Totality exists only inside a narrow path, though a partial eclipse covers a far wider region. For any other spot, the CycleCalcs Eclipse Explorer computes local contact times and coverage for coordinates you give it.

Is the eclipse safe for children to watch?

Yes, with the same rules as adults: certified eclipse glasses meeting ISO 12312-2 for every partial phase, and bare eyes only from the last bead of sunlight to ten seconds before the computed end of the 4 min 38 sec of totality. The moments that need an adult's attention are around 10:45:09 GMT+2, when filters come off once the last bead of sunlight is gone, and 10:49:37 GMT+2, ten seconds before the computed end, when they go back on, or sooner at the first bead of sunlight: totality can end a few seconds before the computed time.

Checking another location

This page is computed for one set of coordinates. For anywhere else, including a specific hotel, a viewpoint or a spot out on the path, the Eclipse Explorer computes local contact times and how much of the Sun is covered for any location you give it, and the main page for this eclipse carries the global circumstances, the Saros series and the shape of the path.

These are smooth-limb times, at the lunar radius NASA's canon adopts for totality. The Moon's edge is mountainous, so the exact instants totality begins and ends shift by a second or two depending on which lunar valley the last sliver of Sun drains through. That correction is smaller than the difference a short drive makes, and smaller than the error in standing somewhere other than these exact coordinates. Every figure here is a computed fact you may reuse freely; see how these were computed.

The same eclipse from other towns

Every town below is computed the same way, so the durations are directly comparable.