A “blood moon” (total lunar eclipse with a red tint) happens roughly every 1–3 years somewhere on Earth, but any single location usually sees only about one every few years.

Quick Scoop

  • A blood moon is just a total lunar eclipse where Earth’s shadow and the scattering of sunlight turn the Moon red.
  • Lunar eclipses of any kind happen about 2–3 times per year globally, but many are partial or penumbral (so the Moon doesn’t turn deep red).
  • Only about a quarter to a third of all lunar eclipses are total , the kind most people call a blood moon.
  • Because of this, a true blood moon appears worldwide roughly every 1–3 years, though the exact frequency can vary by century and by how strictly it’s defined.
  • From any one city, you’ll usually get to see around 4–5 total lunar eclipses (blood moons) per decade, assuming clear skies and that they occur above your horizon at night.

Tetrads and “rare” hype

  • Sometimes you get four total lunar eclipses in a row over about two years; this is called a tetrad and is often hyped in news or forums as a dramatic “blood moon series.”
  • Tetrads are not one‑in‑a‑lifetime; they cluster in certain centuries and can show up roughly once a decade or so in our current era, though their long‑term pattern changes over time.
  • Media and social posts often add labels like “super,” “blue,” or “once in 150 years,” which usually refers to a very specific combination of events rather than blood moons themselves being that rare.

In forum and social discussions, people often feel like “there are blood moons all the time now,” but that’s mostly because naming and hype have become more common, not because the Moon suddenly changed its schedule.

TL;DR: A blood moon (total lunar eclipse) is not super rare: Earth gets one roughly every 1–3 years, and any given place can expect a few per decade.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.