China's port city Zhoushan witnesses blood-red sky, triggers panic among citizens

In an unusual occurrence, citizens in Zhoushan, China's eastern port city, were flabbergasted when the sky above them turned red for a brief period of time over the weekend, further raising fears of a fire. The sky turned blood-red under heavy layers of fog in Zhoushan city, which is close to Shanghai. Following the phenomenon, social media was flooded with photos and videos of the red sky in which people's anxious voices were heard as they captured the discoloured horizon, that even sparked apocalyptic thoughts. 

Meanwhile, meteorological experts swiftly established the facts behind the unknown phenomenon that it was caused by lights reflected from local boats amid low clouds in the area. As per a Global Times report, China Aquatic Products Zhoushan Marine Fisheries Co, which owned the boat, revealed that the lights colouring the sky red were originating from a fishing boat that was catching Pacific saury fish. 

The reason behind China's port city's Red sky

Further, authorities in the region also verified that there was no fire in the city as the skies turned crimson. In addition to this, the weather at China's port city, according to specialists, was ideal for a refraction event since the sky was gloomy due to the rainfall, resulting in an odd reddening of the sky, which caused a temporary panic. 

According to a Global Times report, the Zhoushan Meteorological Bureau’s official said, "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". 

This uncommon event of a red sky that arose in Zhoushan on Saturday, as captured in videos and images by many local people, quickly became one of the top trending subjects on China's Twitter-like social media, Sina Weibo, with over 150 million views on of Sunday night, Global Times reported.  

As per observation records, solar as well as geomagnetic activity on Saturday was calm, with no substantial anomalies in solar activity, an expert from the China University of Geosciences' space physics research team in Wuhan noted. This effectively dismissed the possibility that geomagnetic and solar events have turned the sky red in China's port city. 

(Image: Twitter/@my_thoughts_too)