Rare Blue Supermoon to Rise In Wednesday Night Sky
It’s the last blue supermoon for more than a decade, NASA says
A rare blue supermoon will rise in the sky Wednesday night.
A blue supermoon, or super blue moon, is the confluence of two events: A supermoon—when a full moon occurs within a day of the moon’s closest point of orbit to Earth—and a blue moon, when it’s the second full moon in a single month.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as many as two decades can elapse between blue supermoons, but about 10 years is the average. The next blue supermoons are expected in 2037, in January and again in March of that year, NASA said.
The full moon raised concerns about exacerbating the storm surge from Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall Wednesday morning on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The moon influences ocean tides, and a supermoon’s greater gravitational force heightens high and low tides.
Storm surges, a leading cause of death in a hurricane, are created when high winds force ocean waters onshore. Forecasters predicted storm surges of up to 8 feet as of Wednesday afternoon.
Search-and-rescue operations were under way on the island of Cedar Key, Fla., on Wednesday afternoon, before an expected extra-high tide typically caused by a supermoon, called a king tide, according to local law enforcement.
August will have had two supermoons. The first was on Aug. 1. They happen three to four times a year, and make the moon look bigger and brighter.
Tonight’s supermoon is the biggest and brightest of 2023, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.
The supermoon will be at its highest point in the sky at 1:23 a.m. ET Thursday, according to NASA.
A blue moon happens once every two to three years. The name doesn’t mean that the moon looks blue during these calendar events. However, certain types of clouds or particles from volcanic ash can occasionally make it appear blue.
There is another type of blue moon, according to NASA—a seasonal one. While each season, such as summer, typically has three full moons, sometimes there are four. The third of those four full moons is the blue moon.