A South Surrey resident has captured an interesting visual phenomenon while enjoying the sunset.
A few nights ago, Don Pitcairn was at Crescent Rock Beach 鈥� just south of Christopherson Steps (24 Avenue) 鈥� with his wife and friends for the evening鈥檚 sunset, when a strange, mirage-like image appeared across Mud Bay.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the weirdest thing we鈥檝e ever seen 鈥� my wife goes, 鈥榃hat the he** is that?鈥欌�� he recalled.
The usual skyline looked altered.
鈥淵ou look across the bay 鈥� you see Tsawwassen and you see into Ladner 鈥� and there was this thing鈥� it look like a structure, almost a like a Roman aqueduct kind of look, there were all these columns鈥� that鈥檚 gotta be some kind of weird mirage,鈥� he said of the optical illusion.
No one had seen anything like it, so Pitcairn said he sent the photos he took to a Global TV producer he knows, and the next thing he knew, 鈥淚t made (Global TV BC鈥檚) Weather Window!鈥�
Rare optical illusion Thurs evening over Mud Bay, looking out from Crescent Beach.
鈥� Kristi Gordon (@KGordonGlobalBC)
A temperature inversion caused refraction of the light from Tsawwassen; making strange columns appear instead of the flatter land. It's called Fata Morgana.
Photo by Don Pitcairn
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The phenomenon creates a horizon line on the bottom and a horizon line on top, and everything in between, said Pitcairn.
鈥淵ou get a temperature inversion and you get a refraction of the light, and what it does, basically, is whatever you see on the horizon, it flips it and sort of takes what you鈥檙e looking at and stacks it up. Imagine you have a small-case 鈥榠鈥� 鈥� it becomes a full-case 鈥業.鈥欌��
The mirage was visible for about five minutes as the sun was setting.
tricia.weel@peacearchnews.com
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