See The Winter Weather Phenomenon That Just Happened In Northeast Ohio

Northeast Ohioans have been enduring bitter-cold winter weather.

Even if some are getting tired of braving the storms, the freezing cold did lead to a unique weather phenomenon on Wednesday (February 17).

Light pillars happen when temperatures dwindle under 10 degrees, and Mike Vielhaber of News 5 Cleveland captured a photo of the phenomenon in Richfield.

He tweeted the photo shortly after 4 a.m., when it was only 3 degrees.

“One of the best cold weather phenomenon showed up overnight in Richfield,” Vielhaber tweeted. “Light Pillars form on cold calm nights. I see them here occasionally when they form in the area trucking company lights. It's 3° here according to my car.”

He also photographed the phenomenon in 2017.

News 5 Cleveland turned to the National Weather Service in La Crosse, Wisconsin, to explain how it happens:

“Light pillars...are columns of light apparently beaming directly upwards from unshielded lights.These pillars typically occur on cold, winter mornings when the temperatures are colder than 10°F. On these mornings, plate-shaped ice crystals, normally only present in high clouds, float in the air close to the ground and their horizontal facets reflect light back downwards.”

“The pillars are not physically over the lights or anywhere else in space for that matter - like all halos they are purely the collected light beams from all the millions of crystals which just happen to be reflecting light toward your eyes or camera.”

Photo: Getty Images