The City of Kingston says cloudy skies likely kept away the crowds that had been anticipated for Monday’s total solar eclipse.
City officials had said they were expecting anywhere between 70,000 and 500,000 visitors for the eclipse, depending on weather.
Kingston was considered to be among the best spots in the world to view the rare celestial event due to its location along the path of totality.
But forecasted cloud cover meant much of the anticipated day trip visitors made other plans, the city said in a release Tuesday.
Brad Joyce, commissioner of infrastructure, transportation and emergency management, thanked locals for abiding by the city’s requests to avoid driving and staying close to home to see watch the eclipse.
The city pre-emptively closed roads and planned several viewing events across the city in an effort to keep access clear for emergency vehicles.
“The reduction of daily vehicle travel was substantial and made it much easier to maintain emergency services, health service access and transit,” Joyce said in a statement Tuesday.
“Thank you to the community and our residents who helped by experiencing the eclipse from their neighbourhoods, this allowed us to reopen roads and resume service sooner and faster than planned.”
While the city didn’t provide an estimate on how many did visit Kingston on Monday, officials did say local hotels welcomed roughly 10,000 guests and more than 170,000 pairs of eclipse glasses were distributed for the big day.
The city said roughly 20,000 people took in the eclipse at the municipal viewing locations around Kingston, including 1,500 at Grass Creek Park’s Total Eclipse in the Park event.
There were also more than 50,000 views on the city’s webcams, located at Breakwater Park, Confederation Basin, Richardson Beach and Springer Market Square, officials said.
The city says anyone who doesn’t want to keep their eclipse glasses as a souvenir can either recycle them after removing the plastic lenses or donate them to organizations like Astronomers Without Borders that collect used glasses to distribute to communities in need for future eclipses
Tourism Kingston’s Visitor Information Centre and Utilities Kingston are collecting gently used eclipse glasses at their offices for donation.
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