Unusually Bright Moonlight Lights Up the Boo at the Zoo

Courtesy of spaceweather.com

If you thought the moon was a little brighter and bigger than normal last night you were right. The picture above shows how much bigger it looked compared to average. A lot of folks around the area were amazed at how bright the moon was including Gene and Charlotte in Monon. The moon will not officially be full until tonight and it is called the Full Hunter's Moon. Last night, the moon actually looked 14% bigger and 30% brighter due to its elliptical orbit around earth. Most people think the moon orbits in a perfect circle around earth when in fact its orbit is very uneven. As a result of this last night the moon was actually 30, 000 miles closer to earth than it normally is. An astronomical term for this is perigee. It is the closest the moon comes to the earth in its orbit. Perigee has been known to cause unusually high tides when coinciding with the full moon! Luckily, we did not have to worry about any tidal flooding here in Indiana last night, but this was not the case up and down the eastern seaboard of the United States. So we actually had the best of both worlds. No flooding and just a beautiful sight to behold.

But do not let your guard down. The big bad wolf has been spotted at Columbian Park. It must be time for the Boo at the Zoo. It runs through Friday night from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. It is always fun going on the train ride. The good news is even though the wolf will try to blow the pigs house down, nature will ease up on the wind tonight and it should be a pleasant evening with only a few passing sprinkles. I do not think the weather will keep Humpty Dumpty from being put back together again and the Gingerbread Man will not want to run away. So get out and enjoy. It is always a lot of fun for the family and I am sure you will see me and the kids running around.

It may be a little spooky at times at the zoo tonight, but nothing too scary for the little ones. I think our latest weather maps are much scarier. They even look a bit haunted. Now I know when weird and strange things happen everybody likes to blame the full moon. But remember the moon has no impact on our weather. What does impact our weather are low pressure areas. We have a once in a blue moon low pressure area tracking to the northwest. It is cut-off from the westerlies or the upper-level winds that usually move our weather from west to east here in the Midwest.With the counter-clockwise rotation around it, rain showers are actually moving in from the east and southeast on Live Doppler 18. This only happens a handful of times during the year. So make sure to check click on our Live Doppler 18 for another unusual sight.

What a week its been from blazing sunsets to brilliant moonlight and rain showers that are moving the total opposite direction than usual. Will this crazy weather clear up in time for the weekend? Make sure to tune in tonight for the latest. Tomorrow on the blog....I know I have made you wait all week....I will give you our first chance of snow. I let the cat out of the bag today at Rain Tree and will have more pictures and details on the way. I will also will get you in the Holloween spirit and tell you about a spaceship flyby this weekend.