Midwestern arctic blast leads to gorgeous light pillar display in Kansas
Meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Goodland captured illuminated columns stretching from the city lights into the nighttime sky.
Watch: Light pillars dance across frozen Kansas skies in wake of arctic front
frigid morning in the wake of a late January arctic blast sweeping across the Midwest led to a stunning display of light pillars in Kansas Sunday. (Video: National Weather Service, Goodland, Kansas)
GOODLAND, Ks. -- A frigid morning in the wake of a late January arctic blast sweeping across the Midwest led to a stunning display of light pillars in Kansas Sunday.
Meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Goodland captured illuminated columns stretching from the city lights into the nighttime sky.
The phenomenon is known as "light pillars" and plays off the ice crystals in the frozen air to work their geometric magic.
ICE CRYSTALS MAKE FOR SURREAL DISPLAY OF LIGHT PILLARS
Light pillars are created when lights on the Earth's surface reflect off six-sided ice crystals in the frozen clouds above.
"So it's kind of like a dinner plate," said Michael Kavulich of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "And if there are very calm conditions, they'll settle in a horizontal orientation, and they can essentially act like mirrors."
Light pillars stretch from city lights in Goodland, Kansas on Jan. 29, 2023
(National Weather Service, Goodland, Kansas / NOAA)
MESMERIZING ‘LIGHT PILLARS’ ILLUMINATE THE NIGHT SKY IN MINNESOTA
The lights will bounce off each ice crystal, creating a dazzling display above.
"When you see light pillars at night, that's due to actually lights at ground level reflecting off these horizontal kinds of (ice) mirror crystals," Kavulich said.
And it was plenty cold for ice crystals in the lower levels. The NWS reported a temperature of 1 degree Sunday morning, and it felt like -18 to the photographer standing there in 15 mph winds.