Originally published on July 11, 2022, at Guy Ottewell’s blog. Reprinted with permission.
A supermoon is a full and near moon
The moon will be full, and at its nearest to Earth for 2022, on Wednesday, July 13.
Twice or sometimes three times every year, we have these near-in moons, nowadays called supermoons. A supermoon is defined as being near its perigee, or closest point in orbit to Earth, at a time when the moon is also new or full.
See our graph below of the moon’s distance from Earth in 2022. This graph comes from the Astronomical Calendar 2022.
July 13 is the closest supermoon of 2022
The time of the July 13 perigee is 9:04 UTC, which by clocks on distorted summer time show as 10:04 a.m. in Britain, and 4:04 a.m. in North America’s Central time zone.
The perigee happens only 9.5 hours before the moment of full moon.
Want more on 2022’s closest supermoon? Click here.
Supermoons can cause high tides
The moon is the main cause of Earth’s tides. But the sun, vastly larger and vastly more distant, adds a pull about half as strong. This is why the highest amplitude of tides comes at these two near-in moons – the year’s closest new moon and the year’s closest full moon – which, in 2022, fall slightly less than half a year apart.
Where I live in the UK, there is also a heat wave rising. But its amplitude may have more human than lunar contribution.
Want more about tides? Read: Tides and the pull of the moon and sun
Bottom line: Learn more – and see charts – related to the July 13, 2022, nearest full moon of 2022 from master chart-maker Guy Ottewell.
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