Will You Be Able to See Biggest Moon of 2008?

Usually I don't cover Astronomy issues, even though many meteorologists also have a side interest in it, as I do. I leave that up to our Astronomy Blog (PREMIUM | PRO). That said, I got an email from NASA talking about how the Moon tonight will be the largest and brightest of the year, because it is on its closest approach to Earth (called perigee).

The meteorological question is: Will you be able to see it? According to the Navy Moonrise site, the moon will rise here in State College, PA tomorrow at 4:34 PM. With the disclaimer that forecasts can change, this is our current prediction of Cloud Cover from our Pro Site for 4 PM this afternoon:

From this, it looks like most of you in the Southeast, Plains, and Southwest should be able to see the moonrise. If we go 3 hours later, when it's dark outside, many of those in the Northeast may wonder why it looks like a spotlight is on outside your house, especially if you are lucky enough to have snowcover, which will reflect the light. According to the NMM Forecast Model, that will be the mountains and the northern tier of states. note that the model is probably overestimating snow cover in any of the white areas, and in the Deep South where snow falling today will quickly melt (gonna be 57 in NOLA tomorrow :)).