'Stranger Things': Social media erupts as sky turns green in various states in the US

Photo Source: NDTV.com

A severe storm in the US turned the sky green in the states Nebraska, Minnesota, San Diego and Illinois yesterday July 8, 2022. 

Images shared on social media showed how surreal this natural phenomenon was and netizens couldn't help but share their views on it. Not just this, the powerful winds blowing the cities also caused major damage to the infrastructure as power lines were snapped and trees were knocked down. Winds reportedly blew at 140 km per hour in some areas. 

Netizens compare sky turning green to Stranger Things as the images of US skies turning green went viral on social media, netizens shared their reactions to it. Some compared it with the hit Netflix series Stranger Things in which such imagery has been depicted. Images from the states affected by derecho have been circulated widely on Twitter and Instagram. 

Why do the skies turn green due to Derecho? 

The scientific reason behind the skies turning green in the various states in the US is that the light interacts with thunderstorms holding a huge amount of water in them. As per reports, the big raindrops and hail scatter away all but the blue wavelengths of the light due to which primarily blue color penetrates below the storm cloud. This blue then combines with the red-yellow of the afternoon or the evening sun to produce green effect or color. 

What is a derecho that turned the sky green? 

The storm that led to the sky turning green is called 'derecho.

Derecho comes from the Spanish word ‘la derecha’ which means ‘straight’. In straight-line storm winds, there is no rotation unlike a tornado. These storms travel hundreds of miles and cover a vast area and thus various adjoining states in the US experienced green skies recently. Derechos have also been observed in  Germany, Russia, Finland, Bulgaria and Poland.