Why is the sky red (or pink) tonight?
Short version: if a geomagnetic storm is happening right now, that glow is quite possibly aurora: red aurora reaches far further south than the green kind, and phone cameras exaggerate it dramatically. If the sun is quiet tonight, it almost certainly isn’t. The box below checks which kind of night this is.
Is there a storm right now?
With JavaScript on, this box checks NOAA’s live space-weather data: during a geomagnetic storm it will say so (with the storm’s G-scale rating), and on a quiet night it will tell you the glow is probably not aurora. Without it, work through the checklist below; it covers both cases.
If a storm is on: yes, that can be aurora
During strong geomagnetic storms (G3 and up, roughly Kp 7+), the aurora’s red component (oxygen glowing at 150-400 miles up, much higher than the green) becomes visible hundreds of miles south of the main oval. It looks like a diffuse crimson or blood-orange wash, strongest toward the north, sometimes with vertical pillars. This is what painted skies red as far south as Texas and Florida in the May 2024 storm. To your naked eye it can read as a faint grey-red haze; to a 5-second phone exposure it’s unmistakable.
The phone-camera test: brace your phone, night mode, aim at the darkest part of the northern sky. Structured red/green bands in the photo → aurora, and it may strengthen in waves over the next hour. An even orange-grey murk in every direction → light on smoke or cloud, not aurora.
If the sun is quiet: the honest alternatives
- Wildfire smoke: reddens the moon, stars, and any light source near the horizon; the color sits in front of everything and shows in every compass direction the smoke covers.
- City lights on cloud: the most common "pink sky" of all: sodium and LED glow scattering off a low cloud deck, brightest over the town that causes it, and it sits there all night without moving.
- Airglow: a faint natural chemiluminescence of the upper atmosphere, only in genuinely dark skies, and usually only in long-exposure photos as red/green ripples. Real, beautiful, and not a storm.
- Lingering twilight: at higher latitudes in summer, "sunset" color can hang in the northwest for hours; check whether the glow is simply where the sun went down.
Naked eye vs phone camera
Dark-adapted human eyes are nearly colorblind at low light levels: a display a camera renders neon can genuinely look like thin grey cloud. That’s not the camera inventing color; it’s integrating seconds of light where your retina integrates a tenth of one. The practical rule: photograph first, judge afterward. And if the display is strong enough to show clear red to your naked eye, you’re seeing a major storm; enjoy it, it may be years to the next one.
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Red and pink skies FAQ
Why is the sky red tonight?
If a geomagnetic storm is in progress (the live check on this page reads NOAA's current data), a deep red glow (especially toward the north, and especially strong in phone photos) is very likely aurora: high-altitude oxygen glows red, and red aurora reaches much farther south than the familiar green. If the sun is quiet, it's almost certainly something closer to home: wildfire smoke reddening everything low in the sky, city lights reflecting off cloud, or ordinary sunset/sunrise afterglow lingering longer than you expected.
What is the pink glow in the sky?
During a geomagnetic storm, pink or magenta is a classic aurora signature: a mix of red oxygen emission high up and green lower down, often the strongest color a phone camera pulls out of a storm. On a quiet night, a persistent pink patch in one direction is usually artificial light (greenhouses, sports fields, or sodium/LED city glow) scattering off cloud or haze.
Why is the sky red at night when there is no sunset?
Hours after sunset, the usual suspects are: red aurora during a geomagnetic storm (check the live status on this page); moonlight or city light on smoke or thin cloud; and, in truly dark skies, airglow, a faint natural chemical luminescence of the upper atmosphere that long-exposure photos pick up as red or green bands. Aurora is the only one of these that moves and brightens on minute timescales, and it sits toward the north (in the northern hemisphere).
Why does my phone photo show color my eyes can’t see?
A night-mode photo stacks several seconds of light; your dark-adapted eyes integrate about a tenth of a second, and their color receptors barely work in dim light. So a phone regularly records vivid red and green aurora in a sky that looks grey-white to you: the camera isn’t lying, it’s just far more sensitive. If the photo shows structured bands or curtains toward the north, treat it as real aurora.