We had an exchange student from Japan when I was in highschool. We took her to our cabin up north in the winter and the North lights were like an insane vortex swirling the entire sky from horizon to horizon. I’ve never seen any that crazy in my entire life. She took one look at it and went inside.
Yep for us it's normal, and it's kinda eye-opening having tourists fly for Northern lights and snow and Santa. Winter is beautiful, so highly recommend if it's new.
Can confirm. I live in Anchorage, Alaska. Its crazy when they start "dancing."
Also, [Light Pillars in Alaska](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/3X0NJ8pFWo) are crazy cool. Doesn't happen often, so it's a real treat to see.
I’d seen northern lights in the northern parts of the Midwest once or twice. But holy shit the most mind blowing view was on a plane flying to anchorage… from the sky the ribbons are 3d pillars of light jutting from the atmosphere. It’s an insane view
Yes, but in areas with heavy smog, it's nigh impossible to occur in the sky. The last time one appeared in Beijing (2015), [it made world news.](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33769441) It's the same as saying "snow [or really any phenomenon] can occur anywhere" when someone from Guam gets excited seeing it. Yes it can, but it's not surprising they haven't seen any.
When I took my spouse back home he was like, "wtf is that?" I just shrugged and said, "It's just the northern lights". He sat there just staring at the sky in awe, for me it was just another night, and they weren't even that bright that night lol. Now every year he bugs me to go back because he wants to see them on a more clear night when they are much brighter.
I have one really vivid memory of seeing the Northern Lights over my house when I was a kid but my parents said it didn't happen. I looked it up, though, and apparently it does happen where I live (Northern Pennsylvania) so I think it did.
I live in N Texas. I have stood in my front yard and watched red, green and purple auroras. This was in 2003 I think.
In order for us to see them we need a strong earth-directed CME (coronal mass ejection) that arrives during our nighttime. This happens from time to time.
We are nearing solar maximum right now so there is a stronger chance in the next year or so for us to see them than there has been for several years. The solar cycle is 11 years long from max to min on average.
[SpaceweatherLive](https:www.spaceweatherlive.com)
Follow that and you can use the globe display to understand when our best chance will be next time. An X-class flare or a large earth-directed M-class flare can do it. Usually if you can see green auroras in Kansas you have a shot at seeing red here in Texas since we see anything over the horizon to the north.
In 2003 there were a couple times that auroras were photographed in Mexico.
Eyes on the sky.
Ok sure but there are few countries within the arctic circle.
There are far more countries where there can be rain and sun at the same time, like 15 more or less
Northern lights can only been seen in certain regions but rainbows and been seen anywhere in the world. As long as you have water in front and a light behind you.
I love seeing people delight in nature!
When I was in elementary school, our [Inuit] teacher let a kid named Jeffrey from Bermuda go outside and see the snow fall for the first time.
We were all trying to get him to catch snowflakes on his tongue but he was so excited he couldn’t stop running around and laughing like the girl in this video.
I’ve lived in snowy climates my entire life, and the first snowfall of the season (and the *really* good ones at night, when it’s super quiet and looks like the lampposts are snowing) still feels like that.
Snow is wonderful.
Damn isn't it the best? When my kids were young we went for a walk in the woods and just happened to time it perfectly with the first snow of the season. Hearing that snow hit the leaves when it was so calm and silent with them was just magic.
I lose appreciation for it sometimes during the doldrums of winter, especially when I’m digging myself out of my driveway. But more often than not I’m still constantly blow away by the wonder and beauty of winter.
I love winter and it’s my least favorite season.
I'm an over 50 yr old man. There were little 1 foot tall dustdevils in the driveway outside my office. They looked like they were made entirely of the little white flower petals falling off the bushes.
My coworkers gave me odd looks when I told them to check them out. They lasted for almost a half hour. Forming and reforming. I was so enchanted I didn't think to take a video.
My college roommate freshman year was from Puerto Rico and had never seen snow. It snowed freshman year, which was actually rare in this part of Texas.
He ran outside to play in it while I stayed sleeping in my bunk.
He came back a little while later to run his hands under warm water in the sink, while saying, "That stuff is as cold as ice!"
Yeah, buddy. It is. LOL
I live in New England and when I was in college we had an exchange student from Pakistan. We took a canoeing class together (yeah it’s one of those types of schools) and she was always so amazed by the water and all of the surroundings I just grew up in. She really helped put things into perspective
I worked at a ski resort in my early twenties, and most of our staff were on a work visa from various locations around the equator (never experiencedsnow). One day, I walked out to go get lunch early in the season, and everyone I could see was standing around with the happiest and most surprised looks on their faces. It was surreal to see everyone standing still staring up at the sky, catching snowflakes on their tongue and with tears of joy in their eyes. The world felt like a better place at that moment because everyone seemed to feel unashamedly giddy. I'll hold onto that feeling forever.
