Earlier this week, unique weather conditions in Zhoushan, a port city in China caused the sky to turn red as blood, causing many to wonder if the end times have finally arrived. Some of the residents who recorded videos of the eerie phenomenon could be heard panicking and wondering how the sky could turn blood-red under thick layers of fog, causing fears for the apocalypse.
According to the Daily Mail, people initially thought that a fire had broken out and got out of control. But the blood red skies in China were caused by the weather. The phenomenon quickly became the talk of the Chinese internet, where users on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, called it a bad omen over China's handling of the COVID pandemic. A user claimed that the blood red skies was a warning that "accidents will happen" while another claimed that he had begun to stock up on supplies.
Scientists Explain the Blood Red Skies
The blood red skies were actually caused by light refraction. The Zhoushan Meteorological Bureau explained through state-controlled media that, "When weather conditions are good, more water in the atmosphere forms aerosols which refract and scatter the light of fishing boats and create the red sky seen by the public."
The light refraction that caused the blood red skies and subsequently worries about the end times may have been caused by a fishing boat that was harvesting Pacific saury or particulate matter from the Tonga volcanic eruption earlier this year, online discussions said.
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This is not the first time blood red skies sparked fear of end times in cities. According to CBN News, historians have found 300-year-old documents from China, Korea and Japan that have recounted eyewitness accounts of similar events. One document spoke of an event in September of 1770, when the skies over the region glowed red for more than one week. Researchers believe that the blood red skies may have been caused by a giant geomagnetic storm that was as powerful as the Carrington Event of 1859.
A Blood Moon in the US
Meanwhile in the U.S., cities are set to bear witness to a blood moon. Those who observe the skies will see the first lunar eclipse of 2022 early Monday morning or late Sunday evening, depending on one's timezone. NASA reported that the full moon will appear red in both North and South America and Europe and Africa due to a total lunar eclipse on May 15 to 16. A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon goes through Earth's shadow in space.
Those who are looking to witness the blood red sighting must set their alarms for approximately at 9:32 PM Eastern time on May 15, during which it will begin. But the greatest part of the eclipse will be seen around 12:12 AM Eastern. The eclipse will last for about an hour and 24 minutes.
Some are calling it a "super flower blood moon." Biblically, blood moons have been described as a heavenly sign that the end times are fast approaching.
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