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Millions of people across the United States will collectively look up at the sky Monday — wearing the necessary protective glasses, one hopes — to witness a rare total solar eclipse.

And although California won’t experience the phenomenon of totality, there’s still plenty to see.

A total solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, completely blocking the face of the sun and casting a shadow across a wide strip of the planet below. For people in that strip, known as the path of totality, the sky will become dark as night and the temperature might drop.

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Outside the path of totality, people on the daylight side of the globe will experience a partial eclipse in which the moon covers a portion of the sun. In Los Angeles, this will be visible starting at 10:06 a.m.

A substantial blocking of the sun will be obvious by 10:39 a.m. and will peak at 11:12 a.m. By 12:22 p.m., it will be over, according to the Griffith Observatory.

“It’s an opportunity to see firsthand our place in the universe,” said Paul Robertson, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at UC Irvine. “We’re sitting on the surface of this rock that’s careening through space at a speed of 30 kilometers per second, and we’re doing this sort of gravitational dance with these other giant bodies.”

During a partial solar eclipse, we can see the Earth, sun and moon “at the same time interacting in a way that they usually don’t,” Robertson said.

The buzz around this celestial event has been palpable, for both the scientific possibilities and the rarity.

The last total solar eclipse that crossed the contiguous United States was in August 2017, according to NASA. Another one won’t cross again for 20 years.

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The eclipse will begin over the South Pacific Ocean and will move diagonally across Mexico, the United States and Canada. Mexico’s Pacific coast will be the first location in continental North America to experience totality, which will happen there around 11:07 a.m.

The eclipse will enter the United States in Texas and make its way through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. A map on NASA’s website provides an approximate time that each location in the path of totality will see the eclipse.

More than 30 million Americans who live in the path of totality will get a chance to experience a total solar eclipse, and many others are preparing to travel to see the phenomenon. Cities in the path are expecting an influx of visitors and major traffic jams as people flood to those communities to get a glimpse of the scientific wonder.

Colleges and science centers across California, including UC Irvine, Cal State Los Angeles and the California Science Center are hosting eclipse viewing parties.

Unlike elsewhere in the country, where cloudy skies risk spoiling the view for eclipse chasers, forecasters are predicting sunny skies in Southern California throughout the day.

Adequate eye protection is a must to view the eclipse directly.

People should obtain eclipse glasses or handheld sun filters, but take caution to buy them from reputable retailers and inspect them for any damage prior to viewing the eclipse. The glasses should comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard, according to NASA.

People without protection can still view the eclipse indirectly through a homemade pinhole projector. And even if you do have eye protection, experts say, you shouldn’t gaze at the sun for more than a few moments at a time.

Past eclipses have enabled scientists to study the sun’s structure, provide the first proof of Einstein’s theory of general relativity and even discover helium decades before the element was found on Earth.

Robertson can’t quite put his finger on what stirs such emotions among people who have witnessed a total solar eclipse. During the 2017 eclipse, he said, people in his viewing group were brought to tears by the sight.

“You can see the pictures and the pictures are really spectacular,” he said. “But there’s just no substitute for seeing it in person.”

Times staff writer Rong-Gong Lin II contributed to this report.

Ken Kahan makes a living building homes.

A specialty? Luxury apartment complexes in Los Angeles neighborhoods such as Palms and Silver Lake filled with mostly market rate units, but with a handful of income-restricted affordable ones as well.

It can be a good business, but lately less so.

“We have pulled back,” said Kahan, the president of California Landmark Group. “The metrics don’t work.”

Across California and the nation, developers moved to start fewer homes in 2023, a decline some experts say could eventually send home prices and rents even higher as supply shortages worsen.

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Developers cite several reasons for delaying new projects. There’s high labor and material costs, as well as new local regulations that together make it harder to turn a profit.

Perhaps the biggest factor — and one hitting across the country — is the high cost of borrowing. Rising interest rates not only make it more expensive for Americans to buy a home, but they add additional costs for developers who must shell out more money to build and manage their projects.

