PANAJI: Director of Tourism Menino D'Souza has warned against the possibility of high tides in Goa on January 1, 2 and 30, 2018 as a result of the ‘Supermoon' effect.
Actually, the following full moon on January 2 and January 31 will almost be a Supermoon and, for all intents and purposes, it will look like a Supermoon, which means that on these days moon will be closest to the earth in its orbit and its effect can cause high tides putting the shacks on beaches at great risk.
In the first week of December, shack owners were caught unawares, as high tides resulting from Ockhi cyclone flooded the beaches and washed away their shacks. The shack owners had then complained that no one from tourism department had warned them of the impending dangers of the cyclone that wreaked havoc in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
However, taking no chances this time, the tourism director issued a warning. In a letter written to Supervisor of Tourist Security Force and Drishti Lifesaving Pvt Ltd, D'Souza wrote, "All the concerned businesses, shack-owners, water-sports operators and other activities on the beaches are hereby directed to be on high alert on January 1, January 2 and January 30 and shall take all precautionary measures for avoiding any damages to life and property."
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WHAT IS SUPERMOON
A full moon or a new moon that approximately coincides with the closest distance that the Moon reaches to Earth in its elliptic orbit, resulting in a larger-than-usual apparent size of the lunar disk as seen from Earth
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BIGGER AND BRIGHTER
* Because it's so close to Earth, a Super Full Moon also looks about 30% brighter than a Micro Full Moon and about 16% brighter than an average Full Moon
* The Supermoon on November 14, 2016, was the closest since January 26, 1948. The next time a Full Moon will come even closer to Earth is on November 25, 2034