This was my reaction when I first saw autumn, and later snow. I grew up in a tropical place so the only seasons I knew were summer, monsoon(rain) and summer lite.
I still get a kick out of fall and winter but I miss storms - the rain is too polite where I live now. I guess you can't have it all.
This is close to my reaction when I first saw squirrels when I moved to the US at 11. I had never seen squirrels in France where I was from. Now they are running around nonstop around my house.lol
Edit: You guys, I’m not saying there aren’t any squirrels in France; that was 33 yrs ago in Grigny and Courcouronnes France, and I was only a kid. I haven’t been back since so Idk how it is nowadays. I believe the ones saying there are 🐿️🐿️🐿️ in France. I believe you.😄
French tourists *go nuts* for squirrels when they come to Montreal. We have so many of them and different types too:
- grey squirrels
- black squirrels (a variant of the grey squirrel)
- Fox squirrels
- red squirrels
- chipmunks
We even have two species Flying Squirrels (northern and southern)
I always thought chipmunks weren’t squirrels until recently I saw a Reddit post where people were arguing about it and had to google it. Apparently chipmunks are squirrels and idk how to feel about this
> Apparently chipmunks are squirrels and idk how to feel about this
It sounds like they're "squirrels" in that they're in the squirrel family. But then so are prairie dogs, marmots, and groundhogs/woodchucks.
In France you would mostly see them in forests or in the countryside and they're very skittish. In Canada I see them everywhere even in populated spaces and they don't hide from humans at all. My Canadian girlfriend makes fun of me because I get excited every time I see one and she's like "... yeah".
Yeah! Blew me away when I saw one crawl out of a bag of chips in Munich when I was walking home from a bar. He tried to get over the curb to go back in the bushes but he was a bit tubby so he was kicking his feet trying to climb up for a while
There is, but mainly ginger squirels, that are hard to see if you aren't looking for them (fast af), and almost impossible to spot in cities, they are not as used to human, and so are really skittish. We don't have (or at least I haven't seen some yet) grey squirels as there is in the US.
I've definitely seen squirrels in western Europe. Then again I'm pretty sure the local squirrel population is being displaced by foreign invaders from the Americas.
> The invasive species Grey Squirrel that originates from Northern America is unfortunately displacing the Red Squirrel. This is happening in both Britain and continental Europe, but not in Scandinavia.
Guy in Britain thought they would look cool on his estate somewhere during the last century...
[Actually, there's more to it than that](https://www.animalaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/historygreysquirrels.pdf).
Red squirrels were hunted to near extinction in Britain when they were declared a pest. A bounty was offered for their tails. They were all but wiped out.
>Reds were actively hunted in the New Forest (Hampshire) during the 19th Century; in her book *Squirrels*, Jessica Holm states that in 1889 nearly 2,300 were shot there because they were considered a pest to the timber industry.
When Grey squirrels came in - often cited as being imported ornamental curiosities during the Victorian period - they expanded into the void caused by the loss of Reds.
There are plenty. I used to see them roam around on campus in Toulouse (small city of about half a million people in the south of France). I think the "never seen a squirrel before" might be terminally Parisian redditors.
Took my bf to the US for the first time last summer and we did a cross-country road-trip. The pure joy and surprise every single time that he saw a squirrel… Priceless.
I have a love and hate relationship with those beautiful bastards. Some of them are just fucking rude. Sir i dont mind your horney little shouts, i dont even mind you ruining my garden and eating everything i planeted, but please sir don't dig into my roof.
Can I ask where you lived in France?
I'm in the UK and unless it's a city centre you'll find them absolutely everywhere.
I dont specifically remeber seeing a squirrel last time i was there, but both our wildlife are extremely similar
During the 1994 blackouts in LA people called the police due to weird things in the sky.
It was the Milky Way, which was usually not visible due to light pollution.
Is that wars that were fought _with_ crickets, wars _between_ crickets, wars _for_ crickets, wars fought with Cricket _bats_, wars fought with _Cricket_ (and, logically, Cricket bats) or wars _about_ Cricket?
... it was a war fought with cricket bats. Robots wielding cricket bats, to be specific. Horrible war, grillions died in it.
Fun fact, that is where Earth gets the sport cricket. Which is in rather bad taste, to be honest. Humans...
