{"id":172546,"date":"2025-08-24T20:21:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T20:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/172546\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T20:21:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T20:21:30","slug":"chief-meteorologist-anthony-yanez-and-the-mysterious-line-through-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/172546\/","title":{"rendered":"Chief Meteorologist Anthony Yanez and the mysterious line through the sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second sky mystery I\u2019ve posted to my newsletter. If you\u2019d like to read the first case, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

This second case starts with an email sent to our 2 Helps You.<\/a> Terri VanBuren from Houston wrote: \u201cI took a picture of the sky this morning while walking. I\u2019ve never seen anything like it. What causes it?\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Dan Crockett in Houston sent this picture via our Click2Pins<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Picture by Dan Crockett in Houston sent using click2pins (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)The Mystery of the Line in the Sky:<\/b><\/p>\n

At first glance, it looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, a strange line cutting across the sky. To solve it, I had to treat this like a case file.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Have you seen this before? <\/b>The answer: yes\u2026 but not quite like this. <\/p>\n

Step 2: looking for a reason why: <\/b>Why would the sky look this way? That\u2019s when the pieces started falling into place.<\/p>\n

The missing clue: topography: <\/b>Houston is flat. No hills, no valleys, no mountains. So when you look toward the horizon, you can\u2019t see far. In these pictures, you see houses, buildings, and a line of cars. Whatever is happening beyond the horizon is hidden from us, and that\u2019s the key to cracking this mystery.<\/p>\n

The big reveal: a cloud shadow: <\/b>The line in the sky isn\u2019t smoke, it isn\u2019t a trail, and it isn\u2019t anything out of the ordinary. It\u2019s a shadow, cast by a cloud that\u2019s blocking the sun. Without the cloud in the frame, all you\u2019d see is the mysterious line. But thanks to this photo from Sugar Land, sent in by Sam Olivares, the mystery is solved. <\/p>\n

Picture by Sam Olivares, Sugar Land using click2pins (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)The meteorological definition:<\/b><\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019ve unmasked the culprit, let\u2019s give it its proper name. Most often at sunset, though sometimes at sunrise, when irregularly shaped cumulus clouds hug the horizon and the sky above is mostly clear, something remarkable happens. Shafts of light burst through, creating what meteorologists call crepuscular rays.<\/p>\n

The word crepuscular comes from the Latin crepusculum, meaning twilight, a fitting name, since these rays only appear when the sun is low on the horizon. But they\u2019ve picked up another, more poetic nickname over the years: angel rays, because it looks like God\u2019s glory is shining through the clouds. <\/p>\n

Photo by Soubhagya Maharana, in India<\/p>\n

Like any good mystery, our sky phenomenon goes by more than one name. Sometimes, people call these beams Jacob\u2019s ladder. The nickname comes from the Bible, where Jacob dreams of a ladder reaching into the light of heaven, with angels moving up and down its rungs.<\/p>\n

The sky can create its own shimmering staircase of light. Janet Sherrill captured this very effect in her photo, which she shared with us through Click2Pins<\/a>. Her shot shows the \u201claddering\u201d perfectly. <\/p>\n

Picture by Janet Sherrill in Cypress sent to us using click2pins (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

You are always welcome to send your pictures and videos to Click2Pins<\/a>. Who knows, your photo may be the next Anthony Cloud Mystery! <\/p>\n

Anthony’s Weather Lab<\/p>\n

More Stories Like This In Our Email Newsletter<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the second sky mystery I\u2019ve posted to my newsletter. If you\u2019d like to read the first…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":172547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[26125,1599,4345,98447,358,3187,98446],"class_list":{"0":"post-172546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-clouds","9":"tag-forecast","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-sky","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx","14":"tag-weather-lab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115085605887373456","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}