Last night before bed I went out with the dogs. As I moved away from the house, the moon came into view — it had been hidden by a white spruce at the edge of our property. I immediately ran into the house to get Fay. “Come look at the moon,” I said, and she followed me back out. The waxing gibbous moon — six days from full — was blood red as it hung in the sky. It was almost impossible to see any stars, although the moon was clear. And then I recalled last Saturday someone warning me about the air quality “because of the Canadian fires.”
Image posted on Facebook by Ljr Roma on -2025-08-03
About those fires and their impact on the color of the moon… Significant wildfires in Canada are producing smoke that has spread across the Northeast and into Maine, causing hazy skies and impacting air quality. Stonington’s Air Quality Index is rated “poor” for today, which is very rare for the island, since we are subject to almost continuous ocean breezes. But in a phenomenon known as Rayleigh scattering, the fire’s smoke particles in the atmosphere can scatter light, filtering out shorter (blue and violet) wavelengths and allowing longer (red and orange) wavelengths to be more prominent, leading to a reddish hue for both the sun and the moon. This is especially true at dawn and dusk, when the sun and moon are near the horizon and have to travel through more of the earth’s atmosphere to reach our eyes.
We got up this morning to view the sunrise and it was spectacular. Although we could not see clouds, there was a distinct haze and the sun shone like a perfect red ball as it climbed above the treelined horizon. “That can’t be the sun,” Fay said. “That’s the moon, isn’t it?” But no, it was indeed the sun (because we know the moon isn’t yet full).
Image posted on Facebook by Kay Mallory on 2025-08-04
Almanac
Today’s Forecast: Sunny conditions expected around 12PM. Wind gusts are up to 5 mph.
| Weather | ||
|---|---|---|
| Low Temperature: 59 | High Temperature: 72 | Precipitation (in): 0 |
| Wind Direction: SW | Max Wind (mph): 5 | |
| Sunrise: 5:27 | Sunset: 7:54 | |
| Lunar Phase: Waxing Gibbous | Days to Next Full: 5 |
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