As a result, fewer projects make financial sense to build and fewer homes are built.

“More than anything it is debt costs,” said Ryan Patap, an analyst for real estate research firm CoStar.

In all, preliminary data from the US. Census Bureau show building permits for new homes nationwide fell 12% in 2023 from the prior year and 7% in California. Drops were recorded in both single-family homes — most of which tend to be for sale — as well as multifamily homes — which are chiefly rentals.

Dan Dunmoyer, president of the California Building Industry Assn., said one major reason for the decline is that many for-sale home builders foresaw “a massive downturn” and stopped buying lots to develop when mortgage rates soared in 2022.

Then a funny thing happened. Demand for their product didn’t crater as much as expected, in large part because existing homeowners didn’t want to sell and rid themselves of ultra-low mortgage rates.

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“Builders kind of woke up and realized ‘Oh, it’s just us [selling homes],‘” Dunmoyer said. “But we don’t turn on a dime.”

As for-sale builders restart their engines to take advantage of a shortage of listings, there are signs of improvement. During the first two months of this year, builders in California pulled 35% more permits for single-family homes than during the same period a year earlier, according to census data.

Permits for multifamily continued to decline — dropping 33%.

The diverging paths are probably due to several factors, said Rick Palacios Jr., director of research for John Burns Research and Consulting.

On a whole, single-family home builders have access to a wider source of debt that isn’t as vulnerable to rising interest rates. In the single-family market, the supply shortage has also worsened and home prices are climbing.

Meanwhile, rents in many places — including Los Angeles — have dropped slightly as vacancies have risen, in part because apartment construction has been relatively robust in recent years.

“Single-family solid, multifamily weak is a pretty consistent theme across most of the country,” Palacios said. “You’re hard pressed to find a market where developers and investors are gung ho on apartments.”

In the city of Los Angeles, developers must contend with another factor — Measure ULA.

The citywide property transfer tax took effect last year to fund affordable housing and has drawn the ire of the real estate industry.

Though it’s known as the “mansion tax,” except for rare exceptions it applies to all properties sold for more than $5 million, no matter if they are gas stations, strip malls, apartment buildings or actual mansions. Under the measure, a seller is charged 4% of the sales price for properties sold above $5 million and below $10 million.

At $10 million and above, the tax is 5.5%.

Apartment developers and real estate brokers said additional costs from ULA make it even harder to earn a reasonable profit in what can be a risky business.

That’s because when building apartments, developers often sell their finished product, which would probably trigger the ULA tax for any building over 15 units, according to Greg Harris, a real estate broker with Marcus and Millichap. Even developers who hold onto their properties typically need to take out a mortgage on the finished building — and Harris said lenders are willing to give less because they too would need to pay the tax if they foreclose and sell the property.

“ULA is like the last nail in the coffin,” said Robert Green, a Los Angeles developer. “It couldn’t have come at a worse time.”

Many apartment projects got their start under different economic circumstances and have opened in recent years or will soon. That supply should help keep rents down for a while, but not forever, said Richard Green, executive director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.

In two or three years, as fewer apartments are finished “we will see rent start to go up again,” he said.

That would be a hit for Californians struggling to find housing in an expensive state where thousands sleep on the streets.

Economic cycles, of course, ebb and flow and construction may rebound.

The Federal Reserve plans to cut interest rates later this year, which may help more projects make sense financially, as could rising rents.

Land sellers could also drop their asking prices to adjust for rising developer costs, including ULA in Los Angeles.

Normally, real estate analyst Patap said he’d expect apartment construction to rebound as land costs adjust downward. But he noted developers say they are also cautious about building in L.A. because of a broader political shift in the city that’s more supportive of restrictions on landlords and more supportive of protections for tenants.

In the city of Los Angeles, multifamily permits dropped 24% in 2023 compared with 19% in Los Angeles County, census data show. (Data from the Construction Industry Research Board show even larger drops: 49% in the city and 39% in the county.)

Laurie Lustig-Bower, a commercial real estate broker with CBRE, said some L.A. landowners have reduced their prices to sell, but “if they don’t have a gun to their head” they are waiting until developers can pay more.