I remember the first time I saw the sky over Northern Corfu in Greece on holiday. Never seen so many stars and I grew up in rural England. I guess there's still a big difference in light pollution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmsvzmE_TYk
> I remember a time a bunch of us were in a canyon of the Green River in Wyoming; it was a night like this. And we had our rafts pulled up on the bank an' turned over so we could sleep on 'em, and one of the guys from New York said, "Hey! Look at the smog in the sky! Smog clear out here in the sticks!" And somebody said, "Hey, Joe, that's not smog; that's the Milky Way."
> Joe had never seen the Milky Way.
(This is actually Chip Davis, btw. He also created Mannheim Steamroller.)
For those used to non-metric, that's (roughly) a 4 hour drive on the highway (250ish miles). Doesn't even get you to the other side of a lot of states in the US.
When I lived in Shanghai you arrive and notice the sky is grey but as we've all seen grey skies on odd days you kinda ignore it.
Then months go by and you don't even realise that it's actually affecting your mood.
After I'd been in Shanghai after about 6 months I took a trip to Beijing and I was on the train and I distinctly remember the exact moment when the train came out of the smog and suddenly I go see the clear blue sky and the glorious sun and it's rays hitting me on the face. My mood skyrocketed and I realise not seeing the sun had take a good 2-3 points off my default mood.
So after that I took frequent weekend trips out for a mood boost.
One of the geoengineering techniques that has been proposed to save the world from climate change is high altitude aerosols that cool down the planet, but also shift the sky from blue towards [white](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/geoengineering-could-turn-skies-white/).
This seems like a good example of why that might not be a good idea.
Seeing that adult shush her made me want to vaporize her on the spot. You are outdoors, Ma'am. The teens can be as loud as they like, even if they're not experiencing a joyful life moment.
>Seeing that adult shush her
I mean what in the hell was that even about, lol. They're out in a park. Why would this woman be shushing her, and why did she have to get so close while doing it? Almost looked as though the shusher was trying to console her. "Shh, shh, the rainbow can't get you from this distance, just don't make any loud noises or sudden movements."
You can hear her start to address the group and then the girl gets loud again. This is in New Zealand and we just started a new school term, I'm guessing this is an orientation for new international students. The "park" is the school field and it's possible there are classes going on nearby.
I feel like they are Highschool or college students. Highschools and middle school in East Asia are brutal. They had to go to school before sunrise and get back well after sunset. So it is possible that they never saw a rainbow if they spent their entire childhood studying.
I'm really curious how. What type of climate did you live in? Or did you just not spend much time outside? I feel like I see a couple each year and assumed it was normal for everyone.
Without doxxing what kind of area did you line in. I live in a city of about 400,000 and I’ve seen TONS, even double rainbows across the sky. Roughly 3 SOLID rainbows a year.
Yup, rainbows are just sunlight going through water vapor at the proper angle… refraction and all that. Pollution’s a bitch
Edit- water droplets, my bad.
Worked at a subway in hs and lady there was from Ecuador. Brother came to visit and it snowed. His face and the subsequent snowball fight was glorious to watch.
really, never?
You would not BELIEVE your eyes, if say for instance, 10 million fireflies lit up the world as you fell asleep. (like if you were camping or something I guess)
Younger generations may never get the chance, either. The firefly population is dwindling. Even since I was a kid, the numbers are now far fewer. It's sad.
i moved to the east coast recently and i've seen a few fireflies here and there. everyone i talk to about it says the exact same thing: "there were 100x more when i was a kid..."
pretty sad.
Yeah Ive spent my entire life living in California and Hawaii. Then we went to Wisconsin (where my wife is from) in the summer. I thought I was having a fucking stroke until they explained what all those flashes of light were.
If you've ever been to a city with smog (theyre not absent in the US either) you'd know that you absolutely can still see rainbows lol
You guys are brainwashed to believe the silliest things
Like in Tokyo, there are people who not only have never seen the sun rise or set behind the horizon, there are people who have never seen the sun rise or set period.
It is entirely possible, with a little effort, to live your day to day working life never going outside at all, including commuting to and from work.
They are common in smog filled cities too.
All from Shanghai
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kMMAOoNokJg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVaP3HSdBmw
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xsOdhdJkgU8
The distance between observer and the rain droplets reflecting light isn't that far no way smog could block it.
Its basically impossible that this girl has never seen a rainbow. What I suspect is happening is their dumb US counterparts think the USA is unique for having rainbows and the Chinese girl is taking the piss.
Fun fact people who live in giant cities like LA and New York with tons of light pollution commonly have never seen the Milky Way. There's been some instances in the past where there's been massive power outages and people freaked out calling 911 because they saw the Milky Way and a lot of stars for the first time in their lives. Completely mind-boggling that things like that are just completely oblivious to some people. I really feel bad that so many people are missing out on so many beautiful things.
