Creepy Caithness sun highlights global issue
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A strange haze over the sun in the Caithness skies today (Thursday, September 28) produced an unusual effect due to smoke brought to the UK from Canadian wildfires.
The sun appeared to glow white with a greyish haze surrounding it at around 1.30pm over Watten. The phenomenon was replicated throughout the UK with social media users sending in pictures from across the country and talking about the "eerie haze".
BBC Weather asked the public to post images on its X (Twitter) page and said that the strange effect was caused by "an area of thick wildfire smoke from North America" that travelled across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom earlier today.
A BBC weather presenter based in Norwich called Dan Holley wrote that "wildfire smoke from North America is turning the sky a rather eerie grey/brown colour this morning". He said the smoke had been brought across the Atlantic behind Storm Agnes.
NASA's Terra satellite provided a picture over the UK at around lunchtime today which reveals areas of the wildfire smoke covering the the country – the smoke can be clearly seen across Caithness and the north Highlands where there was less cloud.
The Met Office posted on X and wrote: "We have seen some spectacular images this morning of the ever-changing colours of the sun and sky. This is due to a mixture of Canadian Wildfire smoke and high cloud scattering the sunlight above the UK."
