Did you see it?
For those living lakeside, especially, the sunset sky had vivid colors that were not typical.
Why did the deep red, orange and even purpleish hues light up the sky?
You can thank the severe storms for acting like a cleanser and a magnifying glass.
How is that possible?
Think back to school and the experiment with the magnifying glass and the sun.
When you had an object under a magnifying glass on a sunny day, it would be able to burn that object. The sun's rays contain a lot of energy, and when there is something (like a magnifying glass) to "trap" that energy, it can be amplified.
Instead of the magnifying glass, you have the giant storm clouds. Once sunlight initially makes it through the clouds, it is trapped below them and can't escape back into space.
More importantly, there was very heavy rain with the severe storms right before sunset. Rain is the ultimate sky "cleanser." What does the rain clear? Light-muting haze (like wildfire smoke) and pollutants like ozone and particulate matter are items that typically contribute to poor air quality.
When the sky is "clean," the sunlight effectively has nothing stopping it from being in its pure form.
Think of it like your sunglasses after a day out hiking, covered in dust, dirt and other specks that blur and smear on your lenses. The rain is like a hose or faucet that cleans those glasses and makes them like new again.
The combination of the storm clouds and heavy rain created the perfect atmosphere to amplify the sunlight at sunset, and the longer wavelengths that initially cause the red and orange colors for sunset are that much stronger after a severe storm.
The timing was just perfect for creating the incredible scenes that many News 5 viewers commented on social media and shared via email.
Do you have photos of last night's vivid sunset? Send an email to 5pix@wews.com!
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