Went camping one time, and it was pitch black, but the sky was lit with so many stars. My mouth dropped and couldn't take my eyes off them...it was magical!
No. They originated in Ireland sometime around the time of the celts. They subsequently spread the rainbow to different parts of the western world. During their mass exodus from the island due to the potato famine, it led to rainbows becoming so commonplace throughout the western world that they became taken for granted. The reason the Chinese people are amazed is because there’s no Irish in China and thus no rainbows. tmyk.
Additionally, the Chinese first learned about the phenomenon of rainbow through Venetian merchant and explorer Marco Polo. Reply with CHINA to subscribe for more interesting information regarding the spread of the rainbow to the East.
Thank you for subscribing to more fun facts about the spread of the rainbow to the East. Despite the introduction of the rainbow to China through Marco Polo in the 13th century, the Chinese en masse did not experience seeing rainbows until opium and its rainbow-inducing hallucinatory effects were introduced by the British East India Company in the 18th century. Reply with POOH for additional fun facts regarding the journey of the rainbow from the West to the East.
Indeed, rainbows were one of the first navigation devices invented by the ancient Irish tribes to catalog and retrieve their caches of valuables. Passed down through the centuries in secrecy by descendants from Ireland, rainbow technology still eludes most cultures including the top scientists of the world. In fact the Manhattan Project was originally formed to reverse engineer rainbow technology and use it to win World War 2, with Americans theorizing that it could help the Allies locate and destroy all Nazi treasuries in order to bankrupt their war machine. Knowing the true destructive potential of rainbows if used in the wrong way and following a sacred oath to never use rainbows for war, The Irish urged the Americans against this idea, so they researched the far less powerful technology of atomic weapons instead.
Then during WW2 the arms race for rainbows was so intense that the USA no longer allowed the export of rainbows. To protect their horde of rainbows the US military forced a significant volume of rainbows to remain in San Francisco, and Long Beach CA, as well as New York.
They are. Rainbows only need (1) moisture in the air to refract the light and (2) a strong source of light at the same time. So in theory a country with very low rain wouldn't get them often, but there would have to be water for humans to survive. Some people are floating around the smog would prevent it. Don't really trust that, but that should be limited to only the most polluted of cities.
Equally important, you can easily create a rainbow as an elementary school science experiment. I know because I did in elementary school, and a quick google search yielded these directions: https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/saturday-science-make-a-rainbow So even if there was such a place that couldn't naturally see a rainbow, the effect is easy to replicate.
That being said, there are people who just aren't exposed to things. Sometimes its purposeful (I didn't try pork until my 20's because I was raised on a kosher diet) sometimes its just by chance. But yeah, the detail about them being "Chinese students" is extraneous, they're just kids who haven't seen a rainbow before lol.
I was just as confused, why is she shushing and consoling her or something (the tapping)? It could be that they don't want to draw attention, but if that's the case, then why?
This reminds me of when I was in the military. Base pre-emptively closed down for snow because we were on the gulf coast and they had absolutely nothing to deal with it. Snow was supposed to start late that night. I remember waking up around the time I normally get up for work to check to make sure it did in fact snow. We got like half an inch. At the time I was in the dorms and it was a U shaped building with a courtyard in the middle. I looked down into the courtyard and you saw 2 very different kinds of people. People like myself (from PA) who had experienced plenty of snow and considered this to barely count. And the people from obviously warmer places who were running around like a bunch of little kids in complete wonder of the whole situation.
similar thing happened to me out in W Texas. It randomly snowed, and being Texas, they were not prepared and the whole base was shut down till it melted around noon. We were in training and at formation that morning, the instructors just told us class was postponed until later. Then they just started pelting us with snow balls while we were still at attention, all confused if we were allowed to fight back or not! It was fun to watch a bunch of people who had never seen snow before experience it. I had seen snow before but grew up in Fl, so the snow was a big deal to me. I was supposed to be answering phones in the office for the instructors, but this big giant sergeant saw me looking wistfully out the window and ordered me to go make snow angels. 100% my silliest day in the military, but one of the best.
She puts her arm around her at the same time. I don't think it's shushing like she's telling her to be quiet but shushing like you do when you're comforting someone who is overwhelmed. The girl in gray seemed like she was in tears because she was so incredibly excited.
Disagree, she's doing that to reinforce her desire for the other girl to quiet down. That's why the other girl does quiet down in the middle of her exclaimation and she looks a little embarassed. You can hear the shushing start two seconds before the camera pans all the way over in fact.
