Oooh! Looks like we’ll be warming up and drying out most of this week and, despite some cloud cover, could have a chance to bask in the light of the year’s first of three supermoons.
Although astronomers don’t generally get too excited about supermoons, which occur regularly when the moon is closest to the Earth in its orbit, many people look forward to them because the moon appears visibly larger.
Your best chance at seeing the moon at its fullest to the eye in the Seattle area came Monday night at 8:31, according to EarthSky. But there are more to come.
“In North America, we call the April full moon the Pink Moon,” according to an EarthSky post. “This April full moon presents the first in a ‘season’ of three straight full-moon supermoons. Overall, this April full moon gives us the second-closest full moon of the year.”
Here are the distances (as measured between the centers of the moon and Earth) for the three upcoming full moon supermoons:
April 27, 2021: 222,212 miles
May 26, 2021: 222,117 miles
June 24, 2021: 224,662 miles
By contrast, EarthSky reports, the most distant and smallest full moon of the year, which is sometimes called a micromoon, will fall on Dec. 19, 2021, and be 252,235 miles from us.
Steve Reedy of the National Weather Service in Seattle says the Puget Sound region has a small chance of showers throughout the day Monday, but that should dissipate by early evening. We will still be under about 40% cloud cover overnight but will definitely have a chance to see the moon peeking through the clouds, he said.
The rest of the week should be mostly dry with temperatures climbing through the low 60s on Monday to about 70 degrees on Thursday. Rain is expected to return Friday, Reedy said.
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