Snow Moon 2027: Date, Eclipse at Moonrise and a Virgo Ritual

When is the Snow Moon in 2027?

The Snow Moon 2027 reaches full phase on Saturday, February 20, 2027, at 23:23 UTC. In the United States that is 6:23 p.m. Eastern, 5:23 p.m. Central, 4:23 p.m. Mountain, 3:23 p.m. Pacific, 2:23 p.m. in Alaska and 1:23 p.m. in Hawaii. It is the second full moon of 2027, four weeks and a day after the Wolf Moon on January 22, and two weeks after the new moon of February 6.

The timing is friendly for once. On the East Coast the exact moment falls in early evening, with the moon just above the eastern horizon in New York and Boston. Everywhere else in the country the exact full moon happens in daylight, before moonrise, so the practical answer is simply: look on Saturday evening after sunset. The moon is 98.9 percent lit on Friday night and 98.3 percent on Sunday night, which nobody can tell apart from full with the naked eye.

Snow Moon 2027 by time zone

Will I see the lunar eclipse on February 20, 2027?

If you live in the eastern half of the country, probably yes, but expect something subtle. On February 20 the full moon passes through the penumbra, the pale outer part of Earth's shadow. NASA's eclipse tables give a penumbral magnitude of 0.927: at the deepest point, 6:13 p.m. Eastern, about 93 percent of the moon's width sits inside the penumbra. That is deep for a penumbral eclipse, deep enough that a soft grey shading can show along the moon's northern edge, the upper left as it rises, the side closest to the dark inner shadow. It never reaches the umbra, so there is no red "blood moon" and no bite out of the disk.

The catch is timing. The eclipse runs from 4:12 to 8:13 p.m. Eastern, and the moon only clears the horizon around sunset. In New York the moon rises at 5:34 p.m., two minutes before sunset, already inside the penumbra and 40 minutes before the deepest point. At 6:13 it stands about 6 degrees up in a still-bright twilight sky. In Chicago the moon rises at 5:29 p.m. Central, a quarter of an hour after maximum, so you see the second half fade out. Denver gets only the last half hour, when the shading is too faint to notice, and the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii miss it entirely.

What you need: an open view low to the east-southeast, no buildings or trees on that horizon, and ten minutes for your eyes. Binoculars help with the shading; a telescope is not necessary. Lunar eclipses are safe to look at directly. For all five eclipses of the year, including the annular solar eclipse of February 6 that North America will not see, read eclipses 2027: dates and US visibility.

What time does the Snow Moon rise where I live?

On the night of the full moon the moon rises close to sunset. Saturday is the classic "rises at sunset" evening; on Friday it is already up in daylight, on Sunday it comes up more than an hour after dark. Local times, standard time throughout:

If you want the big orange moon on the horizon, the best photograph of the month, go out on Friday or Saturday at moonrise and give it twenty minutes. A rising full moon looks larger next to trees and rooftops; that is the well-known moon illusion, a trick of perception, not of distance.

Is the Snow Moon 2027 a supermoon?

It depends on whose definition you use. At full phase the moon is 363,306 km from Earth; perigee, the closest point of this orbit, came the day before, on February 19 at 361,030 km. That makes it the second-closest full moon of 2027 after the Wolf Moon (357,644 km). "Supermoon" has no official astronomical definition, and publishers draw the line at different distances. Under the strict cut-offs the Wolf Moon is the only supermoon of early 2027; some outlets, Star Walk among them, also call February's full moon a "super snow moon".

For your eyes the difference is small. The Snow Moon looks about 1.6 percent smaller than the Wolf Moon and about 12 percent wider than the most distant full moon of the year, on July 18. Our full moon calendar 2027 lists all thirteen with distances.

Why is it called the Snow Moon?

Because February is, on average, the snowiest month in the United States. The Old Farmer's Almanac, which popularised the name, cites Captain Jonathan Carver, who wrote in the 1760s after time among the Dakota that more snow "commonly falls during this month than any other in the winter." The Almanac's moon names are an American publishing tradition that mixes colonial and Native sources; they are not one tribe's calendar, and actual names varied from nation to nation.

Read the table as a reminder that the moon's "name" is local. Where you live, February might be the mud moon or the first-crocus moon; naming it after what you actually see outside is a perfectly good practice.

If you want to work with this yourself, this is what we use

Virgo Oil Candle — Refillable Zodiac Candle for Clarity

A refillable glass oil candle with dried botanicals and a soft water-lily scent. We light it on the windowsill for a Virgo full moon, then refill it for the next one instead of buying a new candle. From $23.99 (3 oz).

See the Virgo candle

What does a full moon in Virgo mean?