It's not, really. Chinese people know what rainbows are. The caption tries to make it seem related, but that only really works if you think the entire country is at like 200 AQI 365 days per year.
It's 100% believable that this girl as never seen a rainbow in real life before, but that's definitely more of a her thing than a Chinese thing.
I have no idea why these Chinese girls were freaking out, lol. It's not like rainbows are exclusive to western countries.
I was in China earlier this year. Most days the skies were about as clear as they are in LA.
maybe the scale of the rainbow? They might be able to see them through the buildings but maybe they are excited about seeing one in all its glory.
One of the girls even shouted double rainbow.
No you don't understand, after Mao made that quote about women holding up half the sky, the CCP evil-ly took down all the rainbows in the sky (since the other half would clearly be held up by men and not bourgeois rainbows). Source: idk a reddit comment I saw years ago
You can still see rainbows in every part of China I've been to (Fuzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Dongguan, Shenzhen.)
Maybe the video is old? I heard the smog there used to be a lot worse than it is now. Its still not good now, so I can sort of imagine it being hard to see if it was worse.
It's never been that bad permanently lol.
I've had a lot of days in China where I couldn't see the ground from my apartment window because of the smog, but even that was just *sometimes.* Other days it's fine.
I had a friend in her 20s that moved to the US mainland from Hawaii that saw hail for the first time. It was pretty cool to see someone experiencing something entirely new to them.
"A rainbow is one of the most fantastic phenomena of our natural experience. It symbolizes our insignificance and our dreams of fulfillment. There can be gold at the end of our Rainbows."- Ronnie James Dio
I had projects in Petaluma, California for a couple of years and during the rainy season there were rainbows weekly if not daily. That area is dairy ranches and farms and was so whimsical with baby goats, cows, and sheep running around (with a slight tinge of manure a couple times a year).
Depending on the region, the smog and pollution of cities like Beijing very rarely if ever have blue sky's. It's always cloud covered and grey, with what looks like fog throughout those cities. So those who live in those regions very rarely would be able to see a rainbow let alone a clear blue sky. When I was there, 2 of the days had patches of blue skies and people were saying that hasn't happened in years.
So yeah, it's possible.
Edit: To all the people saying it's misinformation. I'm just telling my personal experience in Beijing as well as conversations with locals. I was there 12 years ago. The pollution from the city discolored my mucus when I would blow my nose every morning. So sure I hope that it has become better in the time since.
Yeah this was my thought as well. I've been in Shanghai and Beijing during rain season and I saw plenty of rainbows even in smog. It's way more likely that she's from somewhere with little rain.
This isn’t true. Yes the air in Beijing is worse than many other cities on average and some days are bad but there are plenty of sunny days. I’m not sure why people told you that blue skies are rare.
I kinda remember this moment in my life.
I lived in the industrial outskirts of Seoul in the late 80s and early 90s.
When our family moved to Canada, it blew my mind that the things I saw in movies and picture books were in fact, very real.
Green grassy hills, blue sky, rainbows, Sundays breaking through white fluffy clouds, the clear and crisp wind, and seeing miles and miles towards the horizon.
I would be just as excited to see the northern lights. Not going to see them in Texas.
We had an exchange student from Japan when I was in highschool. We took her to our cabin up north in the winter and the North lights were like an insane vortex swirling the entire sky from horizon to horizon. I’ve never seen any that crazy in my entire life. She took one look at it and went inside.
She be like "I saw this in Vinland Saga"
Ours was reserved but also enthusiastic and all smiles over everything. She loved Halloween and also did a tea ceremony for us.
Yep for us it's normal, and it's kinda eye-opening having tourists fly for Northern lights and snow and Santa. Winter is beautiful, so highly recommend if it's new.
Can confirm. I live in Anchorage, Alaska. Its crazy when they start "dancing." Also, [Light Pillars in Alaska](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/3X0NJ8pFWo) are crazy cool. Doesn't happen often, so it's a real treat to see.
I’d seen northern lights in the northern parts of the Midwest once or twice. But holy shit the most mind blowing view was on a plane flying to anchorage… from the sky the ribbons are 3d pillars of light jutting from the atmosphere. It’s an insane view
Man, I've never had that happen. I would love to see that, and also see an eclipse while in the sky!!
Holy shit I saw those once when I was in Sweden in the dead of winter. Always wondered what it was.
Seeing the northern lights is on my 'bucket list'. I turn 50 next year - I may be one of those tourists sometime next year. :)
I hear they can be localised entirely within some kitchens
At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country?
At this hour? With my reputation?
