Why wildfire smoke is turning the moon red
PHILADELPHIA - A nearly full moon rose over Philadelphia on Monday night with an eerie red glow due to the ongoing wildfires in Canada.
Some residents in the U.S. are feeling the effects of the wildfires raging across the Canadian border, including poor air quality as a wall of smoke descends from the fires.
In some areas thousands of miles away from the wildfires, the smoke is also causing the moon to glow blood red.
A blood moon might sound familiar because it happens during a total lunar eclipse when Earth lines up between the moon and the sun, causing the light from the edges of Earth's atmosphere to cast a reddish hue on the moon during the eclipse.
The moon's color, as we see it, can also change without an eclipse.
According to NASA, air molecules from the smoke in Earth's atmosphere cause light to scatter out most of the blue light, leaving the remaining red light to create a red glow on the moon.
Video from a FOX 29 Philadelphia photographer showed the glowing red moon rising over the city Monday night.
The sun is red-tinged due to wildfire smoke in Syracuse, New York, on June 6, 2023. ((@Fredknowlton / Twitter / FOX Weather))
A nearly full moon rose over Philadelphia on Monday night with an eerie red glow due to the ongoing wildfires in Canada.
Some residents in the U.S. are feeling the effects of the wildfires raging across the Canadian border, including poor air quality as a wall of smoke descends from the fires.
In some areas thousands of miles away from the wildfires, the smoke is also causing the moon to glow blood red.
A blood moon might sound familiar because it happens during a total lunar eclipse when Earth lines up between the moon and the sun, causing the light from the edges of Earth's atmosphere to cast a reddish hue on the moon during the eclipse.
The moon's color, as we see it, can also change without an eclipse.
According to NASA, air molecules from the smoke in Earth's atmosphere cause light to scatter out most of the blue light, leaving the remaining red light to create a red glow on the moon.
A time-lapse video from FOX 29 Philadelphia showed the glowing red moon rising over the city Monday night.
The same effect applies to the sun. New Yorkers have noticed the sun has a pink or red tint because of the wildfire smoke.
Smoke-filled skies continue
More red moons could be in the future for skygazers in the Northeast and New England. The region is now under a "critical" wildfire threat due to a dry thunderstorm pattern spreading east while massive smoke plumes also continue to dive out of Canada.
As shown in the video below from NOAA's GOES-East satellite, smoke is consuming much of the Northeast and New England.