Here’s When To Look For Smoke From The Papal Conclave In Iowa Time

The cardinals start their secretive meeting this week.

With the death of the late Pope Francis comes the need to elect a new pope. The cardinals do this in a conclave at the Sistine Chapel. While the process is a secretive one, they do give the world a signal that a new pope has been chosen.

This year, it could get interesting with one cardinal from Illinois in the running. It would make him the first American pope.

Read More: Illinois Native Among Front-Runners To Become New Pope

When cardinals have chosen a pope to lead the Catholic church (receiving two-thirds of the vote), they will send up white smoke to indicate it. If they send up gray smoke, it means that the results were inconclusive. NBC Chicago says that there will be 2 smokes released a day during the conclave- a morning one and an afternoon one.

This is what it looked like in Vatican City when the pope was chosen in 2013:

We in the Midwest aren't quite in the same time zone as Rome, so what CST times can you be on the monitor for white smoke?

When To Check For Smoke, Our Time

If you want to check on it, you can expect the morning smoke to be released around 6:00 a.m. our time and the afternoon smoke will go up around 3-4:00 p.m. CST.

Since the conclave to elect a new pope is so secretive, the smoke color is the traditional way that the cardinals signal to everyone that we have a new pope.