An amazing sunset. But why?

We received hundreds of photos of the spectacular sunset on Sunday, 29 October. Many people thought the cause was atmospheric pollution, others, in our territory, supposed it was smoke from the fire that has been blazing for three days on Campo dei Fiori. In fact, they are all wrong. The cause is totally “natural”, as the meteorologist Marcello Mazzoleni explained. “The cloud type remained the same throughout the day, namely, altostratus lenticularis, which forms downwind of the Alpine chain, when it is swept along by winds perpendicular to it. These clouds always create this very striking, wavy effect.

“And then the intense colouring is caused by the sun’s rays, which light the clouds from below about a quarter of an hour after sunset, when the sun has already disappeared below the horizon.

“The next time we might see such a beautiful sunset is Wednesday, 1 November, when there’ll be high and medium-high clouds that will precede the unsettled transition next weekend”.