Moon to be elusive during Moon Festival
A moon glows above the sky in Shanghai in this file photo taken on September 8, 2014
It will be almost impossible to see the moon in Shanghai tonight, the night of the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, as the weather will turn showery under the influence of a cold front, local forecasters said.
The temperature will also drop to an 18 degrees Celsius low tomorrow, the coldest forecast during the National Day holiday.
The weather will be mainly cloudy for the following three days but the temperature will climb to 27 degrees after the holiday.
It is the second year that Shanghai will miss the moon during the Moon Festival in recent years.
Though it was cloudy during the holiday between 2012 and 2015, people could still see the beautiful sight of the moon "chased by clouds" as it appeared from time to time.
But last year, Typhoon Meranti brought a heavy storm to the city and people had no chance to see the moon.
This year's Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is the latest of its kind since 2010 because there was an intercalary June in the Chinese lunar calendar this year.
The holiday in 2012 fell on September 30, which was also relatively late, as there was a leap April in the Chinese lunar calendar.
Unfortunately, more than half of China will be unable to see the moon tonight due to wet weather brought by the cold front.
Generally speaking, it is very likely people will see the complete full moon when clouds cover less than 50 percent of the sky and "moon chased by clouds" when 50 to 80 percent of the sky is cloudy.
According to statistics by the China Meteorological Administration, the Changbai Mountain in Jilin Province, the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Chengde Imperial Summer Resort in Hebei Province and the Wutai Mountain in Shanxi Province were ideal places for enjoying the glorious full moon between 1981 and 2016.
