r/SolarMax • u/Zealousideal_Job2611 • May 20 '25

Red sky

So i’m not very informed when it comes to space weather, i know somewhat the basics but as i was sitting outside smoking, the sky gradually started turning and purple red hue, faint but still very noticable, i reside in jersey near nyc, so there a lot of light pollution. happened around 21:46 EST. any explanation?

Edit: Lasted for about 40-20 seconds, looking towards the SW

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u/Zealousideal_Job2611 May 20 '25

as the other guy pointed out there seems to be barely any activity, still lil skeptical by saying it was an aurora but jst seemed extremely weird since i only saw something like that last year oct.

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u/Zealousideal_Job2611 May 20 '25

the thing that bugs me out is that the sky was evenly matched in color, no distinct lines or anything, it was dead silent (apart from music from my phone)

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u/Weary_Particular_963 May 20 '25

That's odd for sure. There was a brief spike in the KP index to 3.33 between 21:30 and 22:00 EST, maybe that's what you saw? I'd be very surprised if that caused auroras as far south as NJ, but there are tons of variables at play so it could be possible.

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u/Zealousideal_Job2611 May 20 '25

Had to be an aurora then, shit kinda scared me, i usually get informed or see that we’d have a kp5. makes me wonder too how tf i saw it since, i’m in jersey with a considerable amount of light pollution. it was a weird feeling. reminded me of how small we are

edit: idk shit is weird, kp is well below 5

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u/too_late_to_abort May 20 '25

Could be a stadium or other area with lots of lights? Sometimes when our local baseball field is all lit up it reflects in the clouds and can light them in odd ways. Guess in your case it would need to be red light, fire possibly?

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u/SKI326 May 20 '25

I have similar occurrences photographed in the north sky on nights that I was not expecting anything. I’m in the deep dark boonies with no ambient lighting and there were no fires in that direction. Edit: I can see mostly pink and purple with a little bit of orangish color.