Full Moon December 2033: Cold Moon

The December full moon, when winter cold takes hold and nights are longest. Times convert to your time zone (showing UTC).

Cold Moon

Peak fullness (showing UTC)

Distance
365,269 km
Type
Average
Moonrise and moonset for your city appear here once a location is set.

About the Cold Moon

The December full moon, when winter cold takes hold and nights are longest.

The Long Night Moon, for the night nearest the winter solstice, and the Moon before Yule are older names. It is the highest-riding full moon of the year in the northern hemisphere, opposite the low December sun.

With the moon up for around 15 hours at mid-northern latitudes, this is the best full moon for all-night moonlight.

Lore

December's moon comes with the deepest cold and the longest nights, hence the Cold Moon and Long Night Moon. In Anglo-Saxon tradition it was the Moon before Yule, and its light on snow made the long nights unusually bright.

Trivia

  • The Cold Moon rides highest of all full moons in the northern hemisphere, opposite the low solstice Sun.
  • Around the December solstice the full moon is above the horizon for more than 15 hours at 50 degrees north.
  • The Cold Moon is usually the last full moon of the year, but some years a thirteenth follows it as a Blue Moon.

All moon phases in December 2033

PhaseDate and time (UTC)
Full Moon
Last Quarter
New Moon
First Quarter

See the whole month day by day on the moon phases calendar for your city.

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