Goes good with steamed hams
Yeah but you can basically see rainbows everywhere. Not northern lights
Yes, but in areas with heavy smog, it's nigh impossible to occur in the sky. The last time one appeared in Beijing (2015), [it made world news.](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33769441) It's the same as saying "snow [or really any phenomenon] can occur anywhere" when someone from Guam gets excited seeing it. Yes it can, but it's not surprising they haven't seen any.
Not all of china has smog though?
When I took my spouse back home he was like, "wtf is that?" I just shrugged and said, "It's just the northern lights". He sat there just staring at the sky in awe, for me it was just another night, and they weren't even that bright that night lol. Now every year he bugs me to go back because he wants to see them on a more clear night when they are much brighter.
“…just the northern lights….”. Everything amazing is normal to those that are accustomed to it.
How frequent are they back home? Every night? Twice a week?
I have one really vivid memory of seeing the Northern Lights over my house when I was a kid but my parents said it didn't happen. I looked it up, though, and apparently it does happen where I live (Northern Pennsylvania) so I think it did.
I live in N Texas. I have stood in my front yard and watched red, green and purple auroras. This was in 2003 I think. In order for us to see them we need a strong earth-directed CME (coronal mass ejection) that arrives during our nighttime. This happens from time to time. We are nearing solar maximum right now so there is a stronger chance in the next year or so for us to see them than there has been for several years. The solar cycle is 11 years long from max to min on average. [SpaceweatherLive](https:www.spaceweatherlive.com) Follow that and you can use the globe display to understand when our best chance will be next time. An X-class flare or a large earth-directed M-class flare can do it. Usually if you can see green auroras in Kansas you have a shot at seeing red here in Texas since we see anything over the horizon to the north. In 2003 there were a couple times that auroras were photographed in Mexico. Eyes on the sky.
Rainbows are illegal in Texas, as are the northern lights. That’s the only reason you don’t see them there.
It's like abortion and the gays
Gay abortions. Double whammy.
But rainbows happen everywhere unlike the northern lights which typically are localized within kitchens.
I saw them once during a solar storm. I’m in Canada, but usually too far south for them. Totally amazing.
Ok sure but there are few countries within the arctic circle. There are far more countries where there can be rain and sun at the same time, like 15 more or less
Northern lights can only been seen in certain regions but rainbows and been seen anywhere in the world. As long as you have water in front and a light behind you.
I love seeing people delight in nature! When I was in elementary school, our [Inuit] teacher let a kid named Jeffrey from Bermuda go outside and see the snow fall for the first time. We were all trying to get him to catch snowflakes on his tongue but he was so excited he couldn’t stop running around and laughing like the girl in this video.
I’ve lived in snowy climates my entire life, and the first snowfall of the season (and the *really* good ones at night, when it’s super quiet and looks like the lampposts are snowing) still feels like that. Snow is wonderful.
Damn isn't it the best? When my kids were young we went for a walk in the woods and just happened to time it perfectly with the first snow of the season. Hearing that snow hit the leaves when it was so calm and silent with them was just magic.
I lose appreciation for it sometimes during the doldrums of winter, especially when I’m digging myself out of my driveway. But more often than not I’m still constantly blow away by the wonder and beauty of winter. I love winter and it’s my least favorite season.
When I take my kids anywhere it is never calm and silent 🥺
I'm an over 50 yr old man. There were little 1 foot tall dustdevils in the driveway outside my office. They looked like they were made entirely of the little white flower petals falling off the bushes. My coworkers gave me odd looks when I told them to check them out. They lasted for almost a half hour. Forming and reforming. I was so enchanted I didn't think to take a video.
I once filmed a plastic bag taken up by the wind in a parking lot.
Is that you middle aged Ricky Fitts?
I was 20 the first time i saw real snow, and it was fucking magical
My college roommate freshman year was from Puerto Rico and had never seen snow. It snowed freshman year, which was actually rare in this part of Texas. He ran outside to play in it while I stayed sleeping in my bunk. He came back a little while later to run his hands under warm water in the sink, while saying, "That stuff is as cold as ice!" Yeah, buddy. It is. LOL
I live in New England and when I was in college we had an exchange student from Pakistan. We took a canoeing class together (yeah it’s one of those types of schools) and she was always so amazed by the water and all of the surroundings I just grew up in. She really helped put things into perspective
I worked at a ski resort in my early twenties, and most of our staff were on a work visa from various locations around the equator (never experiencedsnow). One day, I walked out to go get lunch early in the season, and everyone I could see was standing around with the happiest and most surprised looks on their faces. It was surreal to see everyone standing still staring up at the sky, catching snowflakes on their tongue and with tears of joy in their eyes. The world felt like a better place at that moment because everyone seemed to feel unashamedly giddy. I'll hold onto that feeling forever.
