Delaware will see the biggest, lowest full moon in years: When is June's strawberry moon? (2024)

Due to a source error, an earlier version of this article quoted incorrect times for moonrise on June 21.

Delaware's first full moon of the summer is going to be a doozy.

The June full moon, also known as the strawberry moon, will be the lowest in the sky of any moon in years, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac. It will also look large, vividly colorful, and maybe even a bit unusual.

On Friday, June 21, the day after thesummer solstice, the so-called strawberry full moon will appear in the evening sky over Delaware. And while it probably won't be red, it'll look big as all get out and may take on an interestingly hazy-golden hue. Maybe even orange.

And who knows? If you squint and get angry, maybe you can see red.

So why's the strawberry moon so special? Well, it just so happens to fall unusually close to the beginning of summer and the summer solstice: the day when the sun is highest in the sky. The moon, opposite the sun, will in turn be the "lowest we've seen in years, quoth the Almanac — so low it won't even rise in the skies over Iceland, far to the north.

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And a low moon is a luminously big moon, at least as far as our fallible eyes are concerned. Photos won't capture the so-called “Moon Illusion” that makes the orb appear so big, so you'll have to go out and see it for yourself.

Will the skies be clear in Delaware? And when's the best time to look? Here's the scoop on June's strawberry moon in Delaware.

When can you best view the full strawberry moon in Delaware?

"On the evening of June 21 — just after sunset — look towards the southeast to watch the full moon rise gently above the horizon. There, it will appear large and golden-hued," says the " theOld Farmers Almanac.

You'll have to wait longer than usual: June 20, the summer solstice, is the year's longest day.

Moonrise in Wilmington starts at 8:51 p.m. on June 21, according to the Almanac. In Rehoboth Beach, just a titch farther to the south, it will arrive at 8:45.

What's the Delaware weather forecast for the full moon in June?

To the delight of moon watchers, the skies will likely be mostly clear in both the north and south of the state, according to NOAA forecasts. But as the night progresses you might see patchy fog and a few clouds, especially after midnight.

It'll also be pretty comfy after the sun goes down. After laytime highs of 90 degrees or more, the temperatures will slowly dip into the 70s as the sun goes down and the moon rises, according to NOAA projections.

After 2 a.m., the thermometer might even dip gently below room temperature, but don't get used to it: Saturday and Sunday will likely be the height of this week's heat wave in Delaware, with the heat index likely cresting 100 degrees.

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Why is it called the strawberry moon?

It's not because it appears red. It doesn't. Rather, the name for June's full moon has a lot more to do with the seasons.

For Native American tribes that include Delaware's indigenous Lenape, the solstice moon is the strawberry moon, the time that June-bearing berries begin to ripen, according to the Farmer's Almanac and other sources. The Nantico*ke Lenni-Lenape Strawberry Moon Pow Wow was celebrated earlier this June.

Beginning last century, English-language farmers almanacs in America began calling each month's full moon names derived from Native American tribes, following the seasons and the months. In Europe, June's full moon might be called the mead moon, the honey moon, or the rose moon.

The reasons behind the large, luminous strawberry moon

When the sun is high, the moon is low. And so because June's moon is near to the solstice, the strawberry moon takes a low, shallow path across the sky, Bob Bonadurer, director of theMilwaukee Public Museum's planetarium, told USA TODAY Network.

When the moon is low in the sky, it must travel through more of the Earth's atmosphere. This gives it an orange or yellow tint, as moonlight scatters off the air and its particles, giving it a particularly haunting or ghostly look.

Low moons also appear big, but at least according to NASA, we don't really know the root of this apparent optical illusion — which does not show up in cameras.

"The Moon's seeming bigness is anactualillusion, rather than an effect of our atmosphere or some other physics," wrote NASA's Preston Dyches.

This year's moon, because it comes so quickly after the solstice, will be extra-low, extra-big, and probably extra-orange, according to the Almanac — though it might not necessarily be brighter. You'll have to make do with a moon that's big, weird, low and hazy, but maybe a little harder to read a book by.

Either way, according to NASA, even if we don't know why the strawberry moon looks so big, it's easy to enjoy it.

"In the absence of a complete explanation for why we see it like that, we can still agree that – real or illusion – a giant Moon is a beautiful sight. So, until someone puzzles outexactlywhat our brains are up to, it's probably best to just enjoy the Moon illusion, and the moody, atmospheric, and sometimes downright haunting vistas it creates," wrote Dyches.