Residents of the northern districts of the Chelyabinsk region on the night from Wednesday to Thursday witnessed an unusual phenomenon: the darkness suddenly receded, and for several hours it was as bright as day. Then it became dark again
Event in the Urals - from the category of "obvious-improbable" While the inhabitants of central Russia live in anticipation of the arrival of spring and light, in the Urals they meet white nights. More precisely - one - the only white night. As you know, white nights are common in the Arctic Circle. Especially on the eve of the onset of the polar day. A similar phenomenon is also typical for the Leningrad region. However, residents of the Chelyabinsk region were not ready for such events.
The point is that on the night from Wednesday to Thursday it suddenly became surprisingly light around. Before that, it should be noted, it got dark at the right time. Even at 23:00, it was dark on the streets of Verkhniy Ufaley, as it should be at this time of day. But by about one in the morning, it suddenly became so bright that it was possible to distinguish license plates on cars. In such a bright time, fishing in the Urals can be great, but the residents of the Chelyabinsk region were not destined to go for a catch. A few hours later it got dark again and only in the morning it was dawn. This case is very difficult to explain. Astronomers, however, are trying to explain what happened with the full moon. However, during the “white night”, people did not see the moon or stars. At the same time, the air around was not only transparent, like during the day, but even seemed to emit light. Some also try to find the cause in industrial emissions or in the events in Japan. But forecasters argue that this event is not related to industry. Most likely, residents of the Chelyabinsk region were dealing with an unusual natural phenomenon. Well, that’s quite possible. Not everything can be explained by obvious things. The latter event seems to be classified as "inexplicable, but fact."
According to eyewitnesses, the night began as usual: at the appointed time it got dark, the sky was covered with clouds, so neither the stars nor the moon were visible. Even at 23 o'clock the darkness on the street was quite normal, residents of Verkhny Ufaley note, but by one o'clock in the morning it suddenly brightened on the street, so much so that it was possible to read small text on a pack of cigarettes without additional lighting, and from the windows to see the license plates of cars sleeping overnight in the courtyard, in which, by the way, the lanterns did not burn. The Ufaleans, who were in the north of Russia, noted that it was like the white nights that stand in the Arctic Circle on the eve of the polar day. At the same time, the air was not just transparent, it seemed to glow slightly. Curiously, by 6 am it got dark again.
The inhabitants of Karabash also witnessed the unusual phenomenon. One of the employees of the local administration said that on the night of Wednesday to Thursday he woke up and saw, outside the window, a phenomenon resembling dawn. However, at that moment it was only 3 am - at this time in March in the Urals it is definitely not dawn.
As the correspondent of "New Region" was told at the Kourovka Astronomical Observatory, the phenomenon of the white night in the Urals is very difficult to explain. One of the astronomers referred to the full moon: “Now there is a full moon. On Saturday, she will approach the earth as close as possible, perhaps people took her radiance for a white night. We cannot find other explanations."
However, let us remind that the sky in Ufaley was overcast, and the townspeople saw neither stars nor the moon. But the moon was seen in other territories - and in Chelyabinsk, and in Zlatoust and in Magnitogorsk, but the inhabitants of these cities claim that the night was ordinary - dark. Yes, and the last night - from Thursday to Friday both in Ufaley and in Karabash - passed as usual - it was dark outside and dawn began on time. Another specialist at the Kourovka Observatory suggested that this phenomenon is not astronomical, but atmospheric. It is possible that it is somehow related to industrial emissions.
The Chelyabinsk Hydrometeorological Center does not share this point of view. According to forecasters, the phenomenon is unlikely to be caused by industrial impact: emissions still cannot glow in the dark. “We do not register such phenomena. Auroras have already been observed in the Chelyabinsk region, maybe this time we are dealing with an unusual phenomenon for the region,”the hydrometeorological center said.
Recall that on January 7, 1990, residents of Chelyabinsk at night observed an unusual glow - the entire sky blazed with a bluish-turquoise color, interspersed with a yellowish-ocher tint in the middle. On January 11, 1750, at five o'clock in the morning, there was a strong glow in the sky, described in the History of the Cossacks of Asian Russia. According to eyewitnesses, auroras in Chelyabinsk were also observed in 1942, 1948, 1957 and 1963.
However, residents of Ufale and Karabash claim that there was nothing like the aurora borealis: it just suddenly dawned on the street, and the air was slightly glowing.
It is curious that some of the eyewitnesses for some reason decided that this phenomenon may be related to the events in Japan, while none of them remembered the Mayak plant located nearby.
Note that in Russia unusually light nights at an unusual time and in an unusual place have already been observed: in 1908, after the fall of the Tunguska meteorite for several days, unusual light nights attracted the attention of the population throughout the European part of Russia and in Western Siberia. “We can say that night did not come at that time. Even in the south of our country, for example in the Caucasus, at midnight it was possible to read newspapers freely without artificial lighting, it was so bright, - wrote astronomer-meteorologist Yevgeny Krinov in his monograph published by the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1949. - The area of bright nights, as it was later found out, spread to all of Europe, right up to the Atlantic coast. At the same time, against the background of bright dawns, extremely powerful luminous (silvery) clouds were observed, the visibility of which,usually limited to northern latitudes, at that time it spread far south of its normal border."
We add, reports that in March 2011 a meteorite fell in the north of the Chelyabinsk region has not yet been received.
uznayvse.ru, nr2.ru