A pale moonbow arcing through mist below Cumberland Falls at night

Cumberland Falls Moonbow LiveThursday, September 24

MARGINAL

4 live/model sources fresh

Estimated Moonbow Chance55%

Physical score 65/100

Best window: 8:30 PM – 10:50 PM
Arrive by: 8:05 PM
Forecast confidence: MODERATE 45/100

A viable window exists, but one or more ingredients remain marginal.

The Moon is 96% illuminated.
3 forecast models put cloud cover near 40% with 40-point spread.
Low mist proxy from 183 CFS (11th seasonal percentile).
Nautical twilight ends and the sky becomes dark enough. Peak physical score is 65.

USGS 3DEP cached horizonnot live

USGS station 03404500updated 76 min ago

NWS forecast grid JKL 28,14updated 185 min ago

NOAA HRRR 3 km via Open-Meteoupdated now

Peak 10:00 PM · Physical score 65 · 140 min sustained window

Photo: Design219 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Interactive moonbow diorama

See why this time works

Scrub the evening, then tap a feature to understand the geometry.

Viewing time10:00 PM

Geometry is workingPhysical score 65/100

Moonbow zone

A primary moonbow appears roughly 40–42° from the anti-lunar point. The brighter this arc appears here, the better the modeled bow-to-mist alignment.

Explore the night5:00 PM → 6:00 AM

Moon altitude36.2°

Bow/mist error0.2°

Mist placement64/100

Cloud transmission34/100

Physical score65/100

This is an explanatory diorama, not a literal camera view. The engine itself uses topocentric Moon position, the 40–42° primary-bow geometry, the cached local skyline and a modeled mist volume at five-minute resolution.

Five-minute engine

Tonight timeline

Nautical twilight ends and the sky becomes dark enough. The Moon climbs above viable primary-bow geometry.

Checking the six conditions…

See why this time works

Tonight timeline

Moon + geometry

Moonlight path

River + mist

Why tonight

Falls Overlook

Forecast confidence

Next moonbow windows

Did you see the moonbow?