Rare phenomenon
Why the sky over Austria suddenly turned red
The eyes of many Austrians were fixed on the sky last night: During a thunderstorm, the sky suddenly turned red, and this natural spectacle was particularly noticeable in the Salzkammergut region. But what is behind this weather phenomenon? The "Krone" spoke to a meteorologist.
Anyone who wanted to watch this natural spectacle was not allowed to sit in front of the television: For less than 20 minutes at 8 p.m., the sky was colored red in the Salzkammergut region, for example. It was also visible over Salzburg. A very intense hue that is rarely seen. At the same time, lightning flashed and it also started to drizzle - which then created a rainbow.
The sky glow has something to do with the sun
Why did the sky suddenly glow so brightly? There's a weather phenomenon behind it, as Salzburg-based Christian Ortner from GeoSphere Austria explains: "What's generally behind it is clear. The position of the sun was very low, it was already evening. There was also a lot of high cloud cover. And the clouds are simply illuminated by the setting sun. The extreme red is the result of the sun being extremely low or just above the horizon," explains the meteorologist. He himself witnessed this phenomenon in the city of Salzburg and was just as amazed by it as many others.
The reason for this is simple physics, explains the expert: "The light has a longer path through the atmosphere. It is scattered by the thicker atmosphere, leaving only a red color."
No major thunderstorms, but lightning still triggers fires
This rarely happens, says the meteorologist in an interview with "Krone": "Everything just has to fit together a bit with the cloud cover." In general, last night was rather calm. "In terms of precipitation, it wasn't really tragic in Upper Austria. There were massive thunderstorms in Salzburg's Pongau and Pinzgau regions, including hail. Otherwise, there were only remnants of thunderstorms in Upper Austria that passed through. There was very light rain in the Salzkammergut. It was busier in the Innviertel in the first half of the night," says Ortner. However, lightning strikes caused two fires in Fraham and in the Mühlviertel in Upper Austria.
What's next for the weather? Intense thunderstorms are expected this evening. In the lowlands, not before sunset; in the mountains, lightning and rain are expected as early as 5 pm. Ortner: "There's a lot of energy in the air, the air is also very humid and it's very hot. That favors all of this."
More bathing weather on Sunday?
Ortner expects it to remain very hot during the day over the next few days, although thunderstorms are likely to move through from time to time. For Saturday morning, the weatherman expects thunderstorms and a cooling down to 25 degrees. Ortner does not expect higher temperatures on Sunday either.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
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