Like a movie scene from War of Worlds, Jo Regan captured this ‘apocalyptic’ pink cloud over Forest Green last night.
Many in Nailsworth stood back open-mouthed as the purple sky covered the top of the hill near Forest Green Rovers.
One resident said: “I was driving down the Nailsworth W and thought it was a fire at first, but I was amazed as I reached the top of Forest Green to see such a spectacular sight.”
Jo, who photographed these stunning images, said: “An interesting sky tonight. My app says not Northern Lights, but sure is pretty though.”
The sky gets its colouring thanks to a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. This means that when wavenlengths of light come into contact with particles — even tiny, microscopic ones — in the atmosphere, they scatter in different directions. This scattering effectively spreads the light. If the light has a visible colour, that colour then becomes more noticeable.