An Orange Moon Over Western Massachusetts? You Can Thank The Canada Wildfires

I was up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom on Tuesday morning before the radio show when I looked out the window only to see what I thought was the sun. I was obviously a little out of it at 4 a.m., but then realized that the sun wouldn't be that high in the sky at that time.

It was the moon, a full orange moon. At first, I thought it was one of those once in a while red moons or something. After being in the studio for a bit, we started getting text messages about the orange moon from listeners (I had already forgotten about it)!

Immediately, I googled it to see what was going on.

What Causes An Orange Moon?

An orange moon means the shorter wavelengths of light are being filtered away. This could be due to the low position on the horizon causing the light to go through more atmosphere, smoke in the air, or pollution. -study.com

The "smoke in the air" part reminded me that I did notice a "air quality alert" in effect for all of Massachusetts on Tuesday.

There were a few of these last week as well...

What Is An Air Quality Alert?

An Air Quality Action Day means that Fine Particulates concentrations within the region may approach or exceed unhealthy standards.

Those fine particulates happen to be smoke wafting from the North.

Where Is The Smoke Coming From?

Wildfires in Canada.

Due to smoke from Canadian wildfires that continue to influence our area, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is issuing a statewide air quality alert effective from midnight, June 6, 2023, until midnight, June 7, 2023.

Smoke is expected to enter western sections of the state later tonight and spread eastward through much of the state during the overnight and early morning hours on Tuesday. Elevated levels are forecast to remain in the state for much of the day on Tuesday.

Air quality is expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups. Sensitive groups include people with heart or lung disease, such as asthma, older adults, children, teenagers, and people who are active outdoors. People with either lung disease or heart disease are at greater risk from exposure to ozone. -mass.gov