Drivers issued warning as rare blue supermoon is set to light up UK skies tonight

You've surely heard of the saying 'once in a blue moon', well tonight is the night that the blue moon is going to make an appearance.

This is the rare blue supermoon which occurs when we get a full moon when that chunk of rock orbiting our planet is at the closest point to Earth in its orbit.

This is known as 'perigee', the opposite of 'apogee', and true blue moons are incredibly rare.

The last full supermoon we had was on 23 September last year, so you really don't have a lot of opportunities to see these things.

Hopefully it won't see you standing alone without a dream in your heart or a love of your own, but even more hopefully it won't see you in a car crash.

Beware the moon! (Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

As ever the advice for witnessing the majesty of the night's sky is to get yourself somewhere with clear skies and a lack of light pollution.

Wrap yourself up warm and bring something to lie down on instead of giving yourself a pain in the neck trying to look at the sky.

However, those of you behind the wheel tonight would do well to heed the warning that the rare blue supermoon brings.

You might think that driving under the moonlight, the serious moonlight would actually be safer than the darker skies that might come with a lack of lunar assistance, but studies into night-time crashes indicate that the roads are more dangerous when the moon looms large in the sky.

A study from the British Medical Journal indicated that crashes on the roads, especially among motorcyclists, go up during a full moon.

The light of the supermoon could be dangerous for drivers, particularly motorcyclists. (Getty Stock Photo)

A supermoon can be up to 30 percent brighter than a regular moon and that bright light in the night's sky could end up being a fatal distraction for drivers.

A team of experts went through motorcycle fatalities in the US between 4pm and 8am for a 40 year period and found that the full moon was slightly more dangerous, while a supermoon in the sky upped the danger by 22 percent.

Looking at data from other countries, including the UK, shored up this idea that a supermoon can pose a danger to those on the roads.

It could be that the brightness of the moon is distracting, but being aware of the dangers that the supermoon poses on the roads is just part of staying safe.

Here's to an impressive looking supermoon, and hopefully everyone will stay careful on the roads.