SLOweather

The second full moon of December, commonly called a “Blue Moon”, rises locally at 5:11PM PST. That’s just a few minutes before sunset at 5:29 PM.

Today is the Winter Solstice, the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere. Winter officially begins at 9:47 AM PST.

John Lindsey and the NWS are both predicting thunderstorms for our are atoday. In looking at various radars and the SLOweather lightning pages, there is significant lightning off-shore. It looks like it might arrive around 10 AM or so.

This morning the moon set rather spectacularly behind the Irish Hills as I walked the dogs around 6. Officially, moon set was at 6:20, but the bulk of the Irish Hills made it appear to set earlier for me.

It rises again this evening at 4:16 PM. Sunset isn’t until 4:51 PM PST, so the moon and sun should be at opposite sides of the sky for a short time.

This December full moon is known as the Full Cold Moon, sometimes the Full Long Nights Moon. Either name is appropriate, as last night was about the coldest of the season to date, with a low this morning of 34°F, and the nights getting longer up until the winter solstice later this month.