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Alien invasion or light pillars? The truth is in the air, or the ice crystals anyway


Light pillars form in Hastings, Michigan, after a February 2021 cold snap. (WWMT/Courtesy Jeff Baurs)
Light pillars form in Hastings, Michigan, after a February 2021 cold snap. (WWMT/Courtesy Jeff Baurs)
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Aliens? UFOs?

Paging Agent Mulder.

These strange columns of light might inspire some wild suspicions, but there's a perfectly reasonable scientific explanation for them.

Enter Scully. Or rather, her meteorologist counterpart.

On winter nights, there are millions of tiny ice crystals floating through the frigid air.

Some of these ice crystals look like hexagonal plates, and fall flat-side-up through the sky.

Light from a bright source below, such as a street lamp, reflects off the ice crystals' flat faces, leading to a beam of light above.

The more street lamps, the more columns of light beaming up into the sky.

Those columns of light always take on a similar color to the light source. Meaning, if the light source is green, the light pillar also will be green.

Spooky, huh?

It's a phenomenon that makes the recent cold snap a little easier to swallow, especially since that arctic chill isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

So bundle up, and be on the lookout for light pillars!

If you catch any, submit them to our Chime In page. Just select the Out of this World option on the topic list.

Follow and like Meteorologist Christina Anthony on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

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