Dark Days

Dark Days

The "Dark Day" phenomenon is amoung the earliest reported natural phenomenons in the world. It has many causes, including cloud cover, smoke from forrest fires, and ash from volcanos. Sometimes the cause is more unusual, and sometimes it's a mystery. I've included many examples, some of which fall into the "mysterious" category.
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On April 12, 1910, a darkness settled for two hours on Chicago, causing widespread terror among people who thought it was something to do with Halley`s Comet. The Weather Department said it was a combination of rain, wind and smoke.

On April 30, 1971, an ominous overcast at Jacksonville, Florida, blotted out almost all daylight for half an hour. Streetlights came on and birds went to roost. There was no thunder and no rain, but there was a line of thunderstorms just north of the city.

On October 24, 1933, there was "midnight at mid-day" in London, when a "high fog" caused total darkness. An Imperial Airways pilot said that "the pall over London at mid-day looked like a huge black mushroom completely shrouding the city".

On June 30, 1861, a great comet did obscure the Sun as the Earth passed through its tail two-thirds of its length from the nucleus. E. J. Lowe, in England, recorded that "the sky had a yellow, auroral, glare-like look, and the sun, though shining, gave but a feeble light." There was "a singular yellow phosphorescent glare, very like diffused Aurora Borealis, yet being daylight such Aurora would scarcely be noticeable."

On February 12, 1106, according to Erman and J. R. Hind, there was a "sun-darkening" which was accompanied by meteors. A few days earlier, on February 5, a great comet had been seen near the Sun.

In AD 542, according to Hector Boetius, "The sun appeared about noondays, all wholly of a bloody colour. The element appeared full of bright stars to every man's sight, continually, for the space of two days together."

On April 23, 1547, in England, France and Germany, "the Sun appeared for three days as if it were suffused by blood while at the same time many stars were visible at noon."

In AD 934, according to a Portuguese historian, the Sun lost its ordinary light for several months. Then "an opening in the sky seemed to take place, with many flashes of lightning, and the full blaze of sunshine was suddenly restored." This last sounds like a description of the end of a total eclipse; but, of course, eclipses do not last for months.

On September 29, 1091, Schnurrer says that "there was a darkening of the Sun which lasted three hours, and after which it had a peculiar colour which occasioned great alarm."

According to a Notes and Queries correspondent of 1857, a total darkness at noon which lasted for hours enveloped Amsterdam on a summer day about 1800. The day was fine, the air was calm, and there was no fog. Many people were drowned by falling into the canals.

At Pernambuco, Brazil, on April 11, 1860, about noon in a cloudless sky, "suddenly the light of the Sun was diminished". The darkness increased, and the planet Venus shone brilliantly. A corona appeared round the Sun. (This may have been a diffraction corona, not the solar corona). The darkness lasted several minutes. Total eclipses for 1860 were January 23 and July 18.

www.phenomena.org.uk...

Thanks for this. I've been wondering about the darkness in relation to the end times prophecies, and this gives me a better perspective. I've experienced the fog darkness as well as the smoke kind, but I hope we don't have to go through a volcanic darkness that would blot out the sun for several days!

Very interesting. I had never heard of any of these events before. Sounds like maybe something happened high up in the atmosphere some of these times. Others seem to be from dense clouds. One possibly from something happening from a comet. S&F

reply to post by Elphineas


three days of darkness
en.wikipedia.org...

www.3daysofdarkness.com...

i'm definitely feeling something ominous lately. it feels like death. black death.

I also found this:

1938 September 18
Siberia
Obscuration
A black ‘cloud of cosmic dust’ moved E.N.E. at about 100 km/h. A darkness like deep twilight lasted several hours.

www.phenomena.org.uk...


Seeing "Siberian Darkness" briefly mentioned on Science Frontiers is what sparked this thread.

reply to post by Elphineas


Those are some bewildering reports, it would be frightening to witness them first hand, especially for those people in a time where meteorology didn't exist.

But some of them could be explained. I've seen my fair share of bushfires; the sun becomes blood red, the winds churn wildly and ash seems to fall from the heavens, and on the horizons smoke seems to gather like storm clouds and form ominous shapes. I know exactly what's going on, but it doesn't stop the chills from going down my spine.

Sometimes it looks like the gates of hell have opened, and people living a millennium might've believed that was the case.

reply to post by Elphineas

In AD 934, according to a Portuguese historian, the Sun lost its ordinary light for several months. Then "an opening in the sky seemed to take place, with many flashes of lightning, and the full blaze of sunshine was suddenly restored." This last sounds like a description of the end of a total eclipse; but, of course, eclipses do not last for months.

I looked up this date for Volcanoes and came up with 2 in Iceland that erupted that year. I think that would explain this one.