Light Pillars

In early March of this year our son in Edmonton, Alberta, sent us this picture of a light pillar rising above an oil refinery near his house. I had never seen anything like it until....

....last night, at 10.20, as the sun was setting into the northwest.

According to Wikipedia, 'The effect is created by the reflection of light from tiny ice crystals that are suspended in the atmosphere or that comprise high-altitude clouds (e.g. cirrostratus or cirrus clouds).' The entry continues, 'If the light comes from the sun (usually when it is near or even below the horizon), the phenomenon is called a sun pillar or solar pillar.'

Whatever it is, and whatever it may be called, for a few brief moments it was spectacular.