Strawberry Supermoon. (photo by Lynne A. Kasey)
This is expected to be the hottest day of the year so far, with an Extreme Heat Warning posted for eastern Iowa, and Mother Nature should offer Iowans something of a post-heat treat tonight.
Peter Geiger, editor of the Farmer’s Almanac, says June’s Strawberry Supermoon is set to appear in the sky this evening.
“When it’s a supermoon, it’s maybe 13% bigger than a regular full moon,” Geiger says, “but what’s kind of interesting is that the full moons were named by Native American tribes way, way back maybe 300 years ago and it related to what was going on around them.”
According to the Almanac, the name was given because June marks the beginning of summer in North America when the strawberries begin to bloom.
“Strawberry season tends to be very short and it tends to be during the month of June and early July,” Geiger says, “and so the Algonquin tribe is the one that named this particular moon the Strawberry Full Moon.”
This will be the first of three “supermoons” to appear over the summer months.