In recent years, state lawmakers have taken action to make it easier to build housing, in part by eroding local control over land use decisions.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has also fast-tracked 100% affordable buildings under her Executive Directive 1, while the city recently exempted smaller projects from some storm water capture requirements.

Mott Smith, chairman of the Council of Infill Builders, said more must be done to increase the number of new homes in Los Angeles and cited the storm water decision as the kind of steps government should take.

“The city has no influence over interest rates ... [but] what it controls is the process to get a project approved,” Smith said. “There are so many opportunities.”

For now, developers say it’s tough to find opportunities.

Kahan said his company runs the numbers on potential land purchases constantly and at least once a week finds it doesn’t make sense to buy and build.

He expects to purchase some land in Southern California by year’s end, though mostly outside of the city of Los Angeles where Kahan said he’s increasingly looking because of costs from ULA, which unlike current interest rates aren’t expected to change.

So far, Kahan said he’s yet to find a deal that will work — within or outside city borders.

A cold, Pacific storm moving toward Southern California on Thursday is expected to bring winter-like temperatures and the lowest-elevation snow so far this year, posing a risk for drivers on several mountain roads, according to weather forecasters.

Temperatures at elevations as low as 3,000 feet could reach freezing levels by late Thursday and Friday across the Southland — the lowest elevation for snow seen this winter and spring season, said Rich Thompson, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard.

“For this winter season, this definitely is the coldest,” Thompson said. However, the storm is not a particularly moist system, which means snow accumulation is expected to remain — at least in Southern California — in the inches.

“It’s not going to be a ton, but even a little bit on those mountain pass road — [Interstate] 14, the Grapevine — just a little bit of snow can cause issues for people,” Thompson said.

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Officials expect temperatures to drop into the 50s across the coasts and valleys and much lower in the mountains, where the storm could set daily records.

“I guess we saved the best for last,” said Alex Tardy, a National Weather Service meteorologist in San Diego. “It’s enough precipitation that snow’s sticking between 3- and 4,000 feet and we’ll see some travel issues that we haven’t seen before [this year].”

Here’s what you need to know about the system set to upend springtime weather for at least the next two days:

When is it coming?

The storm is expected to make its way inland and move south over California Thursday. It arrived from the northern Pacific and brought frigid temperatures along with it.

“It’s just off the Northern California coast,” Mike Wofford, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard, said early Thursday. “The cold front is going to be moving through the area, probably for [Los Angeles], this evening and then overnight.”

Already the storm has started to have an impact, with rain and some low-elevation snow recorded in the Bay Area on Thursday morning, where temperatures dropped considerably from Wednesday’s highs.

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Friday is expected to be even colder than Thursday, Wofford said.

Where can you expect to see storm effects?

Pretty much all of California can expect to have some cold, wet weather from this storm — from snow in the mountains to dangerous surf along the coast.

Showers and thunderstorms are forecast across the state through Friday and are expected to be intermittent and only severe in isolated areas.

In the Los Angeles County mountains and the Antelope Valley foothills — including across the Interstate 5 and Interstate 14 corridors — a winter weather advisory will go into effect at 5 p.m. Thursday until late Friday, with officials warning that snow could make travel very difficult.

“Delays or temporary closures are possible over many mountain roads, including Interstate 5 over the Grapevine,” the National Weather Service said.

In the San Bernardino and Riverside County mountains, a winter storm warning will begin at 4 p.m. Thursday and last through late Friday. Officials warn that the heaviest snow is expected Friday, when driving through the mountains will be challenging, especially across the Cajon Pass.

“The hazardous conditions could impact the morning or evening commute,” the warning said. “Very strong winds could cause extensive tree damage.”

California

April 3, 2024

Snow is expected Thursday and Friday across the Sierra Nevada, with the southern portion and some Kern County mountains under a winter weather advisory through Friday evening. There could be up to a foot of snow and 60-mph winds at elevations above 3,000 feet, according to the Weather Service.

