(Fremont County, WY) – Many people in Riverton and Lander noted unusual lights appearing to point into the night sky late Tuesday, particularly near our hospitals and airports.
The cause was not supernatural or nefarious, but it was unusual: a rare meteorological phenomenon known as “light pillars.”
“Light pillars are beams of light hitting tiny snow crystals, resulting in what looks like strobe lights,” County 10 Meteorologist Dave Lipson explains. “This often happens in cold weather at the tail end of a snow event.”
When conditions are just right, those tiny ice particles reflect light back toward the ground. But millions of ice particles reflecting light at once create the optical illusion of a column of light shooting into the sky.
Another reminder from nature that winter weather can put on quite a show!