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Wow, I don't know if I've ever seen these, but they are fascinating. They are reported from New Zealand but I wonder if they are rarer as it never gets so cold.
I never see them in the summer, only when the weather is cold enough in the upper atmosphere for there to be ice crystals in the clouds. Perhaps it's not cold enough in NZ most of the time? I did some quick research and see that your winters are much milder than ours, but you can still have snow, so perhaps those regions with snow are where sundogs are more likely? It's funny - the day I sent this issue out I saw a double sundog as the sun was setting. But since they're illusory, I don't know how many people in our area could see them (and from what angles)...
A balm for my eyes, this whole edition. (And thank you for the mention of my Twitter thread!)
I also love how we're all transfixed by that same Brocken Spectre video on Twitter - I was planning to share it sometime soon (if Twitter doesn't explode, obvs), and then I got Freya Rohn's latest newsletter and it was there too (https://ariadnearchive.substack.com/p/commonplacing-269/comments) and now yours as well! I kinda love that. Some chap out for a walk sees a weird thing, and it ripples out into the world first on Twitter and then in dozens of newsletters. This is the way wonder should work.
At the same time - I've never seen a Brocken Spectre or a light pillar. I've written about them but the reality of them haunts me from a distance. Ditto the Northern Lights - I keep getting pinged by my AuroraWatch app and leap out into the night to find the skies are cloud-locked tighter than Fort Knox. I'm hoping for some incredibly clear but terminally cold geomagnetically active night soon, so I can wander out onto the beach and see the Lights, just before I freeze solid while stood upright, and someone walking their dog in the morning finds me stood there with an expression of pure delight on my face. That would be a good way to go...
Or I could just get a fleece balaclava?
Tell you what, I'll get a fleece balaclava. And a thermos flask.
A fleece balaclava seems a small price to pay to avoid becoming an awestruck frozen pillar of human delight -- but the idea of your being found the next morning makes me think you'd become the next Spectre-based ice phenomenon, say, a Sowden Aurora Pillar? of delight?
Just fascinating, this world around us. Hiking in fog is creepy enough without seeing a Sasquatch! One phenomenon I witnessed during many years spent in the cockpit was high altitude Noctilucent clouds, seen predawn on east bound flights. At first glance seemed like regular cirrus, but clearly something different was going on, kind of blue-green, up at the edge of space. Would also see northern lights, but not as much as I would have thought. Read where folks from Greenland, hiking in New England were totally amazed at seeing lightning - they saw the Aurora all the time but never witnessed that way up north. Great post!
Thanks for the feedback! I'm marveling at the thought of folks being amazed at lightning but feeling blasé about the Northern Lights. This really is an amazing world we're a part of!
Wow, I don't know if I've ever seen these, but they are fascinating. They are reported from New Zealand but I wonder if they are rarer as it never gets so cold.
I never see them in the summer, only when the weather is cold enough in the upper atmosphere for there to be ice crystals in the clouds. Perhaps it's not cold enough in NZ most of the time? I did some quick research and see that your winters are much milder than ours, but you can still have snow, so perhaps those regions with snow are where sundogs are more likely? It's funny - the day I sent this issue out I saw a double sundog as the sun was setting. But since they're illusory, I don't know how many people in our area could see them (and from what angles)...
A balm for my eyes, this whole edition. (And thank you for the mention of my Twitter thread!)
I also love how we're all transfixed by that same Brocken Spectre video on Twitter - I was planning to share it sometime soon (if Twitter doesn't explode, obvs), and then I got Freya Rohn's latest newsletter and it was there too (https://ariadnearchive.substack.com/p/commonplacing-269/comments) and now yours as well! I kinda love that. Some chap out for a walk sees a weird thing, and it ripples out into the world first on Twitter and then in dozens of newsletters. This is the way wonder should work.
At the same time - I've never seen a Brocken Spectre or a light pillar. I've written about them but the reality of them haunts me from a distance. Ditto the Northern Lights - I keep getting pinged by my AuroraWatch app and leap out into the night to find the skies are cloud-locked tighter than Fort Knox. I'm hoping for some incredibly clear but terminally cold geomagnetically active night soon, so I can wander out onto the beach and see the Lights, just before I freeze solid while stood upright, and someone walking their dog in the morning finds me stood there with an expression of pure delight on my face. That would be a good way to go...
Or I could just get a fleece balaclava?
Tell you what, I'll get a fleece balaclava. And a thermos flask.
Yeah, okay. I like that plan better.
A fleece balaclava seems a small price to pay to avoid becoming an awestruck frozen pillar of human delight -- but the idea of your being found the next morning makes me think you'd become the next Spectre-based ice phenomenon, say, a Sowden Aurora Pillar? of delight?
Just fascinating, this world around us. Hiking in fog is creepy enough without seeing a Sasquatch! One phenomenon I witnessed during many years spent in the cockpit was high altitude Noctilucent clouds, seen predawn on east bound flights. At first glance seemed like regular cirrus, but clearly something different was going on, kind of blue-green, up at the edge of space. Would also see northern lights, but not as much as I would have thought. Read where folks from Greenland, hiking in New England were totally amazed at seeing lightning - they saw the Aurora all the time but never witnessed that way up north. Great post!
Thanks for the feedback! I'm marveling at the thought of folks being amazed at lightning but feeling blasé about the Northern Lights. This really is an amazing world we're a part of!