This was my reaction when I first saw autumn, and later snow. I grew up in a tropical place so the only seasons I knew were summer, monsoon(rain) and summer lite. I still get a kick out of fall and winter but I miss storms - the rain is too polite where I live now. I guess you can't have it all.
Lol this was my reaction to a monsoon!
This is close to my reaction when I first saw squirrels when I moved to the US at 11. I had never seen squirrels in France where I was from. Now they are running around nonstop around my house.lol Edit: You guys, I’m not saying there aren’t any squirrels in France; that was 33 yrs ago in Grigny and Courcouronnes France, and I was only a kid. I haven’t been back since so Idk how it is nowadays. I believe the ones saying there are 🐿️🐿️🐿️ in France. I believe you.😄
French tourists *go nuts* for squirrels when they come to Montreal. We have so many of them and different types too: - grey squirrels - black squirrels (a variant of the grey squirrel) - Fox squirrels - red squirrels - chipmunks We even have two species Flying Squirrels (northern and southern)
I always thought chipmunks weren’t squirrels until recently I saw a Reddit post where people were arguing about it and had to google it. Apparently chipmunks are squirrels and idk how to feel about this
> Apparently chipmunks are squirrels and idk how to feel about this It sounds like they're "squirrels" in that they're in the squirrel family. But then so are prairie dogs, marmots, and groundhogs/woodchucks.
Here’s the thing…
Dammit now I'm sad
Squirrel Classic Squirrel Mini Squirrel XL Squirrel XL Budget edition (only available in CA & Eastern US)
In France you would mostly see them in forests or in the countryside and they're very skittish. In Canada I see them everywhere even in populated spaces and they don't hide from humans at all. My Canadian girlfriend makes fun of me because I get excited every time I see one and she's like "... yeah".
I am from a place where squirrel sighting is common and i still get excited. so no worries, they are cool creatures to see.
Never went to Montreal but guilty as fuck when I visited Boston
That was me with Hedgehogs when I visited Europe for the first time. So cute and it’s crazy they just walk around the cities at night!
Excuse me? They have wild hedgehogs?!
Yeah! Blew me away when I saw one crawl out of a bag of chips in Munich when I was walking home from a bar. He tried to get over the curb to go back in the bushes but he was a bit tubby so he was kicking his feet trying to climb up for a while
What do you mean wild? Did you think hedgehogs only existed as domesticated pets?
What is the air speed velocity of an unladen squirrel?
European or African?
What? I don't know that! BWAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh........
Yall have the biggest grey squirrels I have ever seen, coming from Ontario
Oh they chonccc. It’s all the dumpster poutine
There are no squirrels in France?
There is, but mainly ginger squirels, that are hard to see if you aren't looking for them (fast af), and almost impossible to spot in cities, they are not as used to human, and so are really skittish. We don't have (or at least I haven't seen some yet) grey squirels as there is in the US.
I've definitely seen squirrels in western Europe. Then again I'm pretty sure the local squirrel population is being displaced by foreign invaders from the Americas. > The invasive species Grey Squirrel that originates from Northern America is unfortunately displacing the Red Squirrel. This is happening in both Britain and continental Europe, but not in Scandinavia. Guy in Britain thought they would look cool on his estate somewhere during the last century...
[Actually, there's more to it than that](https://www.animalaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/historygreysquirrels.pdf). Red squirrels were hunted to near extinction in Britain when they were declared a pest. A bounty was offered for their tails. They were all but wiped out. >Reds were actively hunted in the New Forest (Hampshire) during the 19th Century; in her book *Squirrels*, Jessica Holm states that in 1889 nearly 2,300 were shot there because they were considered a pest to the timber industry. When Grey squirrels came in - often cited as being imported ornamental curiosities during the Victorian period - they expanded into the void caused by the loss of Reds.
Grey squirrels are common in the UK and are an invasive species that has displaced the red squirrel. It's rare to see the reds in the UK now.
There are plenty. I used to see them roam around on campus in Toulouse (small city of about half a million people in the south of France). I think the "never seen a squirrel before" might be terminally Parisian redditors.
Probably on top of your house too
They do but they're called Royal with Cheese.
Took my bf to the US for the first time last summer and we did a cross-country road-trip. The pure joy and surprise every single time that he saw a squirrel… Priceless.
I have a love and hate relationship with those beautiful bastards. Some of them are just fucking rude. Sir i dont mind your horney little shouts, i dont even mind you ruining my garden and eating everything i planeted, but please sir don't dig into my roof.