The Snow Moon 2027 falls at 2 degrees Virgo, opposite a sun that entered Pisces two days earlier, on February 18. In astrology the Virgo–Pisces axis is read as the pull between order and surrender: Virgo sorts, cleans, repairs and serves; Pisces dissolves, dreams and lets go. A full moon on that axis is traditionally used to bring the two into balance, the practical and the spiritual, the to-do list and the prayer.

In everyday practice a Virgo full moon is the moon of the small, concrete fix: the drawer you never sort, the health habit you keep meaning to start, the routine that would make next month easier. That is a reading, not a forecast. Astrology has no measurable effect on events, and we treat it as a language for reflection. If you work with the Virgo new moon in September, this is its opposite number; our Virgo new moon ritual is the planting side of the same theme.

What does the Snow Moon mean spiritually?

In modern pagan and witchcraft practice the February full moon is usually read as the turning point of winter: the cold is still deep, but the light is visibly returning. Imbolc, the festival of first stirrings, falls on February 1 and 2, three weeks earlier, and the spring equinox follows a month later. Between them the Snow Moon is a moon of patience and quiet preparation: purifying, clearing out, sorting seeds before you can plant them.

Snow itself carries that meaning in folk practice. It covers, quiets and resets the landscape, and melted snow has long been used as "clean" water. Some people collect fresh snow on the full moon night and let it melt into a jar for cleansing work, the winter version of moon water. Use only fresh snow from an untouched spot, and do not drink it.

How do you do a Snow Moon ritual?

This one takes about twenty minutes and fits the Virgo theme: clear one thing, keep one thing. Do it on Saturday, February 20, after moonrise, or on Friday or Sunday evening if Saturday is cloudy.

For the general shape of full moon work, see our full moon ritual guide. If you prefer to work with the dark of the moon, the new moon two weeks earlier, on February 6, is listed in the new moon calendar 2027.

What else happens in February 2027?

The Snow Moon closes a busy month in the sky and in the calendar. If you keep a ritual year, these are the dates around it:

If you mark the Celtic festivals, our guide on how to celebrate Imbolc covers the start of the month. The next full moon after the Snow Moon is the Worm Moon on March 22, two days after the equinox; see spring equinox 2027 and Ostara.

Which Snow Moon practice fits you?

Pick the line closest to how this February feels.

Voices from practice: what people report

We do not publish invented testimonials. These are patterns that recur in public discussion of February full moon practice, in witchcraft and pagan forums and on social media, given as patterns and without names.

The most frequent report is fatigue: by the February full moon many people say their winter energy is at its lowest, and that a small ritual works better now than an ambitious one. A second recurring theme is cleaning; practitioners who tie the Virgo full moon to a concrete chore describe it as the moon they actually remember, because something in the house looks different the next morning. A third is the weather: in large parts of the US the February full moon is clouded out, and experienced practitioners say they simply hold the ritual indoors on the night, by the calendar, rather than waiting for a sighting.

People who track eclipses add a practical note: penumbral eclipses disappoint when expected to look like a total eclipse, and please when people know they are looking for a soft shading near the edge.

What we don't promise

The dates, times, distances and eclipse figures on this page are astronomy: checkable, and checked against NASA's eclipse tables. Everything about meaning is tradition and practice. A full moon does not change your luck, your health or your sleep in any way that research has shown; studies on the moon and sleep disagree, and the effects found are small. The Snow Moon will not clear clutter or close chapters for you. What a ritual can do is give you a date and a structure to do that yourself, and that is all we claim for it.

Practically: how to work with this

• Put the date in your calendar now: Saturday, February 20, 2027, moonrise in your city from the table above.
• East or Central time zone? Plan to be outside or at an east-facing window between moonrise and about 7 p.m. local time for the eclipse.
• Dress for it. February evenings are the coldest of the year in much of the country; the National Weather Service wind chill chart shows how fast exposed skin can freeze on windy nights. Twenty minutes outside is plenty.
• Keep the ritual short and the clean-up real. One cleared surface, one candle, one card.
• Never leave a flame unattended, and keep candles away from curtains on a windowsill.
• Look ahead: put the kept item from your card on your calendar for the spring equinox, March 20, and check in then.

If you work with moon candles across the year, our moon magic collection and the zodiac candles hold the rest of the set.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & further reading

• NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, F. Espenak: Eclipses During 2027 (penumbral magnitude 0.9266, contact times; accessed 2026).
• Wikipedia: February 2027 lunar eclipse (Saros 143, visibility regions; accessed 2026).
• The Old Farmer's Almanac: Full Moon in February: The Snow Moon (names, attributions and the Carver quotation; accessed 2026).
• Carver, J. (1778). Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768. London.
• National Weather Service: Wind Chill Chart (frostbite times).
• Moon phases, distances, perigee, sign ingress, moonrise and moonset: our own calculation with Skyfield and the NASA JPL DE421 ephemeris (2026).

More moon guides: Wolf Moon 2027 · Cold Moon 2026 · full moon calendar 2027 · new moon calendar 2027