BRILLIANT SUNSETS

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 131, 28 May 1932, Page 3

BRILLIANT SUNSETS

ASH FROM ANDES DUST IN THE UPPER AIR Many people have remarked during the last two weeks or so on the brilliant glow often attendant upon the sunsets; reports have been received from various localities of coloured haloes round sun and moon, different from the usual kind; and everybody has noticed that the temperatures have been low. Ono set of circumstances will account for all these three phenomena, and that is that the air circulating high over New Zealand has been impregnated with light volcanic ash carried by the prevailing westerly air currents from the recent eruptions in Chile.

Discussing the matter in Wellington, Dr. E. Kidson, Director of Meteorological Services, said that a recent report from Auckland about a golden-hued ring round the moon had made him suspicious; the ordinary lunar halo was not golden, it was usually pearly with perhaps, traces of red and green. Then, too, for more than a fortnight past the sunsets had been particularly beautiful with a pronounced pink after-glow. There were also visible effects as if

smoke were very high up in the atmosphere. These facts undoubtedly pointed to volcanic ash being present in the atmosphere, and this ash could have come from Chile, where about April 11 a number of volcanoes burst into eruption. It was too late in the season, Dr. Kidson pointed out, for the effects to be due to bush fire smoke from Australia; besides which, they had had rain over there recently. Similar effects had been seen after the Tarawera and Krakatoa eruptions. The volcanic ash m the atmosphere circulating at a great height, says Dr. Kidson, would account for the haloes seen, for the brilliant sunsets, for the reports of auroras, :>,nl for the Jowezed temperatures experienced of late.