Photos: February’s ‘Snow Moon’ rises full and bright

VPM | By Laurel Wamsley

Published February 16, 2022 at 8:01 PM EST

Updated April 21, 2023

The moon rises on Tuesday behind people standing on The Edge, the outdoor observation deck in Manhattan.

Today is a good day to look up.

There’s a full moon on Wednesday, and according to NASA, February’s full moon has many names: The Snow Moon. The Storm Moon. The Hunger Moon.

AIANTA, the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association, gathered names used by tribes for the moons of the year. Among the names for February’s moon: Suckerfish Moon, First Flower Moon, Midwinter Moon, and Little Sister of the Waning Moon.

The full moon sets over the Bosphorus in Istanbul on Wednesday. Emrah Gurel / AP

While you’re sky-gazing, look to the western horizon. Jupiter will be setting there as evening twilight ends.

The full moon rises above strings of lights at the Olympic Green during the 2022 Winter Olympics on Wednesday in Beijing. Chris Carlson / AP

The moon should still appear full until about midnight ET on Thursday, NASA says. And if you notice a bright star near the moon, that’s Regulus – the brightest star in the Leo constellation.

For the exact times the moon will rise and set where you live, you can type in your city here.

The moon appears over the Hagia Sophia and Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul on Tuesday. Isa Terli / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

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Laurel Wamsley

Laurel Wamsley is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She reports breaking news for NPR's digital coverage, newscasts, and news magazines, as well as occasional features. She was also the lead reporter for NPR's coverage of the 2019 Women's World Cup in France.

Wamsley got her start at NPR as an intern for Weekend Edition Saturday in January 2007 and stayed on as a production assistant for NPR's flagship news programs, before joining the Washington Desk for the 2008 election.

She then left NPR, doing freelance writing and editing in Austin, Texas, and then working in various marketing roles for technology companies in Austin and Chicago.

In November 2015, Wamsley returned to NPR as an associate producer for the National Desk, where she covered stories including Hurricane Matthew in coastal Georgia. She became a Newsdesk reporter in March 2017, and has since covered subjects including climate change, possibilities for social networks beyond Facebook, the sex lives of Neanderthals, and joke theft.

In 2010, Wamsley was a Journalism and Women Symposium Fellow and participated in the German-American Fulbright Commission's Berlin Capital Program, and was a 2016 Voqal Foundation Fellow. She will spend two months reporting from Germany as a 2019 Arthur F. Burns Fellow, a program of the International Center for Journalists.

Wamsley earned a B.A. with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar. Wamsley holds a master's degree from Ohio University, where she was a Public Media Fellow and worked at NPR Member station WOUB. A native of Athens, Ohio, she now lives and bikes in Washington, DC.

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