Lunar halo graces weekend full 'cold' moon over the Maritimes

Lunar halo picture shared by Blake Haley. Take at Braeshore NS Sunday evening.

A lunar halo graced the night sky in the Maritimes this past weekend.

Lunar Halo

I received a number of fantastic pictures of a lunar halo this past weekend. Some of them were from Sunday, which was the day of the full “cold” moon. The cold moon is a name used to refer to the December full moon. Other names include The long nights moon and the moon before Yule.

A lunar halo is created by the refraction of moonlight by tiny ice crystals that comprise thin, high cloud in the sky. This is the same process that creates a solar halo.

A lunar halo can sometimes signal a change in the weather. The reason for that is high cloud often runs out ahead of lower, precipitation-bearing cloud associated with low pressure systems.

Tuesday rain and wind

On Tuesday a low-pressure system moving through northern Quebec sweeps a series of weather fronts across the Maritimes.

Rain arrives in western areas of New Brunswick and the southwest of Nova Scotia between 6 and 8 a.m. Tuesday. The rain then moves west to east across the region, clearing Cape Breton late Tuesday evening. Rainfall amounts of five-to-20 mm are expected for the Maritimes.

With temperatures warming into a range of seven-to-11 degrees on Tuesday, little snow is expected. Some surfaces may still be at freezing Tuesday morning when the rain begins and so could develop some initial ice. Areas in northern and western New Brunswick are at greatest risk of that.

Southerly winds with peak gusts of 40-to-60 km/h will accompany the rain. Coastal areas exposed to the south could experience gusts of 60-to-80 km/h. Due to the topography of the Cape Breton Highlands, northern Inverness County may reach gusts near 90 km/h late Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Watching for Texas Low and possible snow

The next round of more inclement weather conditions is lined up for Thursday.

A low-pressure system originating from Texas is expected to move across the northeastern United States and into the Maritimes.

Snow looks most likely for northern and central areas of New Brunswick. A mix of snow and rain for southern New Brunswick, northern Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. There will be mostly rain for Atlantic coastal Nova Scotia.

It’s a bit early to be narrowing down snow-rain amounts for specific areas. For those parts of the region that see mostly snow, general totals of five-to-15 cm wouldn’t been uncommon for this type of system. Snow-rain amounts for the region should come more into focus on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.