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Incredible light pillar photos from Wisconsin

By Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather meteorologist

Published Dec 11, 2018 8:04 PM EDT | Updated Jan 24, 2019 9:29 PM EDT

Copied
Tue, Dec 11, 2018, 2:53 PM

Tom Purdy uploaded this incredible photo to Facebook Sunday, taken in Beloit, Wisconsin. These are "light pillars" created as street lights intercept ice crystals of different dimensions in the atmosphere. I first blogged about them in 2008.

Wisconsin Ice Pillars
Facebook/Tom Purdy

These particular pillars are flared at the top, something I hadn't seen before. Tom's photo went viral on Reddit, but it wasn't the only one taken that night... the viewer photo sent into WKOW, shown below, adds something new: snowflakes! What a night!

The video below will give you a primer on how light pillars form; Capital Weather Gang has a detailed explanation of why these looked the way they did.

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Jesse Ferrell
AccuWeather Meteorologist and Social Media Manager Jesse Ferrell covers extreme weather and the intersection of meteorology and social media.
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