The Snow Moon is full on Saturday, February 20, 2027, at 6:23 PM Eastern (5:23 PM Central, 4:23 PM Mountain, 3:23 PM Pacific). It falls at 2° Virgo, opposite the Sun in Pisces, and it is also a penumbral lunar eclipse: a faint one, so expect a soft shading rather than a dark or red Moon.
February’s full moon is the deep winter one. The snow is old, the pantry is low, and the days are only just getting longer. The Cherokee called it the Hungry Moon, which is more honest than pretty, and under all that cold the bulbs are already pushing up. That mix of patience and quiet growth is the whole mood of this moon.
Here’s when to see it, why it’s called the Snow Moon, what a quiet eclipse means for you, and a five year table showing why the Snow Moon is a Virgo full moon some years and a Leo full moon in others.
Snow Moon 2027 at a Glance
| Date | Saturday, February 20, 2027 |
|---|---|
| Exact full moon | 6:23 PM Eastern, 5:23 PM Central, 4:23 PM Mountain, 3:23 PM Pacific |
| Best nights to look | The evenings of February 19, 20 and 21 |
| Zodiac sign | Virgo, 2° (Sun at 2° Pisces) |
| Eclipse | Yes, a penumbral lunar eclipse, greatest at 6:13 PM Eastern |
| Supermoon | Yes, a modest one: about 363,300 km from Earth |
| Mercury retrograde | Yes, since February 9, and back in Aquarius since February 18 |
| Previous full moon | The Wolf Moon, January 22, 2027, in Leo |
| Next full moon | The Worm Moon, March 22, 2027, in Libra |
The last named full moon on the site was the Beaver Moon of November. The Snow Moon is its opposite number: November gets ready for winter, February sits inside it.
When to See the Snow Moon in 2027
The Moon is exactly full at 6:23 PM Eastern on Saturday, February 20, which is about as good as timing gets. In the eastern half of the US the Moon is full in the early evening, right around moonrise. On the West Coast the exact moment comes at 3:23 PM, a couple of hours before the Moon comes up, but it will still look full as it rises.
A full moon looks full for about a day on either side of the exact moment, so you have three evenings: Friday, February 19, Saturday, February 20 and Sunday, February 21. Saturday is the night. Friday’s Moon is a sliver short of full, and Sunday’s is just past it.
For the big moon effect, catch it as it comes up. In New York on February 20 the Moon rises at 5:32 PM, five minutes before the 5:37 PM sunset, so you can watch it climb out of a sky that is still lit. In Los Angeles it rises at 5:46 PM, five minutes after the 5:41 PM sunset. Face east, find a low horizon with trees or buildings in it, and the Moon will look enormous. Check your own local moonrise; it shifts with your latitude, by about a quarter of an hour between Miami and Pittsburgh.
Dress warmer than you think you need to. It’s February, and the best view is outside.
The 2027 Snow Moon Is a Lunar Eclipse (a Quiet One)
A lunar eclipse happens when the full Moon passes through Earth’s shadow. The shadow has two parts: the dark central umbra, and the pale outer penumbra around it. On February 20, 2027 the Moon passes through the penumbra only. NASA’s eclipse catalog lists the penumbral magnitude as 0.9266, so about 93% of the Moon’s width sits inside the outer shadow at the peak, and the umbral magnitude is negative, which means no part of the Moon touches the dark shadow at all.
What you’ll actually see: a soft grey shading across the Moon’s northern edge around the peak, and nothing else. No bite out of the Moon, no copper or red. If you’re not looking for it you’ll miss it, and plenty of people will stand under it and never know.
The timing, converted from NASA’s figures:
- Eclipse begins at 4:12 PM Eastern (1:12 PM Pacific), with the Moon still below the horizon in the US.
- Greatest eclipse at 6:13 PM Eastern (3:13 PM Pacific), ten minutes before the Moon is exactly full.
- Eclipse ends at 8:13 PM Eastern (5:13 PM Pacific).
So the East Coast sees the Moon rise at about 5:32 PM with the shading already on it, and gets the deepest part just after moonrise. The West Coast mostly sees the plain full moon: the eclipse ends at 5:13 PM Pacific, half an hour before the 5:46 PM moonrise in Los Angeles. NASA lists the eclipse as visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia, and Europe and Africa get the whole thing from start to finish.
In astrology an eclipse full moon is a full moon with the volume turned up. Full moons bring things to light; eclipses bring the things that were on their way out anyway. A penumbral eclipse is the gentlest version of that: the ending you already saw coming, finally said out loud. No doom here. It is a soft close on something you’ve outgrown, which is exactly what a Virgo moon is good at.
