Two weeks until the eclipse -- bracing for a million travelers through Kentucky

It's now two weeks and counting until the second "Great American" solar eclipse in seven years passes over our region on Monday, April 8.

Just like last time, locations in western Kentucky and southern Illinois are planning to host thousands of skywatchers, while even more will travel through Kentucky toward other destinations to the north.

Using the 2017 eclipse as a model, the creator of the website Great American Eclipse dot com estimates that one to four million Americans will travel to experience totality from Texas to Maine.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet estimates that up to a million will pass through the commonwealth as they travel to viewing spots in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. That will include about 150,000 visitors along the path in southern Illinois and the northwest corner of Kentucky.

The eclipse will directly impact eight Kentucky counties and clip portions of four others. The totality phase will enter Kentucky around 2 p.m. in parts of Fulton and Hickman counties before sweeping across Ballard, McCracken, Livingston, Crittenden, Union and Henderson along the Ohio River. It will also clip small portions of Carlisle, Graves, Webster, and Daviess counties.

Totality in Kentucky will range from just over three minutes in Wickliffe and Bandana, to a minute and a half in Cunningham and downtown Paducah, to less than thirty seconds in Smithland and Marion. Southern Illinois locations like Carbondale, Herrin and West Frankfort will get more than four minutes of totality along the center line of the eclipse's path.

An illustration of how much a few miles makes at the edge of the shadow: Paducah's southside shopping centers will see 52 seconds of totality, while the mall area along I-24 will experience 1 minute, 57 seconds.

The rest of the country—even those standing just a few miles from the edges of the path of totality—will not experience darkness in the day or be able to look at the sun’s corona with the naked eye.

Here's a map to find the amount of totality or the percentage of eclipse in your town and on your street.

Travel on our main highways will build gradually a few days before the event, but the experience of 2017 tells us that the real crush of traffic will occur on the 8th, immediately after the eclipse passes through and everyone tries to return home at the same time that afternoon.

Seven years ago, thousands of drivers were gridlocked for hours trying to head from the lakes back east toward Louisville and Cincinnati.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is working with Kentucky Emergency Management, Kentucky State Police and local emergency agencies on event impacts, including the potential traffic issues that may arise as hundreds of thousands of travelers head back to the south that afternoon and night.

They continue to urge businesses in the eclipse travel corridor to make plans to maintain their supply lines and inventory of high-demand items ahead of the event.