Are these common in areas where it snows?

Mrs. Robinson

Mrs. Robinson

Well-known Member
Location
Nampa,Idaho
My daughter got up at 2am yesterday to take her puppy out. This is what she saw. She posted the pic on her FB page and the local weather guy-whom we follow,because he is so accurate-put it on his weather page with an explanation. Daughter lives across town from me and has better views of the sky than we do so we didn`t see this. Anyone seen this before?
 

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We had those in northern Idaho, late at night, usually. My mother just called them “Northern Lights”, which were nowhere as spectacular as the ones they see in Alaska, but were still vibrant and beautiful, and well worth being woken up for at 2 in the morning by my mom to come outside and look at.
They can come in all colors, and one time when I was living in Spokane, we had awesome crimson red ones that covered almost the whole sky.
Beautiful photo, @Mrs. Robinson !
 

Yeah, we get those all the time.

I forget the name, but they are caused by lights on the ground shining up through suspended ice crystals which preferentially divert the upward rays 90 degrees in all directions.

Often they can be even more dramatic than in that image, looking more like columns extending upward until they fade rather than in narrowing peaks.

Never saw a red one, but they used to be more white with a greenish tinge (mercury vapor lights) and later became more orangy (sodium vapor). As LED lighting replaces those older technologies they'll probably disappear. The new lighting is more directed downward. I suppose night time aerial photos might tell whether the LEDs do cast less light upward or not.
 
Yes, many times. I used to drive to work at 2am or 4am and would see them. I believe similar conditions cause the halo around the sun. Cool to see.
 
Looks like what we call Sun Dogs. Nothing more than the sun shining through ice crystals. I have also heard them called Sun Pillars.
 

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