The northern Sierra Nevada mountains are bracing for anywhere between 6 and 24 inches of snow falling as low as at 2,000 feet in elevation, while the Shasta and western Colusa County mountains are expecting 4 to 10 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

What’s coming?

The storm’s most notable feature will be the cold, Wofford said, which is driving that low-elevation snow.

“It is cooler this morning [in Southern California], but the coldest air won’t really be arriving until Friday,” Wofford said. “Temperatures tomorrow [are] not going to get out of the 50s in most areas — in some parts of the country that’s a nice day, but in Southern California it’s definitely below normal.”

After hitting highs in the upper 70s Wednesday, temperatures Thursday have plummeted at least 10 degrees, if not more, Wofford said, with another 5-degree drop expected for Friday.

Elevations as low as 3,000 feet in L.A. County could see about an inch of snow, according to the National Weather Service. Above 4,500 feet, totals are expected to be between 3 and 6 inches.

Up to a foot of snow is possible on the San Bernardino and Riverside County mountains’ highest peaks, with 2 to 4 inches of snow possible from 4,000 to 5,000 feet in elevation and snow showers likely from 3,000 to 3,500 feet — enough to accumulate along the Cajon Pass.

“We should be seeing some light rain either late this afternoon or early this evening, with showers and thunderstorms possible all the way through Friday evening,” Wofford said. Depending on the strength and location of the thunderstorms, some areas could see heavy downpours, small hail, lightning and even a small tornado, he said.

But rain totals aren’t expected to be too high, with about a half-inch predicted for most of L.A. County and an inch expected in the foothills and mountains.

There’s also a concern for high surf across the Central Coast down to San Diego, with warnings of 8- to 16-foot waves and dangerous rip currents. This will remain an issue through Saturday, and on Friday morning, there’s a possibility for minor coastal flooding.

Could this storm be record breaking?

It’s very possible that the cold temperatures Friday could set some daily records, Wofford said. The current historic record for the coldest April 5 in downtown L.A. is 55 degrees — which is close to Friday’s expected high.

At the Los Angeles International Airport, the coldest April 5 on record topped out at 59 degrees, and Friday is expected to be slightly colder than that, Wofford said.

“It’s going to be close,” Wofford said. “It seems like a good chance we’re going to get those.”

As for rainfall, Wofford said it’s unlikely the region will hit any records, despite being close to the wettest two-year period in history. Downtown L.A. is less than two inches away from hitting that record — and could do so anytime before the end of September — but this storm isn’t expected to push the total over the edge.

The wettest back-to-back water years on record currently sits at 54.1 inches of rain, occurring in the late 1800s. Currently, downtown L.A. is at 52.46 inches since Oct. 1, 2022. (Water years run October through September.)

“It’s not likely we’ll do it with this storm but it’s not impossible,” Wofford said.

How long will it last?

Forecasts show this storm should be clearing out by Saturday.

“It’s a quick hitter so we don’t see the impact over the weekend,” Tardy said. “In fact the snow will taper off Friday night, ... and we warm up pretty quick.”

He said by Saturday afternoon, much of Southern California’s coasts and valleys will be back to temperatures in the mid 60s — only slightly below average for this time of year.

However, he warned that the weekend reprieve will be short-lived, with another small storm system expected to bring more winds and possibly some precipitation Monday.

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LeBron James' proclamation as he got up from his cubby in the cramped visitor's locker room inside Smoothie King Center and turned the corner towards the showers sounded more exasperated than excited.

"I'm tired as f---!", he said. "Oh my God!"

Beating the New Orleans Pelicans in Tuesday's play-in tournament game earned the 39-year-old James and the Los Angeles Lakers four days to rest and prepare for Game 1 of their first-round playoff series against the Denver Nuggets (Saturday, 8 p.m. ET on ABC).

L.A. will need plenty of rest -- and maybe some luck -- to get past the defending champs. Denver has dominated this matchup dating back to last year's Western Conference finals.

James averaged 39.5 minutes and was the primary defender on Zion Williamson in the Lakers' two wins in New Orleans to close out the regular season and earn the No. 7 seed.

