Supermoon Halo Signals Approaching Storms Across the UK
A stunning supermoon graced the night sky this week, accompanied by a rare and gorgeous 22-degree halo – a luminous ring encircling the lunar disc. The phenomenon, observed early Friday morning across southern England, isn’t just a visual spectacle; it’s a potential sign of impending wet weather.
Supermoons occur because the Moon‘s orbit isn’t a perfect circle, but an ellipse. When a full moon coincides with the Moon being at “perigee”-its closest point to Earth-it appears larger and brighter than usual. This combination creates a particularly dazzling display. The halo itself forms when moonlight passes through high-altitude ice crystals in the atmosphere, bending and reflecting to create the ring effect.
Historically, the appearance of a lunar halo has been linked to folklore predicting approaching storms. And the forecast confirms the old adage of “rain real soon.” Rain, accompanied by strengthening winds, is expected to spread across most of the UK throughout Friday. The presence of these high ice clouds serves as an indicator of an approaching weather system, making the supermoon halo a beautiful, yet perhaps cautionary, sight.
