I can't remember a recent meteorological event which has prompted more e-mails from our viewers. I want to share with you some of the scores of photos I received of this morning's "light pillars"--an optical effect which caught the eye of so many across the Chicago metro area. Light pillars--vertical columns of light emanating from streetlights, parking lot lights and other unshielded outdoor light sources--are a cold weather phenomenon most frequently observed in the planets optical regions. They are produced as plate shaped ice crystals, more like the crystals you'd expect to find in cirrus clouds, refract and reflect light, a development which leads to vertical shafts of light.
MANY THANKS to all who forwarded photos of the event to me!
Tom Skilling
Photo courtesy: Jim Bayne, Chicago
Photo courtesy: Tim Ruttler, Homer Glen, Ill
Photo courtesy: Robert Ooms, Bolingbrook, Ill.
Photo courtesy: Doug Neufeldt, Hanover Park, Ill.
Photo courtesy: Phil Castrogiovanni, Chicago
