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Mysterious light pillars appeared in Stockholm, Wednesday morning.© Raitis Freimanis
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January 9, 2016 - STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN - When Raitis Freimanis, 54, got up early on Wednesday morning in Bromma,
Stockholm, he discovered something unusual outside his window. Several
tall columns were shining up from the ground, radiating yellow and blue
light.
"I was thinking what the hell is this? At first I thought it was a
floodlight or something, I thought to myself, why would they put up a
floodlight at 5am?" Freimanis told The Local on Thursday.
The Stockholmer said he had been woken by the family's cat and had
decided to go and feed the animal. And after seeing the magnificent
strange pillars, he ended up getting his son and wife out of bed to see
them too, in case they didn't appear again.
Together the family researched what they had seen. They believe that the
lights were an optical phenomenon caused by the reflection of bright
lights from Stockholm city centre, by tiny ice crystals, hovering in the
air.
"It was -13C here in Stockholm and windless, and there were ice crystals
in the air," Freimanis explained, adding that it was hard to judge the
height of the pillars. The fact that the lights were yellow and blue -
the colours of the Swedish flag - appears to have been a coincidence.
The family -- including the cat -- were hooked by the light pillars from
5am until around 6.30am, taking photos of the phenomena - images which
have since gone viral on social media in Sweden. Freimanis, who is an
amateur photographer, also has experience of catching the region's
famous Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) on camera.
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| © Raitis Freimanis |
"This was just as cool as seeing the northern lights," he told The Local.
By breakfast time the lights started to disappear, but Freimanis told
The Local that the family had kept watching in case they returned and
had seen them several more times since Wednesday morning, although they
were not as bright and clear as the first time around.
With cold weather continuing across Sweden, the photographer said he was
crossing his fingers that they would return again on Thursday. "It is
possible they will show up again tonight," he said, hopefully.
Meanwhile similar light pillars were
also spotted in Norway.
Light pillars form when there are very cold conditions and humid air.
The vertical shafts of light extend from a bright light source.
"It is not very common. The moisture forms a special kind of ice
crystals that are suspended in the air. They have flat surfaces that
allow the light to gather in this way," Terje Alsvik Walløe from the
Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway) said on Thursday. -
The Local - Sweden.
