A solar eclipse will be visible in western Europe, Canada and parts of the northern U.S. on Wednesday, but weather may throw clouds and rain in the way for some.

Will clouds block your view?

One good thing about summer is you typically don't have strong, large-scale low-pressure systems spreading widespread rain and clouds that you see any other time of year.

But you can get showers and thunderstorms, or even just a blanket of clouds, that could arrive during the eclipse.

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Here's a general overview of Europe, Canada and the U.S.

Canada and U.S.

• Best viewing weather for partial eclipse: Most of New England, northern Alaska, and parts of the northern Great Lakes
• Cloudier view: Parts of the mid-Atlantic, eastern Great Lakes, parts of Montana and the Northern Plains, eastern Canada, the Canadian Rockies and southern Alaska

(MORE: Which US cities will see the eclipse)

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Europe and northwest Africa

While another blistering heat wave will be in progress over much of western Europe Wednesday, clear skies (assuming no wildfire smoke) mean you'll have fabulous viewing of the eclipse, despite the sweltering heat.

• Best viewing weather: Almost all of western Europe including Spain, Portugal, France, the south of England, Belgium, the Netherlands, most of Germany, Czechia, most of Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
• Cloudier view: parts of the Alps, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, the western Baltics, northwestern Poland, Denmark, southern and western Sweden and most of Norway

If you plan on watching the eclipse, don't watch it without sun protection, as it can damage your eyes. Use eclipse glasses or filters that are certified or approved.

(MORE: Where to buy eclipse glasses, phone filters)

When and where you can see it

A solar eclipse is when the moon passes between the Earth and sun.

When that happens, the moon casts a shadow on the Earth and you'll see the sun at least partially, if not fully, blocked by the moon in the sky.

Wednesday's solar eclipse will happen in the morning in Alaska and northern Canada, early afternoon in the northern U.S. and eastern Canada, and evening in western Europe, including the U.K. and Iceland, as well as northwest Africa.

(MORE: The best places in the U.S. to see the eclipse)

Particularly exciting is that this will be a sunset eclipse in parts of western Europe and northwest Africa.

A swath from extreme northern Russia to eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain will see a total eclipse. You can see that area depicted in NASA's map below as a red stripe.

That's the period of at most about two minutes during which the moon completely covers the sun. It's also the only time on Earth you can see the sun's outermost part of its atmosphere, known as the corona.

The rest of the area inside the yellow arcs in the map below will see at most only a part of the sun covered by the moon, a partial eclipse, including Canada and parts of the northern and eastern U.S.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.