"Ain't no more pace," James said. "Pace yourself for what? It's now a sprint. It's a sprint now. We already went through the marathon.

"I'll do whatever it takes. I mean, all the percentages and all that s---, it's out the window. The season's over. So it's about just winning. Win the game."

It's been nearly 500 days since the Lakers have beaten the Nuggets. The West's No. 2 seed enter Saturday's game on an eight-game winning streak against L.A., including last season's sweep in the Western Conference finals.

For the Lakers, none of those losses have any bearing. Coach Darvin Ham told his players as much after Tuesday's win.

"It's back to 0-0," Ham said. "Obviously they've had a ton of success against our ball club but there's always a new day."

As much as optimism is warranted -- overall, the Lakers have won 12 of their past 15 games -- two-time MVP Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets command heightened awareness.

"Have to play mistake-free basketball," James said of the series. "Make it tough on them. They're going to try to make it tough on us, obviously."

Stephen A.: Lakers better show up vs. the Nuggets

Stephen A. Smith calls out the Lakers for their recent woes against the Nuggets ahead of their upcoming playoff matchup.

Why Denver is still a massive problem for L.A.

The Lakers' frontcourt of Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura and LeBron James -- with Hachimura the smallest of the group at 6-8, 230 pounds -- is a massive advantage against most teams. That's not the case against the Nuggets, who also boast three frontcourt starters 6-8 or taller.

Although Michael Porter Jr. isn't quite as big as the Lakers' starters at 6-10, 218, Denver's combo of Porter, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic still runs a combined 737 pounds, making them one of the league's biggest frontcourts. And, generally speaking, the bigger opponent, the worse the Lakers have fared this season.

In 17 games against teams with a combined weight of at least 730 pounds in their primary frontcourt, the Lakers went 7-10 (.412) with a minus-2.2 differential. By contrast, the Lakers dominated the league's smallest teams, going 16-6 (.727) with a plus-3.9 differential against teams with a combined primary frontcourt weight of 670 pounds or less.

Specifically, Denver's size and skill seems to negate the Lakers' ability to defend the paint. The Nuggets put up a blistering 122.0 offensive rating in last year's conference finals, their best of any series en route to the title, and their 125 points per 100 possessions in this year's 3-0 regular-season sweep was Denver's third-best offensive rating against any opponent according to NBA Advanced Stats.

The Nuggets' 59% shooting on 2-point attempts against the Lakers this season was far better than either their overall 56% mark or the 54% the Lakers allowed. It hasn't hurt that Denver has also scorched the nets beyond the arc against the Lakers, shooting 40% on 3s in last year's playoffs and 42% head-to-head this season, their second-best mark against any Western Conference opponent.

Despite that hot shooting, Lakers-Nuggets matchups have typically been close. Two of this year's three games and three of last season's four playoff matchups have gone into clutch time -- the score within five points inside the last five minutes or overtime. During those situations, Denver outscored the Lakers 28-13 in the 2023 conference finals and 27-10 in the 2023-24 regular season.

If the Lakers are going to flip the script in this year's rematch, it's going to start with finding more success in crunch time.

Why L.A. could challenge the champs

As the Lakers battled back from a 10-point deficit in the second quarter to take the lead at halftime on Tuesday, Gabe Vincent was in the middle of the momentum swing.

Vincent recorded two 3s and a steal, all while chasing around Pelicans sharpshooter CJ McCollum on the perimeter. The Lakers outscored the Pelicans by 13 in the eight minutes Vincent played in the quarter. And, after the game, multiple members of the Lakers front office raved to ESPN about the backup guard's impact.

Los Angeles used nearly all of its mid-level exception to sign Vincent in the offseason, coming off an NBA Finals run with the Miami Heat. A knee injury cost Vincent all but 11 games of the regular season, but he's returned to the lineup in late March as one of the Lakers' best on-ball defenders -- especially with Jarred Vanderbilt out.

