As temperatures dropped, many Richland County residents noticed beams of light streaking up into the night sky.
“I got home about 9 p.m. last night and when I got out of my truck I noticed them over the trees across the cornfield,” said Adam Bowman who lives just north of Mansfield. “I could see them in almost all directions. I thought it was absolutely beautiful. A lot of different colors.”
The temperatures were just right last night for spotting the optical illusion known as light pillars. Although not as rare as spotting the northern lights in Ohio, these light pillars can only be seen in specific weather conditions.
Light pillars are common when the air is cold. Last night, Richland County’s temperature reached -1 degree Fahrenheit. Low temperatures, however, are nothing new to Ohio, especially with this January’s early lows.
So why aren’t light pillars seen more often?
In order to see this again, Meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Cleveland Tom King listed these these three atmospheric conditions: cold air, little wind or no wind at all, and moisture in the air.
The light pillars are made up of millions of microscopic ice nuclei. “Ice nuclei are microscopic pieces of clay. It’s just like dust that floats all over the place,” said King. What is actually seen therefore, are reflections of light from the fluttering, atmospheric ice crystals, which are formed when these dust particles are frozen.
King commented, “The light pillars are basically ice crystals reflecting light from street lights, the sun, or the moon in some cases.” King also said the humidity needs to be relatively high, with almost no wind. According to his records, Tuesday night experienced cold weather, relatively high humidity, and 0 to 3 knots of wind – pristine conditions for light pillar formations around 11 p.m.
Within minutes, social media sites lit up with the cold weather phenomenon.
Ontario resident Steve Cook grabbed his camera and snapped a few photos of blue lights near his neighborhood. John and Rhonda Hoover of Mansfield were on their way home from a high school basketball game when the light pillar sighting caused them to grab a camera and capture the moment. Mansfield resident Matthew Stanfield snapped a photo from the downtown area. Those samples can be seen in the gallery attached.
If you have photos, we always are open to site submissions from our readers. If you prefer social media, feel free to tweet the @RichlandSource on Twitter with #lightpillars or post them to our Facebook page.
