Rare 'Light Pillars' Phenomenon Seen in Skies Above U.S. and Canada

In what seemed like a scene straight out of a superhero movie, a bizarre vertical stream of light was seen illuminating the night sky above Detroit and parts of Ontario on Tuesday.

Images of the strange orange beam were uploaded to social media by mystified locals who spotted the phenomenon, with one Reddit post by user u/blavere sharing a picture of the pillar amassing over 37,000 upvotes, and another showing a variety of pictures of the light taken in Detroit.

The light mystified the internet, with many of the comments under the Reddit post, suggesting that it may be an industrial flare from the nearby NOVA Chemicals site in Corunna, Ontario, just across the St. Clair River.

"It was an industrial flare burning VERY high last night in Corunna, Ontario. Still burning this morning and maybe still yet. They're starting up a large expansion and are combining feeds to power the new unit at Nova Chemicals AST2," one commenter suggested.

The Times Herald in Port Huron, Michigan, reported that the site was indeed flaring on Tuesday.

"We do know the light was due to flaring. It's not something that happens infrequently across the river in our area," Justin Westmiller, St. Clair County's emergency management director, told The Times Herald.

Another commenter said that the flare could be the source of light for the light pillars, with the ice crystals reflecting the light of the flare to much greater heights.

"I mean yeah that's what is the source of light but it's not what causes it to look like a light pillar," they wrote. "I thought, and looked it up to confirm, it's caused by tiny ice crystals reflecting the light like a spread out mirror."

This therefore may have been an example of a strange atmospheric event known as "light pillars." They have been seen before, usually in Canada and Alaska, with similar columns of light being seen both alone and in groups in the night sky.

Light pillars are caused by light being reflected from tiny ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere in thin clouds, such as cirrostratus clouds. These ice crystals, measuring about 0.02 mm across on average [0.0008 inches], have horizontal faces, EarthSky.com says, reflecting light shining up from below like tiny mirrors.

Depending on where the light is coming from, the pillars can appear in different ways, with potential light sources including the sun during sunset, the moon, human-made light in cities, or even volcanoes. The color of the pillar will match the color of the light that it is reflecting.

"The suspended ice crystals are great reflectors, beaming city lights back down to your eyes or camera lens," Alex O'Brien, a meteorologist for KOAA in Colorado Springs, Colorado, previously told Newsweek. "Usually, these are plate-shaped ice crystals, which form at temperatures of 14 to -40 Fahrenheit."

These pillars don't form at any old time, however, as the ice crystals responsible for the light phenomenon require very cold air temperatures and no wind to form, and need to be close to the ground in order for the pillars to be visible.

"The ideal conditions for this to occur are on a frigid winter night–often subzero temperatures–with high humidity and little to no wind," O'Brien said.

These condition requirements are why light pillars are more frequently seen in colder regions, like Canada or Alaska. However, the pillars are occasionally seen in a wide range of places, from Massachusetts and Sweden to Pakistan and Russia.

"From personal experience living in Colorado, you may see [light pillars] once or twice a winter," O'Brien said. "The more frigid nights a region sees, the better chance for light pillars throughout the winter.

These pillars may even last for many hours, so long as the conditions stay ideal.

"They will remain visible all night as long as weather conditions remain the same," O'Brien said.

Other strange atmospheric phenomena caused by light reflecting through ice crystals are sundogs and solar halos, which appear due to sunlight being refracted through the ice crystals.

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Update 4/19/23, 11:47 a.m. ET: This story was updated with a new headline and additional information.