Vincent's skillset is particularly helpful against Denver guard Jamal Murray, who averaged 32.5 points on 53/41/95 splits in last year's conference finals against the Lakers, but just 21.4 points on 45/39/93 splits in the Finals against Vincent and the Heat.

Murray averaged 30.9 points per 100 possessions in the Finals with Vincent as the primary defender, compared to 36.9 against former Lakers guard Dennis Schroder in the conference finals, per Second Spectrum.

Another key personnel change for both sides is the departure of forward Bruce Brown, who left Denver in free agency last summer.

Brown was a two-way force against L.A. last season, averaging 12.4 points on 52.8% shooting while locking up D'Angelo Russell so well on defense that the Lakers guard fell out of the rotation during the series.

Russell hit five 3s in Tuesday's win, including the clincher in the final minute to secure the No. 7 seed.

James, meanwhile, is coming off his most regular season games as a Laker despite being in his 21st season and has said his health is much improved over last year's sweep.

"I took a lot of pride in the offseason," James said, "just trying to get my ankle, get my foot right back in order, get my body back in order."

Now, the Lakers' next challenge in one of James' final championship runs is taking down the champs -- who they haven't beaten in a playoff game since the Orlando bubble.

As Ham told his team on Tuesday night: "We want all the smoke and we ain't ducking no fades."

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- While history shows that the Denver Nuggets swept the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals en route to the championship in 2023 and the Lakers beat the Nuggets in the conference finals on their way to the title in 2020, LeBron James says whatever happened in the past has no bearing on the present playoff series about to begin.

"I think you're putting a little bit too much emphasis on it," James said after practice Thursday when asked about the rematch factor for the two teams. "This is our first-round matchup. I mean, we're looking forward to the postseason. But I haven't been, like, looking forward to the rematch. The game is played how it's being played, and this is the matchup. So we're looking forward to that challenge."

It doesn't serve the Lakers any good to reflect on how their recent performances have gone against Denver. The Nuggets have won the past eight straight, including last year's playoffs.

"It shouldn't be personal at all," James said when asked about the motivation for payback. "I think you allow yourself to get away from the game plan when you make it too personal. We have a game plan. You go out there and execute it and you live with the results. I'm kind of the last person you should [ask that] -- I just stay even-keeled. I've been in the postseason way too long in my career to know that you don't get too high off of Game 1 or get too high over whoever the matchup is. You got to just stay even-keeled."

If there was a player on the Lakers' roster looking for personal redemption after last spring's sweep, it would be D'Angelo Russell.

Russell averaged 6.3 points on 32% shooting (13% from 3) and 3.5 assists in the series and lost his starting role in Game 4.

He returned to the Lakers on a two-year, $37 million deal in the offseason after the playoff disappointment and responded with a strong season -- averaging 18 points on 45.6% (41.5% from 3), 6.3 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game.

Russell presented a similar mindset as James when asked about the series, saying he is looking at the defending champs no different than L.A.'s challenge in the play-in round against the New Orleans Pelicans.

"The same as it was against New Orleans," Russell said. "Same s---. There's no extra preparation for me. Been preparing all year for whoever we would see in the postseason. Obviously, y'all make it a Denver-D-Lo thing, but I'm ready to compete."

Lakers coach Darvin Ham endorsed Russell, expressing confidence in his point guard who scored 19 points and hit five 3-pointers -- including one that sealed the win in the final minute -- to secure the No. 7 seed.

"D-Lo is in an incredible space," Ham said. "He's kicking ass for us and we expect him to do the same [against Denver]."

Ham also spoke about the need for the Lakers to cut down on their mistakes, knowing that last year's four conference finals losses were by a grand total of 24 points. A couple possessions a game could swing the outcome of the first-round series, and the last thing the Lakers want is the difference to be from self-inflicted errors.

"We just got to be better all around," James said, echoing his coach. "Obviously, it's a great team that we're playing against. A team that won the championship, so they've been in a lot of big games and know what they want to get to late in games. So we just have to be very disciplined and have our mind into throughout the course of 48 minutes or however long it takes.

"It's going to be challenging but that's what the postseason is all about. It should be."