- Photos of the blue sun have flooded X (formerly Twitter) this morning
- The unusual shade isn’t anything to worry about and there’s a simple explanation
- Did you see it? Email your photos to shivali.best@mailonline.co.uk
Skygazers across Britian were in for a shock this morning, when they looked up to discover the sun had turned blue.
Photos of the bizarre phenomenon have flooded X (formerly Twitter), with one baffled user writing: ‘Gosh never seen a blue sun before!’
Thankfully, the unusual shade isn’t anything to worry about, and there’s a simple explanation.
‘We have seen some spectacular images this morning of the ever-changing colours of the sun and sky,’ The Met Office tweeted.
‘This is due to a mixture of Canadian Wildfire smoke and high cloud scattering the sunlight above the UK.’
Skygazers across Britian were in for a shock this morning, when they looked up to discover the sun had turned blue
Photos of the bizarre phenomenon have flooded X (formerly Twitter ), with one baffled user writing: ‘Gosh never seen a blue sun before!’
Several confused users took to X to discuss the blue sun this morning.
‘Gosh never seen a blue sun before!’ one user wrote.
‘I remember the dark orange and red of the sun when Ophelia 2017 drew Portuguese wildfire smoke across the UK… why is it blue this time?’
‘We have an eerie blue sun today over Twickenham,’ another tweeted.
In response, Chris Page, ITV’s weather presenter, explained what was going on.
‘Getting lots of questions regarding the sun looking an eerie blue today,’ he said.
‘It’s the power of wildfire smoke diffusing the sunlight which has been pulled across the Atlantic from the North America because of Storm Agnes.’
Each visible colour has a different wavelength.
‘Violet has the shortest wavelength, at around 380 nanometers, and red has the longest wavelength, at around 700 nanometers,’ NASA explains.
As it heads towards Earth, sunlight naturally scatters through particles in the air, such as dust and smoke.
The shorter the wavelengths, the easier it is for light to be scattered.
This explains why the sky is blue.
Several confused users took to X to discuss the blue sun this morning. ‘Gosh never seen a blue sun before!’ one user wrote
‘We have seen some spectacular images this morning of the ever-changing colours of the sun and sky,’ The Met Office tweeted. ‘This is due to a mixture of Canadian Wildfire smoke and high cloud scattering the sunlight above the UK’
And with more smoke in the atmosphere – as is the case following the wildfires in Canada – it allows for more scattering, making even the sun appear blue.
This isn’t the first time this has happened.
Back in 1950, the sun appeared blue over cities and towns in Ontario, following the Chinchaga firestorm – one of the biggest wilfires on record in North America.
More commonly, the moon can be seen in two unusual shades.
During a lunar eclipse the moon can turn blood red, while in very rare circumstances you might actually see it with a blueish hue.
This would only happen if you glanced at the moon through a haze of dust particles in our atmosphere, perhaps from a recent volcanic eruption.
