Winter in the U.S. has been brutal in 2021, as snow blanketed the entire eastern seaboard and icy conditions spread as far south as Texas, causing the electrical grid to go offline. A reprieve from the frigid hell should be welcome, and it’s coming in the form of a very large full moon on the evenings of February 26 and 27. While this moon is officially dubbed a “Snow Moon,” it’s not an omen of cold weather to come, but a sign that warmer spring days are drawing nearer.
What’s the Snow Moon?
It’s an old name popularized by the Farmer’s Almanac, named such because it occurs every year during February, which is usually the snowiest month in the Northern Hemisphere. Though it’s now an official designation recognized by NASA, other names have been given to this particular moon throughout history, particularly by Native American tribes.
The Farmer’s Almanac lists off some of the other names given the February’s full moon:
Names for this month’s Moon have historically had a connection to animals. The Cree traditionally called this the
Bald Eagle Moon
or
Eagle Moon
. The Ojibwe
Bear Moon
and Tlingit
Black Bear Moon
refer to the time when bear cubs are born. The Dakota also call this the
Raccoon Moon
, certain Algonquin peoples named it the
Groundhog Moon
, and the Haida named it
Goose Moon
.
But regardless of how you’d like to refer to it, the Snow Moon is February’s full moon, which will appear in its fullest splendor on February 27 at 3:17 a.m. ET, when it peaks opposite the sun in Earth-based longitude.
How to see the Snow Moon
There are no magic ticks here—all it involves is staying up late enough to catch the moon hanging in the sky, provided the weather is clear enough and you can stay awake. The moon will rise around sunset on February 26 and reach its peak brightness around 3:17 a.m. ET the following morning. Its peak height, however, will occur at midnight this Saturday, February 27 for gazers on the East Coast.
It’ll have a longer presence than usual, as the February moon is basically a mirror reflection of the August sun.
Because the moon is opposite the sun at the vicinity of full moon, any full moon mimics the path of the sun for six months hence....In the Northern Hemisphere, the February full moon (like the August sun) follows the high path of the summer sun and therefore stays out longer than 12 hours.
It’s a sign of winter’s end
The Snow Moon is a harbinger of spring pleasantries (or so we hope, given the weather is anything but predictable these days). Due to the Earth’s rotation, this time of year sees the Southern Hemisphere gradually lose sunlight while the Northern Hemisphere incrementally gains it. The March Equinox (on March 20) is the point in which both hemispheres reach equal daylight, given the sun’s positioning as it rises in the east and sets in the west.
As Earthsky notes, since the Snow Moon is the last full moon before the March Equinox, it is, in some ways, peak winter moon time, and therefore a sign that warmer, sunnier days are on the horizon.