What Were Those Flashing Lights Over Fort Collins?!
⨠The Night the Sky Put on a Show
Happy Monday, FoCo fam,
If you looked up last night and thought, âOkay⌠thatâs new,â you werenât alone. Photos of strange vertical lights started popping up across Fort Collins, and speculation spread fastâfrom searchlights to something a little more⌠sci-fi. Before your group chat goes full X-Files, letâs break down what everyone was actually seeing.
Did you notice the mysterious light pillars over Fort Collins?
Click an option to vote
đŹď¸ So⌠What Was That Flashing Light?
Photo by u/Lazy-Refrigerator328
Those glowing columns werenât coming from the skyâthey were being reflected into it. What Fort Collins experienced was a classic (and rare) winter phenomenon called light pillars.
Hereâs how it works in plain English:
⢠During very cold, calm nights, tiny ice crystals float in the air.
⢠These crystals act like tiny mirrors.
⢠When light from the ground (streetlights, parking lots, industrial lights, or even cars) hits them, it reflects straight upwardâcreating a vertical beam.
Why was one of them flashing?
Thatâs where things got extra dramatic.
A light pillar will copy whatever the light source is doing. If the source is moving or changing, the pillar will too. Common causes include:
⢠A rotating or oscillating light (think airport or security lighting)
⢠A vehicle with bright headlights hitting bumps or changing angles
⢠Multiple nearby lights reflecting at slightly different times
From miles away, that movement looks like a pillar turning on and off in the skyâeven though itâs completely grounded.
Why Fort Collins, and why now?
We had the perfect combo:
⢠Sub-freezing temps
⢠Still air (no wind to knock the ice crystals around)
⢠Plenty of ground lighting
Not dangerous. Not supernatural. Just FoCo flexing its winter science muscles.
đ Rocky Heard YouâŚ
He saw what you were excited about this week â and he decided to share a few canât-miss events over on Instagram. If you like visuals, behind-the-scenes moments, and quick hits of whatâs happeninâ, this oneâs for you.
đ¸ See what heâs sharing â đ Fort Collins
Give it a tap, a like, or a share â Rocky notices đ
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đ Until the Next Sky SurpriseâŚ
Fort Collins never misses a chance to keep things interestingâeven when itâs just ice crystals and streetlights doing their thing. If you snapped a photo of the lights, hit reply and send it our wayâwe might feature it in a future issue.
Keep the recs coming, keep voting, and if youâve got a park, trail, or tiny green space you think belongs on the shortlist, just hit reply. I read every single one.
Until then, keep looking up⌠you never know what this town will throw at the sky next.
â Ben
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