The sky turned abnormally orange, plunging England into darkness on Monday 16th October. This strange weather phenomenon swept across the country throughout the day, starting off with a blood red sun in the morning, reported by people across the south coast.

Later on, in the early afternoon, dark orange clouds created a dim atmosphere, which was caused by strong winds over Iberia on Sunday 15th October, bringing in dust particles to the UK in the tail end of Hurricane Ophelia. As well as the dust, fine ash particles from forest fires in Spain and Portugal were blown into the mix. This gave the atmosphere the appearance that it was sunset at midday.

Dr Dave Reynolds from The Weather Channel explained “The cold front of Ophelia moved across southern Britain this morning and it was very weak – this meant there was not much rain to wash the dust out.”

People of Worthing flocked outside to take photos of the dramatic sky, as they gazed in amazement. Local resident, Yvonne McKeown, said “I’ve never seen anything like this in all of my life. People were rushing out to bring their washing in whilst others were gazing heavenwards”. Due to the sun being barely visible, she went on to say “The street lights came on and people were also turning their lights on, almost as though it were night time”.

A red sun has been seen before in Britain. However, with the combination of these events, it came across as particularly eerie, yet breathtaking – it wasn’t the end of the world!