The Harvest Moon.....
The harvest moon is the moon at and about the period of fullness that is nearest to the autumnal equinox. The Harvest moon is often mistaken for the modern day Hunter's moon. In the legend of the Harvest moon, it is said that all full moons have their own special characteristics based primarily on the whereabouts of the ecliptic in the sky at the time of year that these moons are visible. The full moons of September, October and November as seen from the northern hemisphere—which correspond to the full moons of March, April and May as seen from the southern hemisphere—are well known in the folklore of the sky. All full moons rise around the time of sunset. However, although in general the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, as it moves in orbit around Earth, the Harvest Moon and Hunter's Moon are special, because around the time of these full moons, the time difference between moonrise on successive evenings is shorter than usual. In other words, the moon rises approximately 30 minutes later, from one night to the next, as seen from about 40 degrees N. or S. latitude, for several evenings around the full Hunter's or Harvest Moons. Thus there is no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise around the time following these full moons. In times past this feature of these autumn moons was said to help farmers working to bring in their crops (or, in the case of the Hunter's Moon, hunters tracking their prey). They could continue being productive by moonlight even after the sun had set. Hence the name Harvest Moon. The reason for the shorter-than-usual rising time between successive moonrises around the time of the Harvest and Hunter's Moon is that the ecliptic—the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun—makes a narrow angle with respect to the horizon in the evening in autumn. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Now if this is not enough about moons today! I have a little more. Have any of you ever heard of a Harvest Moonbow? Well, there is a such thing and I have a recent picture to show you all! Take a look at this below.....
HARVEST MOONBOWS: This weekend's Harvest Moon mesmerized onlookers with its luminous beauty. In Missouri Valley, Iowa, photographer Mike Hollingshead managed to tear his eyes away for a moment and he discovered an even better show behind his back
"It was a lunar fogbow," says Hollingshead. "The bright light of the Harvest Moon was shining into a fogbank rising over a recently-harvested field. The resulting fogbow was surprisingly vivid and well-defined." (At the base of the photo, the dark homunculus is the photographer's own moon-shadow pointing east toward the dawn sky where Venus can be seen shining through the mist.) Now the cool thing about this Fogbow is "Fogbows" are often called White "Rainbows". And that is pretty much what it is if we think about it! A rainbow is caused by light shining through water droplets. Bigger water droplets "Rain" acts like a prism reflecting light in many different colors across the sky. Smaller water droplets "Fog" the same effect happens however this prism effect is not a great making the colors appear as a more misty Gray color.
And last but not least we need to get into our weather. When is the next chance at rainfall? Not far off I will tell you that! ;-) We could see some rain move into our area by as soon as today! Yes, we are currently looking for rainfall between a Tenth and a Quarter inch with a few locally higher amounts possible in areas. Now rainfall is not the only thing that we will be tracking today and this week! Yes, we will also see some cooler temperatures move into our area this week with highs having a hard time getting out of the low 60s. Our nightly lows in the low 40s! And it gets even better if you like cold weather :) Yes, by this weekend we will see highs having a tough time getting out of the 50s! And lows falling into the low to middle 30s! WOW :-) It just keeps getting better. I love this cold weather! However what is so crazy is the thought of the heater kicking on in October?!?! With nightly lows falling into the 30s! Who knows! This is something I will be sure to keep you all posted on. And also a developing system later on in the middle of this week closer to Wednesday / Thursday! Currently models point to some possible big rainfall numbers however this is to far away to call a strong forecast with the way models change so often. So I will keep you posted on that as well. I will go ahead and say models point to a possible inch in areas at this time.
And another event we will have to watch the weather for will be the Feast of the hunters moon which believe it or not is this weekend. 
Wow we have a lot of Moon talk today lol :-) Maybe I'M the only one who finds this a little funny Ha Ha :) Oh well. Anyway the Feast is October 10th and 11th. Will the weather be nice? Well I will take a closer look into that coming up a little later on. I usually head down there every year with my Dad just to eat all the food cooked over that open fire. And I can remember going many times in the muddy mess. However the past few years we have hit it lucky! I for one don't want to get stuck in the rain this year so we will see what we can do. Your Weather Blogger Buddy will do the best he can to keep the rain away! :)
This is just a slow moving system. Training rain is the story today! And we will be watching the rivers that is for sure! The good news about this is we are not expecting the river to crest at flood stage which is 11.0ft. However at this time it is expected to crest closer to 7.7ft which is action stage. Still we will continue to keep watch!
Here is a look at your local radar above. I will check back again as needed. Until then remember your umbrella's and rain coats! Stay dry and stay well. Temps will not get out of the low to middle 50s today! Yes, it is a COLD BITTER RAIN! And I love it.....
