Blue Moon Month July 2015 Opens With Full Moon Red From Wildfire Smoke

Summary: Blue moon month July 2015 opens with a full moon reddened from wildfire smoke in Earth's atmosphere.

full moon reddened by Alaska and Canada's wildfires, July 3, 2015: Andrea Vail (avail), CC BY ND 2.0, via Flickr

July 2015 exhibits lunar symmetry by opening Wednesday, July 1, and closing Friday, July 31, with full moons. The full moon phase signifies complete illumination of the lunar disk as viewed by Earthlings and as occasioned by the sun/Earth/moon sandwich, with the sun and moon aligned on opposite sides of the Earth.

A second full moon within the same month tends to be known popularly, because of its infrequent occurrence, as a blue moon.

Wednesday’s and Thursday’s full moons on the first two evenings of July draw attention with unexpected hazy, orange redness over the central and eastern United States. The Northern Hemisphere’s polar jet stream is transporting smoke from wildfires raging in Alaska and Canada across most of the eastern United States. A trough in the jet stream is directing smoke-laced winds in a southeastward dip and northeastward upturn covering about 3,000 miles (4,828 kilometers) from the Upper Midwest through the Southeast to the Mid-Atlantic seaboard.

The United States averages about 100,000 wildland fires annually during the late spring-to-summer wildfire season. Droughts, increased lightning strikes and above-average temperatures in 2015 have jumpstarted the wildfire season in Alaska as well as in California and the Pacific northwestern states of Washington and Oregon. As of July 2015’s first full moon, over 600 wildfires have already burned more than 1.88 million acres in Alaska, where the season now runs from May to August.

Canada averages 8,000-plus wildfires annually. Western Canada typically experiences a brief wildfire season, often occurring only in July and August, thanks to spring snowmelt and cool temperatures.

As of July 2015’s full moon, western provinces from British Columbia to Saskatchewan and territories of Yukon and Northwest Territory, are experiencing an early start to the wildfire season, thanks to an extremely thin snowpack, a persistent heat wave, dry thunderstorm-sparked lightning strikes and accidental or intentional human-started fires. July 1, Canada’s national day known as Canada Day, features unprecedented campfire bans, declarations of states of emergency, and evacuations in British Columbia and northern Saskatchewan.

The custom of naming the second full moon in a month as a blue moon traces back to “Once in a Blue Moon,” an article by University of Oregon Extension professor of astronomy James Hugh Pruett (June 20, 1886–Sept. 25, 1955) published in the March 1946 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine. Professor Pruett defined a blue moon as the second full moon within the same month, based on a misinterpretation of information presented in Maine Farmers’ Almanac, published by Charles E. Nash and Sons of Augusta, Maine.

As the exception to the seasonal quarter’s norm of three full moons, Maine Farmers’ Almanac dubbed the third of four full moons in a quarter as a blue moon. According to the Almanac's actual definition, blue moon designates the month's first, not second, full moon crowded within the same month.

How will July’s second full moon be colored? Will wildfire smoke continue to redden and smudge July’s blue moon?

Or will July’s second full moon actually be blue? Dust and smoke sourced from forest fires or volcanic eruptions sometimes contain particles that are sized, at 1 micrometer, or 0.025 inch, as slightly larger than the wavelength of light. These tiny particles scatter red light but allow passage of blue light, which may give a bluish cast to the moon.

Alaskan and Canadian wildfire smoke dives southward into the contiguous United States, obscuring much of Lake Michigan (lower right); image via Suomi NPP (Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite's VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) sensor; NASA/NOAA GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) project, June 28, 2015: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA Goddard Photo and Video), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

red moon, July 3, 2015: Andrea Vail (avail), CC BY ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/avail/19362610245/

Alaskan and Canadian wildfire smoke dives southward into the contiguous United States; image via Suomi NPP (Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite's VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) sensor; NASA/NOAA GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) project, June 28, 2015: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA Goddard Photo and Video), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/19144008350/

For further information:

“Alaska wildfire season worst on record so far.” GISuser > Press > Environment. July 6, 2015.
Available @ http://gisuser.com/2015/07/alaska-wildfire-season-worst-on-record-so-far/

Bowling, Sue Ann. “Blue Moons and Lavender Suns.” University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute > Alaska Science Forum. Feb. 22, 1988.
Available @ http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF8/861.html

Dvorsky, George. “Smoke From Canadian Wildfires Is Pouring Into the US Like a River.” io9 > Earth Sciences. July 1, 2015.
Available @ http://io9.com/smoke-from-canadian-wildfires-is-pouring-into-the-us-li-1715133672

Freedman, Andrew. “Alaska wildfires char nearly 2 million acres, send smoke to South Carolina.” Mashable. July 1, 2015.
Available @ http://mashable.com/2015/07/01/alaska-wildfires-smoke/

Freedman, Andrew. “Hundreds of wildfires scorch Canada as extreme heat spreads.” Mashable. July 6, 2015.
Available @ http://mashable.com/2015/07/06/canada-wildfires-burn/

Fritz, Angela. “Smoke from ‘enormous amount’ of Canada wildfires filters into Mid-Atlantic.” The Washington Post > Blogs > Capital Weather Gang. July 20, 2015.
Available @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/07/02/smoke-from-enormous-amount-of-canada-wildfires-filters-into-mid-atlantic/

“Hazy Skies & Orange Tinted Moon Locally Caused by Canadian Wildfires.” Watauga County Roads and Weather Conditions. July 1, 2015.
Available @ http://wataugaroads.com/hazy-skies-orange-tinted-moon-locally-caused-by-canadian-wildfires/

“NASA image: Canadian wildfires continue.” Phys.org > Earth > Earth Sciences. July 2, 2015.
Available @ http://phys.org/news/2015-07-nasa-image-canadian-wildfires.html “National Wildland Fire Situation Report.” Natural Resources Canada > Canadian Wildland Fire Information System > Forests > Forest Topics > Fire > Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS). July 1, 2015.
Available @ http://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/report

“Once in a Blue Moon.” Farmers’ Almanac > Astronomy. Aug. 20, 2012.
Available @ http://farmersalmanac.com/astronomy/2012/08/20/once-in-a-blue-moon/

Sanford, Todd, Regina Wang, and Alyson Kenward. The Age of Alaskan Wildfires. Princeton NJ: Climate Central, 2015.
Available @ http://assets.climatecentral.org/pdfs/AgeofAlaskanWildfires.pdf