Why Is It Called the Snow Moon?
The name is as plain as it sounds. The Old Farmer’s Almanac, where most of us first met these names, traces it to Captain Jonathan Carver, who visited the Naudowessie (Dakota) in the 1760s and wrote that this was called the Snow Moon “because more snow commonly falls during this month than any other in the winter.”
Most of the full moon names people use today come from a mix of Native American, colonial American and European traditions, and February had many names depending on who was looking up. The Almanac lists these:
- Bald Eagle Moon or Eagle Moon (Cree).
- Bear Moon (Ojibwe) and Black Bear Moon (Tlingit), for the time when bear cubs are born.
- Raccoon Moon (Dakota).
- Groundhog Moon (some Algonquin peoples).
- Goose Moon (Haida).
- Bony Moon and Hungry Moon (Cherokee), because food was hard to find at this point in winter.
Two more turn up often: the Storm Moon and the Hunger Moon, which ABC News attributes to Native American tribes in the northwestern United States, for the heavy storms and the hard hunting.
Notice how many of these names are about scarcity rather than snow. Bony Moon. Hungry Moon. Hunger Moon. February is the honest month: the stores are low and spring is a rumor. That is the side of this moon the news pieces skip, and it’s the side that matters for what it means.
Snow Moon Spiritual Meaning
The Snow Moon carries the energy of patience under pressure. Nothing visible is growing, the ground is frozen, and yet the season is working. Bulbs are waiting under the snow. Bear cubs are being born in dens. The light is coming back a couple of minutes a day.
Spiritually, this full moon asks you three things:
- What are you tending that nobody can see yet? A habit, a skill, a healing, a plan. The Snow Moon says keep going. Growth under the surface is still growth.
- Where are you running on empty? The Hungry Moon is honest about scarcity. Name what you’re short on, whether that’s sleep, money, patience or company, and stop pretending otherwise.
- What can you trust to the season? Not everything needs your hands on it. Some things need you to leave them alone in the dark and let time do its part.
The full moon is the peak of the whole lunar cycle, the moment things become visible. Under the Snow Moon, what becomes visible is often how tired you are, and how much you’ve been quietly carrying. Treat that as information, not failure.
The Full Moon in Virgo: What It Means
Every full moon is a conversation between two opposite signs. In February 2027 the Sun is at 2° Pisces and the Moon is at 2° Virgo.
Pisces is the dream: feeling, faith, the big blurry picture, letting go. Virgo is the detail: the list, the body, the routine, the thing that actually needs doing. Under this full moon those two meet, and the question is always the same. Which of your dreams needs a plan, and which of your plans has lost its reason? Virgo’s gift is sorting the useful from the rest. Virgo’s trap is sorting forever and never resting.
The 2027 timing adds a twist. Mercury, the planet of plans and conversations, turned retrograde on February 9 at 5° Pisces, slipped back into Aquarius on February 18, and stays retrograde until March 3, when it turns direct at 20° Aquarius. So this Virgo full moon, the most organized moon of the year, arrives in the middle of Mercury retrograde, with Mercury backing through Aquarius and redoing ground it already covered. Expect the details to matter and the facts to be slippery at the same time.
How to work with that: use the full moon to review, not to launch. Check the plan, reread the message, fix the spreadsheet, finish the thing. Save the big decisions and the new commitments for after March 3, when Mercury is moving forward and the eclipse dust has settled. If you have a natal Virgo Moon, this full moon lands right on your own emotional wiring, so give yourself more rest than usual, and less criticism.
What the Virgo Full Moon Means for Your Sign
- AriesWork, health and routines peak. One habit either sticks or gets dropped. Choose.
- TaurusRomance and creativity come into focus. Finish the project you’ve been tinkering with.
- GeminiHome and family need sorting. Clear a room and a conversation.
- CancerSomething needs to be said precisely. Edit, then speak.
- LeoMoney and what you value get a clear look. The budget tells the truth.
- VirgoThis is your full moon. Something about you, your body or your direction reaches a turning point.
- LibraRest is the work. Let something end quietly and don’t explain it.
- ScorpioFriends and groups bring news. Decide which circles still fit.
- SagittariusCareer and reputation peak. The details you handled well get noticed.
- CapricornTravel, study or beliefs come up for review. Check the facts before you book.
- AquariusShared money and trust need a careful look. Read the fine print.
- PiscesRelationships take center stage. Someone shows you, in detail, how they see you.
For a more personal read, look at where 2° Virgo falls in your own chart. Our free birth chart calculator gives you your placements in seconds.
