Khaberni - The city of Birmingham in central England witnessed an unusual sight, as the city's sky at night was covered in shiny pink color, coinciding with heavy snowfall brought by the storm "Gority", which amazed residents and raised many questions about the nature of this phenomenon.
The scene sparked speculation on social media about the possibility of the Northern Lights appearing over central Britain, but scientific explanations soon clarified that the phenomenon resulted from the combination of three main factors: snowfall, the density of low clouds, and the reflection of strong lights from LED bulbs at the Birmingham City club stadium at the same time.
Experts explain that snow particles and cloud density become more capable of scattering and reflecting light, preventing it from dispersing into space as usual, thus spreading over wide areas close to the surface of the earth, coloring the sky in unusual colors, most prominently pink and violet.
Technical Reasons
For its part, Birmingham club explained that these lights were not switched on for aesthetic or celebratory reasons, but for purely technical reasons, and published a picture from inside the stadium of the source of the lighting, commenting, "We apologize to everyone, these are our lamps, and the ground maintenance worker was merely doing his job."
Hednesford Town club also noted that the lights of its stadium caused a similar phenomenon earlier in the week, clarifying that this lighting is used to maintain the readiness of the pitch "for chasing the three points, not the Northern Lights."
The reason for lighting the stadiums in such conditions is that the grass becomes more susceptible to damage during cold and wet weather, especially with a lack of sunlight, where LED lamps help the grass grow and recover faster.
Snow with a Purple Sky?!!
— 🦍 (@shaqxii) January 9, 2026
Birmingham is not a real place lol pic.twitter.com/UIPJzXzJ0G
