Written by Swikriti | Updated: January 2026
If you looked up over Birmingham during Storm Goretti and saw the sky glowing neon pink or purple, you weren’t alone. Photos and videos spread fast because the colour looked unreal — like an aurora or a giant light show. But the explanation is surprisingly simple: a perfect mix of winter weather + artificial light + low cloud.
Storm Goretti brought disruptive conditions across parts of the UK, with snow, strong winds, and thick cloud cover. When those clouds sit low over a city, they behave like a giant reflective ceiling — and that’s when unusual sky colours can appear. The Met Office’s Storm Goretti updates described the system as a multi-hazard event, and those exact conditions helped amplify the glow people saw overhead.
So what caused the pink sky?
The short answer: LED lighting reflecting off snow and cloud. In Birmingham’s case, reporting suggested powerful lights from the city (including bright stadium-style lighting used on pitches in winter) were shining upward into the low clouds. When snow is falling, tiny ice crystals and water droplets scatter light more intensely, making the sky look brighter and more colourful than it normally would.
- Low cloud acts like a soft screen, catching and spreading city light.
- Snow/ice particles scatter light, boosting the glow and changing how colours appear.
- LED lights can lean pink/purple on camera and to the human eye when reflected through cloud.
Was it the Northern Lights?
Almost certainly not. The aurora tends to appear as shifting curtains or bands (often green, sometimes red), and it’s usually seen best away from strong city lighting. What Birmingham saw looked more like a wide, even “wash” of colour — exactly what you’d expect when bright ground lights reflect into a low cloud deck. Several outlets, including BBC News, noted that the “mystery” effect is explainable through weather and lighting rather than anything unusual in the upper atmosphere.
Is it dangerous?
The colour itself isn’t a danger — it’s just light behaving differently in storm conditions. The real risk comes from the weather: icy roads, reduced visibility, travel disruption, and falling temperatures. If you’re seeing a pink sky during a winter storm, it can be a sign of thick cloud and active precipitation, so it’s worth checking local warnings before heading out.
Why this story is going viral
Because it’s rare (for most people), intensely photogenic, and it happened during a named storm — the perfect recipe for viral posts. Cameras also exaggerate pink and purple tones at night, which is why some clips look even more dramatic than what the eye saw.
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