The Biggest Supermoon of 2025 Will Light Up Northern California Skies This Week

Look up, Northern California. The biggest and brightest full moon of 2025 will rise tomorrow, Wednesday, November 5, and it comes with a fitting seasonal name: the Super Beaver Moon.

This month’s full moon earns its title from two designations. It’s a supermoon, meaning it appears larger and brighter than usual because the moon is at its closest point to Earth (about 221,726 miles away), and it’s also called the Beaver Moon, a traditional nickname for November’s full moon.

According to folklore, the Beaver Moon got its name because November was the time when beavers were most active, building dams and preparing for the cold winter months ahead. The name was first used by early Native American tribes and colonial settlers, who used the moon’s cycle as a natural calendar.

So, while you shouldn’t expect the moon to look particularly beaverish, the name serves as a reminder of the deep cultural and seasonal importance of the full moon throughout history.

At its peak, the Super Beaver Moon will appear up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than an average full moon, though most of us will barely notice the difference. The best time to see it is just after sunset, when it rises along the eastern horizon and glows dramatically over the landscape.

This close approach, called perigee, will also bring extra-high and extra-low tides along the California coast later this week, known as perigean spring tides.

So grab a blanket, head outside, and look up. This week’s Super Beaver Moon is the biggest and brightest show the sky has to offer this year.