Fear spreads through Chinese city as sky turns blood red
- Video emerged showing the sky above the city of Zhoushan turned an eerie red
- The Chinese port city close to Shanghai sparked fears of an Armageddon
- Local media said the discoloured sky was caused by unusual light refraction
Video from the Chinese port-city of Zhoushan neighbouring Shanghai shows the sky turned blood-red under thick layers of fog.
Panic could be heard in the voices of the residents as they recorded the discoloured horizon, stirring apocalyptic fears.
The crimson sky was most prominent by the port, prompting worries that a fire had got out of control.
The red sky became a top trending topics on China’s Twitter-like social media, Sina Weibo, attracting more than 150 million views.
On Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, users called the red sky a bad omen over China’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, resurgent in neighbouring Shanghai.
One user said it means: ‘Accidents will happen’, with another adding. ‘I started to stock up on supplies.’
But local media explained the strange weather phenomena was not a sign of Armageddon but in fact a result of light refraction.
Blood red sky blankets city near Shanghai sparking Armageddon fears. The crimson sky was most prominent by the port, prompting worries that a fire had got out of control
Fish are videoed writhing by the port as the red light illuminates the city. The lighting may have come from a fishing boat that was harvesting Pacific saury, according to local media quoting China Aquatic Products Zhoushan Marine Fisheries
The rare weather phenomena attracted millions of views on Chinese social media, trending on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, and attracting more than 150 million views. Local media explained the strange weather phenomena was not a sign of Armageddon but in fact a result of light refraction
‘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,’ said the staff of the Zhoushan Meteorological Bureau, according to the Global Times.
The lighting may have come from a fishing boat that was harvesting Pacific saury, according to local media quoting China Aquatic Products Zhoushan Marine Fisheries Co, which owns the boat.
Online sleuths said particulate matter from the 2022 Tonga Volcanic Eruption, found to be the largest volcanic explosion in the 21st century so far, could also have contributed to the light refraction.
Historians recently uncovered documents from 1770 from China, Korea and Japan, where eye-witnesses reported the skies turning an eerie red.
Researchers told Live Science that geomagnetic storms, caused by solar eruptions hitting the earth’s magnetosphere, might have caused the event.
Chinese state media said solar and geomagnetic activity on Saturday was calm and there were no significant anomalies in solar activity, discrediting the notion that a geomagnetic and solar storm may have turned the sky red in Zhoushan.
During the Carrington Event of 1859, the most intense geomagnetic storm recorded in history, electrical currents in the atmosphere zapped telegraph wires and caused paper to catch fire.
A similar geomagnetic storm today would damage power grids across the world, leaving millions without light or electricity.
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