Rare pink fog hangs over British Columbia sky

The Independent

CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald explains the science behind the pink fog that dazzled residents of British Columbia's Okanagan Valley early in the morning Jan. 31.

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC]

00:03 Well, the pink fog in Kelowna is related to the phrase,

00:06 red skies at night, sailors delight.

00:09 Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning.

00:12 The phenomenon is when sunlight passes through a lot of material that's in

00:17 the air, whether it's dust or it's moisture.

00:20 Now, sunlight is made up of all colors of the rainbow, but

00:24 the shorter wavelengths, the blues and the greens, they get scattered more easily.

00:28 That's why we have blue skies.

00:30 But red light, which is a longer wavelength, penetrates dust better.

00:34 So that's what we're seeing.

00:35 The blues and greens are getting scattered, the red is making it through.

00:39 Let me show you how it works.

00:40 I've got a light here, and I have a glass with just a little bit of milk in it.

00:45 I just put a few drops of milk in it.

00:47 And you'll notice over here, the milk looks, well, like milk, it's kind of blue.

00:51 But if I hold it in front of the light, you'll see it turns kind of yellowish.

00:55 The milk is absorbing the blue and the green and letting the red come through,

00:59 and that's what gives it the yellow color.

01:01 Same phenomenon.

01:02 It only lasts for a few minutes, but when you do see it, it's just beautiful.

01:05 >> Good news, bad news.

01:08 Firstly, any moment with Bob McDonald is a fantastic moment, so

01:11 thank you for that, Bob.

01:12 But also, apparently, the redder the sky, sometimes the dirtier the sky,

01:17 we don't know what was going on there, but dreamy but potentially dirty.

01:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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