Hanneke Weitering, staff writer for Space.com, explains what makes the super moon so special. Wednesday's super moon was also an eclipse moon, a blood moon, and a blue moon, the first of its kind in North America since 1866.
Weitering explains super moons happen whenever the moon is closest to earth and the moon is full. A blood moon can only happen when the moon is in total eclipse. It appears reddish in color because it's illuminated by sunlight filtered and refracted by the Earth's atmosphere.
Weitering says the next lunar eclipse will take place in July, but people in North America will not be able to see it.
The planet's temperature spiked on Tuesday to its hottest day in at least 44 years and likely much longer, and Wednesday could become the third straight day Earth unofficially marks a record-breaking high, the latest in a series of climate-change extremes that alarm but don't surprise scientists.
The only break much of America can hope for anytime soon from eye-watering dangerous smoke from fire-struck Canada is brief bouts of shirt-soaking sweltering heat and humidity from a southern heat wave that has already proven deadly, forecasters say.
