The one-page brief

Totality crosses Spain 12 August 2026, ~20:26–20:33 CEST, from the Galicia/Asturias coast to the Balearics. The Sun will be very low — about 10–11° up in the north-west, 5–6° in the Ebro valley, 2–4° over the Balearics — sinking toward the west-north-west (azimuth ≈ 281–288°). Sunset follows totality by roughly 30–60 minutes. Your #1 job: a completely unobstructed horizon toward WNW, and a sky that is clear at that horizon.

Timeline (Central European Summer Time)

≈ 19:29–19:36	First contact (C1) — partial phase begins
≈ 20:26–20:33	TOTALITY (C2→C3) — up to 1 m 50 s inland, ~1 m 44 s on the centre line near Soria/Ebro, ~1 m 36 s Palma
≈ 21:12–21:25	Partial ends (C4) — in the far east the Sun sets still partially eclipsed

Where the weather is (ERA5, eclipse hour, 26 yrs)

• Balearics (Formentera, Ibiza, Mallorca): 19–22% cloud, ~75% of evenings clear — best sky odds, but the Sun is only 2–4° up: you need a sea horizon to the WNW (west coasts!) and totality ends barely 25–40 min before sunset.
• Ebro valley (Zaragoza plain): 28–31%, ~60% clear. Sun ~5–6°. Flat, huge road network, easy repositioning along A-2/A-68/AP-68.
• South Meseta edge of the track (Guadalajara, E Madrid): ~30–33%, sun ~6–7°, short-ish totality (near southern limit) — trade duration for sky.
• North Meseta (León–Palencia–Burgos–Valladolid): 32–38%, ~50–55% clear, longest durations (100–110 s) and the highest Sun (8–11°).
• Asturias & Cantabrian coast: 50–66% cloud — the longest totality on paper, the worst odds in practice. Only go with a locked-in clear forecast.

Picking the exact spot (low-Sun rules)

• Horizon math: at Sun altitude h, an obstacle of height H blocks it if closer than H / tan(h). At 6° a 20 m tree line must be ≥ 190 m away; a 200 m ridge ≥ 1.9 km away. At 3° double all that.
• Face WNW (az ≈ 285°). Choose east rims of wide valleys, west-facing slopes, mesa edges, reservoirs' east shores, or the sea on a west coast.
• Get modest elevation over flat land — 50–200 m above the plain lifts you over haze and heat shimmer near the horizon. Avoid summits above ~1,400 m: August afternoons breed convective cloud on the peaks themselves.
• Avoid north-facing slopes, forest clearings, deep valleys, and city skylines to your west.
• Dust/haze: the low Sun shines through a long slab of atmosphere — a dry, haze-free airmass matters almost as much as cloud. Check aerosol/Calima forecasts on the day.

Day-of playbook

1. T-48 h: compare ECMWF / GFS / ICON in the Live tab. Pick a primary region and a fallback ≥150 km along the track.
2. Morning of: re-run the Scout scan. Watch real clouds on the map's live satellite overlay (updates ~every 10 min).
3. T-3 h: commit. Convective cloud builds over mountains in the afternoon — if in doubt, move toward the flat, dry side (Ebro basin / Balearic west coasts).
4. T-40 min: be parked and set up. Roads near the centre line will jam after the eclipse; totality waits for no one before it.

Safety & what you'll see

• Eclipse glasses (ISO 12312-2) for every partial phase; filters off only during totality.
• During totality: the corona, chromosphere, likely prominences; Venus ~17° below-left of the Sun, Jupiter ~9° above-right. Low-Sun totality means dramatic 360° sunset colours.
• Shadow arrives from the WNW at ~2–3 km/s — visible racing across the landscape from an elevated spot.

Sources & further tools

• Eclipsophile — climatology deep dive (J. Anderson)
• NASA GSFC — interactive path map & Besselian elements
• ESA — official map of totality in Spain
• TheSkyLive — per-town circumstances
• Tres Eclipses (ES) — official Spanish eclipse app
• timeanddate — city times
• Windy — visual cloud forecast maps
• AEMET — official Spanish forecasts
• EUMETSAT — live satellite of W Europe

Data: eclipse geometry computed from NASA/GSFC Besselian elements (F. Espenak), ΔT = 69.2 s; verified against the NASA path tables to <0.1 s in duration. Cloud climatology: ERA5 reanalysis via the Open-Meteo archive API, mean total cloud at 18–19 UT on 10–14 Aug 2000–2025. Live forecasts: Open-Meteo (ECMWF/GFS/ICON). Live satellite & radar overlays: RainViewer. Elevations: Copernicus DEM via Open-Meteo. This tool is for planning; always sanity-check against official sources on the day.