Misty full moon

02/08/12, 4:15 am, looking west

The February full moon is called the Snow Moon and that is a bit out of sync with the climate in the US this year. The snow coverage today in the US is heaviest in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains at more than two feet, and northern New England and New York with only 4-8 inches. Although 1-3 inches of snow is predicted northwest of Richmond today, we have only a light rain falling. It feels very unwinterly.


La Niña seems to be making the north wetter this winter, record snowfall in Washington and Colorado, and the south dryer, with drought in Texas and Florida. All these weather predictions seem to overlook the mid-Atlantic region. Maybe that means we'll have an ordinary winter, whatever that means.

Moon and cirrus clouds

01/10/12, about 8 pm, looking east

This is the full moon on Tuesday, January 10th at about 8 pm still rising above the trees in the east. The sky was covered with wispy cirrus clouds and as the moon emerged they began to glow with silvery moonlight.


January's full moon was called the Full Wolf Moon by native American Indians. From the Farmer's Almanac is the description of why it was so named:

Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule.

This moon painting is somewhat wolfish--reminds me of the fur of a gray wolf.


These cirrus clouds are the harbinger of wet weather forecast for tomorrow.

Full moon with thin clouds

The November full moon has several names. According to the Farmer's Almanac it is the Beaver Moon, the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze. The Old Farmer's Almanac agrees with Beaver moon. StarDate calls the November full moon the Frosty moon with no explanation except the obvious one.


Many more names are listed in the Wikipedia entry for the November full moon: Hunter's moon, Beaver moon, Frost moon, and Snow Moon. Calling the moon by its name makes one think more about the natural rhythm of the seasons.


This full moon was covered by thin clouds passing north at 11 pm on November 10th. The clouds around the moon reflected its light through the diffuse layers. It was a magical sight!

Hunter's moon and Jupiter

From the 2011 Old Farmer's Almanac, under the entry for October:

The month belongs to Jupiter, which rises at sunset in Aries, is near the moon on the 13th, and is closest to the earth on the 27th at a blazing magnitude -2.9. Appearing almost 50 arcseconds in width and looking wonderful through telescopes, Jupiter makes its closest visit until 2022. No other planet is worthwhile this month.

Last night, the moon and Jupiter put on a dramatic show playing hide and seek with fast-moving clouds headed north. October 13th was a dramatic weather day, indeed, with several tornadoes wreaking havoc in Virginia. This watercolor was painted about 10 pm facing east with occasional showers from the quick clouds.


According to the Farmer's Almanac, the full hunter's moon was an opportunity to hunt after the fields were harvested and before winter's cold arrived. Hunters could easily see nocturnal animals like foxes who emerged to glean the fallen grain.