Snow Moon Dates and Signs, 2026 to 2030
Here is the part nobody else gives you: five years of Snow Moons, with exact times from the US Naval Observatory and the sign the Moon is in. Eastern times are standard time, since the US doesn’t switch to daylight saving until March.
| Year | Exact full moon, Eastern (UTC) | Moon in |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Sunday, February 1, 5:09 PM (22:09 UTC) | Leo |
| 2027 | Saturday, February 20, 6:23 PM (23:23 UTC) | Virgo, 2° |
| 2028 | Thursday, February 10, 10:04 AM (15:04 UTC) | Leo |
| 2029 | Wednesday, February 28, 12:10 PM (17:10 UTC) | Virgo |
| 2030 | Monday, February 18, 1:20 AM (06:20 UTC) | Leo |
A few notes the table doesn’t have room for. 2026 is the earliest Snow Moon of the five and 2029 the latest. 2027 is the penumbral eclipse and modest supermoon described above. 2028 is the closest full moon of its year, at about 356,700 km, and 2029 is a supermoon too, at about 359,700 km. 2030 is full in the last degrees of Leo, hours before the Sun enters Pisces.
Why does the sign flip? A full moon is always opposite the Sun, and the Sun changes sign in the middle of February. It crossed from Aquarius into Pisces on February 18, 2026 at 10:52 AM Eastern, and does it again on February 18, 2027 at 4:33 PM Eastern. A Snow Moon that falls before that crossing is opposite Aquarius, so it’s in Leo. One that falls after it is opposite Pisces, so it’s in Virgo.
Because full moons come about 29.5 days apart, the February full moon drifts around the month from year to year, and the Snow Moon swings between the two signs. Early Snow Moons are Leo moons: warm, proud, about being seen. Late Snow Moons are Virgo moons: practical, careful, about getting it right. 2030 is the close call, with the Moon full in the final stretch of Leo on the same day the Sun crosses into Pisces.
3 Snow Moon Rituals
- Write the stop fixing list. It’s a Virgo full moon, so the release isn’t a bonfire, it’s an edit. Write down three things you keep trying to fix that aren’t yours to fix: a person, a past decision, a flaw you’ve been managing for years. Next to each one write “released” and mean it. Virgo lets go by deciding, not by crying.
- Melt the snow. Bring a bowl of snow inside, or a few ice cubes if your winter is a rumor, and set it by the window where the moonlight reaches. As it melts, say what you’re ready to let thaw: a grudge, a frozen plan, a conversation you’ve been avoiding. Pour the water onto a plant when you’re done. Snow becomes the thing that feeds spring.
- Reset the pantry and the plan. This is the Hungry Moon, so take it literally. Clear the kitchen shelf, use what’s about to turn, and write down what you actually need for the next six weeks. Then do the same with your calendar. February is the month to prune, and Mercury retrograde agrees.
Want more ideas? Our guide to full moon rituals has five simple ways to release and recharge under any full moon.
Snow Moon FAQ
When is the Snow Moon in 2027? The Snow Moon is full on Saturday, February 20, 2027, at 6:23 PM Eastern (3:23 PM Pacific), which is 23:23 UTC. The best nights to see it are the evenings of February 19, 20 and 21.
What sign is the Snow Moon in 2027? Virgo, at 2°, opposite the Sun at 2° Pisces. It’s a full moon about details, routines, health and the honest edit, and it arrives during Mercury retrograde, with Mercury back in Aquarius.
Is the Snow Moon a supermoon? In 2027, yes, a modest one. The Moon reaches perigee on February 19 at about 361,000 km and is full the next evening at about 363,300 km, which puts it on astronomer Fred Espenak’s supermoon list. It’s the second of 2027 after the Wolf Moon of January 22. The difference is subtle: a little bigger and a little brighter, and hard to tell by eye unless you compare photos.
What does a snow moon mean spiritually? Patience and quiet growth. The Snow Moon is the deep winter full moon, when nothing looks like it’s growing and everything is: bulbs under the snow, cubs in the den, the light returning a couple of minutes a day. It asks you to keep tending what nobody can see yet, to be honest about where you’re running low, and to trust the season with what isn’t yours to hurry.
When is the next full moon after the Snow Moon? The Worm Moon, on Monday, March 22, 2027, at 10:44 UTC, which is 6:44 AM Eastern Daylight Time. It falls at 1° Libra, so the sorting energy of Virgo gives way to the balancing energy of Libra, and by then Mercury is moving forward again.
“Under the snow, something is already growing. Give it the dark it needs.”
