Shock As Chinese Sky Mysteriously Turns Blood Red
Topics: China, World News
Cameron Frew
Featured Image Credit: zsgd93/Douyin
Topics: China, World News
Footage has emerged of the sky hanging over a Chinese city turning an apocalyptic shade of blood red.
Any time Earth's skies take on a strange appearance, it makes the news. For example, back during California's destructive wildfires in 2020, San Francisco doubled for Blade Runner 2049's radioactive Las Vegas.
Earlier in March this year, a Sahara sandstorm was turning skies orange across Europe. However, over in China, people have filmed a far more imposing sight above them.
Check out the blood red sky in the video below:
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The crimson skyline was filmed hanging above the port city of Shanghai, quickly becoming a trending topic on Weibo with more than 150 million views.
One person filming a video said: "I have never seen anything like this before. It really amazes me that the sky can even turn red."
Some believe the sky was the result of China's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Shanghai's residents stuck in a perpetual lockdown as a result of its zero-tolerance policy for the virus.
One user wrote: "Accidents will happen. I started to stock up on supplies."
Some viewed the red sky far more positively, seeing it as an indication of 'good luck and prosperity' across the country.
However, while others have speculated it could be a forecast for Armageddon – one commenter even said 'doomsday is coming' local media have explained that the intense colour is the result of light refractions, albeit it's a rare sight.
As per The Global Times, the Zhoushan Meteorological Bureau explained: "When weather conditions are good, more water in the atmosphere forms aerosols which refract and scatter the light of fishing boats and create the red sky seen by the public."
As detailed by The Science Times, light refractions are when light travels in one direction from one transparent surface to another, all while bending. Similar sights can be seen with water, as well as the sky.
In response to the sky, the bureau released a 'low visibility' on Saturday evening, 7 May, lasting until the next morning when the sky looked normal again.
While some speculated it may have been off the back of adverse solar and geomagnetic activity over the weekend, an expert from the space physics research team of the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan said there'd been no significant anomalies which would cause such a sky.
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