Cloudy nights now make cities brighter instead of darker

The last time anyone in a big city saw a dark and stormy night was when winds knocked out the power grid. Storm clouds looming over skyscrapers now glow orange with light pollution instead of providing the cover of darkness, a new study confirms.

"In a modern world, you would have to say it's a bright and stormy night," said Frank Hölker, a study co-author and ecologist at Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, Germany.

Light pollution is the skyglow from artificial lights, which contaminate the natural sky at night. Before the era of artificial lights, clouds hid the light coming from the stars. But now, because of light pollution, the sky grows brighter when clouds roll in. "That's a complete flip from the way things were," said Phil Langill, a study co-author and director of the University of Calgary's Rothney Astrophysical Observatory Read more...

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