Residents shocked as ‘apocalyptic’ blood-red sky covers Chinese city
By Bryan Ke
Residents of a city in Zhejiang province, China, were left in shock after the night sky turned blood-red last week, prompting the local meteorological department to investigate.
Key points:
- The bizarre spectacle occurred in the Dinghai district in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, at around 8 p.m. on Thursday.
- Residents shared videos of the sighting on Chinese social media, drawing various explanations on its cause.
- The Dinghai District Meteorological Bureau debunked speculations of the sighting as being of supernatural origin.
The details:
- Residents in the area shared videos of the scene on WeChat, leading to various speculations about its cause. Shortly after, the Dinghai District Meteorological Bureau launched an investigation.
- The bureau discovered that the whole thing was caused by a fishing boat testing its lights before going out to the sea.
- According to scientists, the boat’s red light underwent a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering as it encountered particles in the atmosphere. Because the particles were much smaller than the wavelength of light, they scattered the light in different directions.
- Similar events reportedly occurred in the city’s Putuo district on May 7, 2022, and in Fuzhou, Fujian province, on May 10, 2022.
Reactions:
- While some residents were aware of the source, it still caught them by surprise. One told local media, “I heard people say it was the lights of fishing boats, but it was still the first time I saw it.”
- “Before earthquakes, the sky is always red,” a Douyin user wrote under a post discussing the event. In response, another user noted, “Zhoushan hardly ever experiences earthquakes, even along with Ningbo.”
- Some Douyin users theorized that the sight was caused by a “laser anti-missile” system.
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