LUCKY onlookers watching the solar eclipse today may find it spooky watching the world go dark for a few minutes.

But what happens to nature can be equally as eerie.

4

4

While the western areas of the UK and Northern Ireland will only see a partial eclipse, parts of North America will enjoy the full spectacle.

• Solar eclipse 2024: Map of where to watch rare event TODAY

Animal behaviour

Earth's natural light and dark cycle is what most animals structure their lives on.

So the rhythms and routines of animals can be thrown into disarray whenever a solar eclipse comes around.

Read more on solar eclipses

SUNBELIEVABLE

Solar eclipse conspiracies – from a mythical sun-eating beast to doomsday

RING OF FIRE

Maps reveal how to get best view of TODAY'S incredibly rare solar eclipse

The U.S. Sun spoke with one Nasa expert who revealed that animals will behave differently once the sun dims.

Nasa Heliophysicist David Cheney said: "Animals do behave differently.

"They could be a little confused and a lot of them think it's night."

Confused animals that are active during the day head back to their shelters for sleep, while nocturnal animals think they’ve overslept and spring into action. 

Most read in Tech

AMAZON, AMAZ-OFF

Major Amazon app to close for 200 MILLION in weeks – you may be due refund

MUSK BE JOKING

Twitter 'down' as thousands of X users report issues

SHELL SHOCK

US unveils first supersonic artillery shell that can hit targets 100 miles away

LI-VID

Facebook users must check their account NOW or face precious videos being DELETED

For example, you may see nocturnal bats flying around during the daytime, having been tricked by the period of darkness.

Some spider species begin to break down their webs during an eclipse, as they typically do at the end of the day.

Once the eclipse has passed, they begin to rebuild them again.

Hippos in Zimbabwe have also been observed leaving their rivers during an eclipse, heading towards their nocturnal feeding grounds on dry land.

While fish and birds that are active during the day typically head for their nighttime resting places.

The same can be said for humans, too.

Some people report feeling tired or lethargic during solar eclipses, a phenomenon which is largely attributed to the sudden change in natural light.

Changing winds

Solar eclipses can cause big shifts in the atmosphere, which materialises as changes in winds, temperature, cloud cover and humidity.

Helm Clayton, one of the first scientists to investigate eclipses' impact on the weather, suggested that when the moon's shadow falls on the Earth it causes an increase in cold air.

Plunging temperatures

How much the temperature changes, of course, depends on the location, time of year and type of eclipse.

Most places see temperature drops of between five to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (2.8 to 5.6 degrees Celsius) during a total eclipse.

When the temperature cools briefly during an eclipse, the air leans closer to the so-called dew point.

This make the air feel a bit more humid.

Meanwhile, a significant temperature drop can also alter cloud cover.

Scrambled radio waves

Solar eclipses can also scramble radio waves.

The ionosphere – high up in Earth's atmosphere – gets less sunlight and therefore colder during a total solar eclipse.

This dip in temperature can deplete some of the particles there, causing holes.

What this leads to is long-distance radio waves being unable to bounce off the ionosphere in these regions and return their signals to Earth.

Eerie shadows

As an eclipse passes overhead, the shadows will be dappled with tiny, bright crescents.

These shadows occur during partial and total eclipses.

Shrinking microbes

Even microorganisms could be susceptible to a solar eclipse's weird vibes, according to a 2011 .

Read More on The Sun

JAIL SHOCK

Brit rotting in Dubai hellhole jail without shower for a month after drug arrest

Holiday Horror

Molly-Mae Hague rushed to hospital after returning home from Dubai holiday

Scientists in India looked at bacteria growing on laboratory petri dishes during a total eclipse and found microbes became smaller and differently shaped near the peak of the eclipse.

However, it's important to note that these results have not yet been replicated.

4

4