Blood Red Sky Brings Panic to Chinese Eastern Port City, Zhoushan

The skies in eastern port city of Zhoushan, China turned crimson red for a brief period of time over the weekend, leaving residents in the area stunned, for whatever it may mean.

While the unusual event sparked controversy and worries, meteorological experts assured that the change of color was due to lights refracting from local fishing boats in low clouds in the region, according to The Independent. China Aquatic Products Zhoushan Marine Fisheries Co said the red crimson color were coming from their fishing boats harvesting Pacific saury fishes, most likely from ship lights in the port.

While it was previously thought that the blood red sky could mean a possible fire or an unknown phenomenon, officials in the area confirmed that there was no fire reported in the port city around that time.

"I have never seen anything like this before. It really amazes me that the sky can even turn red," said one local resident who took videos and photos, among others, attracting more than 150 million views as of Sunday night.

A Possible Massive Solar Activity?

The weather in Zhoushan port city was believed to have contributed to the reddening sky, "perfect for a refraction phenomenon," Global Times reported.

It was foggy, cloudy, and drizzly at the time of the red sky, which led to formation of more water in the atmosphere, as explained by a staff of the Zhoushan Meteorological Bureau.

"When weather conditions are good, more water in the atmosphere forms aerosols which refract and scatter the light of fishing boats and create the red sky seen by the public," the staff said.

However, some netizens referenced the red sky in Zhoushan the same as the bloody sky that appeared in many countries for nine days in 1770, iNEWS wrote, caused by massive solar activity.

Some even speculated that it was a supernatural phenomenon. In response, an expert from the space physics research team of the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan told media that solar and geomagnetic activity was calm on Saturday and there were no significant anomalies in solar activity.

The records ruled out the possibility of geomagnetic and solar activity when the sky turned red in Zhoushan.

A Bloody Sky that Lasted for 9 Days

In the 35th year of Qianlong (1770), many countries experienced the "bloody sky" event, which lasted for 9 days - called "the night of the 28th day of the seventh lunar month."

The anomalous phenomenon has been recorded in China, South Korea, Japan and Europe.

This event that scared the emperor of the feudal dynasty the entire time was actually a red aurora, a plasma phenomenon which occurs as solar wind enters the earth's magnetic field.

However, according to astronomical reports, this is not the case in the Sunday event, and that the recent solar activity has been relatively quiet "with no large-scale solar flares and sunspots."

To confirm, the "red night sky" should be the result of ocean-going ship fishing for saury in the North Pacific.