‘Optical phenomenon’ lights Texas sky red. Here’s what caused it

If you were in Southeast Texas on Wednesday, March 23, you may have seen a glowing red orb light up the sky.

Those “light pillars,” as the National Weather Service called them, are actually quite rare for the area.

“This is an uncommon optical phenomenon for Southeast TX,” the National Weather Service said in a tweet on Thursday, March 24.

So what caused those mysterious lights?

“This is an optical phenomenon that was caused by ice crystals in the middle atmosphere reflecting the light from a bright refinery flare that was occurring in La Porte,” Lance Wood, science and operations officer for NWS Houston and Galveston, told the Beaumont Enterprise.

LyondellBasell said in February it would be doing maintenance work through April at its La Porte facility that could lead to “flaring activity... including a visible flame,” the La Porte Office of Emergency Management said. Flaring did take place Wednesday, KHOU reported.

Wood said the “very cold” atmospheric temperatures coupled with high humidity helped cause the phenomenon, according to the Beaumont Enterprise.

“The atmosphere conditions with flaring at the same time doesn’t happen very often,” KHOU meteorologist Tim Pandajis said.

Light pillars “form in very cold conditions, which causes ice particles to form near the surface,” KPRC reported. “These ice crystals reflect light and could have reflected light from a flare or even city lights.”