Chinese activists circulated a video clip from Zhoushan, neighboring Shanghai, showing the city’s sky turned red under thick layers of fog, causing panic in the hearts of the residents.
The clip showed the voices of residents recording the change of color of the horizon, which raised their fears, not understanding what was happening, as the color of the sky turned scarlet without warning.
The red sky has become a trending topic on Twitter-like social media in China, such as Sina Weibo, attracting more than 150 million views.
Also, users of the Douyin app, the Chinese version of Tik Tok, described the red sky as an ominous omen due to China’s handling of the Corona pandemic, which appeared in neighboring Shanghai.
One user said that this means “accidents”, and another added, “I started hoarding supplies,” according to the British newspaper, “Daily Mail”.
But local media explained that the strange weather phenomenon was the result of refraction of light.
In turn, employees of the Zhoushan Meteorological Bureau explained that the phenomenon occurs “when the weather conditions are good, more water in the atmosphere forms a mist that refracts and dissipates the light of fishing boats and creates a red sky,” according to the “Global Times”.
fishing boat light
In parallel, local media, citing the Zhoushan Aquatic Products Company of China, which owns fishing boats, suggested that the lighting may have come from a fishing boat belonging to it in the Pacific Ocean.
Online investigators said the particles came from the 2022 Tonga volcanic eruption, which was found to be the largest volcanic eruption of the 21st century so far, and might also have contributed to the refraction of light.
Historians recently revealed documents dating back to 1770 from China, Korea and Japan, where eyewitnesses reported that the sky turned a frightening red.
The researchers told Live Science that geomagnetic storms, caused by solar eruptions that strike the Earth’s magnetosphere, may have triggered the event.
For its part, Chinese state media said solar and geomagnetic activity was quiet on Saturday and there were no major anomalies in solar activity, denying the idea that a geomagnetic storm and sun turned the sky red in Zhoushan.
During the Carrington event of 1859, the deadliest geomagnetic storm recorded in history, electrical currents in the atmosphere broke telegraph wires and set paper on fire.
Experts believe that a similar geomagnetic storm today would destroy power grids around the world, leaving millions without light or electricity.