... T'as habité où pour ne jamais avoir vu d'écureuils en France ?? J'en vois toutes les semaines.
Putain de citadin de ses morts.
Can I ask where you lived in France? I'm in the UK and unless it's a city centre you'll find them absolutely everywhere. I dont specifically remeber seeing a squirrel last time i was there, but both our wildlife are extremely similar
Did you not see a tree either? Squirrels are super common in France and throughout Europe. Particularly red squirrels.
How? I have seen a shit ton of squirrels in Germany
There are squirrels in France. One was jumping on my trampoline last year. Not nearly as much as in the US though.
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Wait until they see a double rainbow. edit: [double rainbow context video](https://youtu.be/OQSNhk5ICTI?si=x-q3kkLsNXpJv_RF)
All the way. Across the sky!
But what does it mean???
Oh my God!
Ok, [let's start at the beginning](https://youtu.be/OQSNhk5ICTI?si=GE_EreuC2GvbofIm).
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[One last time?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX0D4oZwCsA)
it's starting to look like a triple rainbow!
If you’ve only ever lived in a smog-filled high rise city, you might never see a rainbow.
Thanks for that, I was scratchin my head thinkin... "How does one go their whole adolescent life without seeing a rainbow?" Totally makes sense now.
During the 1994 blackouts in LA people called the police due to weird things in the sky. It was the Milky Way, which was usually not visible due to light pollution.
"Officer, I would like to report the cosmos. They're at our planet's doorfront."
This is how the Cricket Wars started :(
Is that wars that were fought _with_ crickets, wars _between_ crickets, wars _for_ crickets, wars fought with Cricket _bats_, wars fought with _Cricket_ (and, logically, Cricket bats) or wars _about_ Cricket?
... it was a war fought with cricket bats. Robots wielding cricket bats, to be specific. Horrible war, grillions died in it. Fun fact, that is where Earth gets the sport cricket. Which is in rather bad taste, to be honest. Humans...
Moved to the countryside from London and was absolutely amazed at what the night sky actually looks like.
I remember the first time I saw the sky over Northern Corfu in Greece on holiday. Never seen so many stars and I grew up in rural England. I guess there's still a big difference in light pollution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmsvzmE_TYk > I remember a time a bunch of us were in a canyon of the Green River in Wyoming; it was a night like this. And we had our rafts pulled up on the bank an' turned over so we could sleep on 'em, and one of the guys from New York said, "Hey! Look at the smog in the sky! Smog clear out here in the sticks!" And somebody said, "Hey, Joe, that's not smog; that's the Milky Way." > Joe had never seen the Milky Way. (This is actually Chip Davis, btw. He also created Mannheim Steamroller.)
It surprises me that people are surprised that it's really easy to see satellites at night, especially the ISS.
People overestimate how high up space starts and therefore where many satellites are placed. The ISS is 400kms above the surface.
For those used to non-metric, that's (roughly) a 4 hour drive on the highway (250ish miles). Doesn't even get you to the other side of a lot of states in the US.
When I lived in Shanghai you arrive and notice the sky is grey but as we've all seen grey skies on odd days you kinda ignore it. Then months go by and you don't even realise that it's actually affecting your mood. After I'd been in Shanghai after about 6 months I took a trip to Beijing and I was on the train and I distinctly remember the exact moment when the train came out of the smog and suddenly I go see the clear blue sky and the glorious sun and it's rays hitting me on the face. My mood skyrocketed and I realise not seeing the sun had take a good 2-3 points off my default mood. So after that I took frequent weekend trips out for a mood boost.
One of the geoengineering techniques that has been proposed to save the world from climate change is high altitude aerosols that cool down the planet, but also shift the sky from blue towards [white](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/geoengineering-could-turn-skies-white/). This seems like a good example of why that might not be a good idea.
It’s quite sad!
It is, but seeing her excitement makes me happy!
Seeing that adult shush her made me want to vaporize her on the spot. You are outdoors, Ma'am. The teens can be as loud as they like, even if they're not experiencing a joyful life moment.
but they might scare the rainbow
Do you think you could see a rainbow in the cloud of vaporized adult?
I don't think blood is refractive enough to create a rainbow. Maybe a blood arch, but not a rainbow.
For real, is she the fucking excitement police or something? I'd be loud about seeing a rainbow for the first time too!
>Seeing that adult shush her I mean what in the hell was that even about, lol. They're out in a park. Why would this woman be shushing her, and why did she have to get so close while doing it? Almost looked as though the shusher was trying to console her. "Shh, shh, the rainbow can't get you from this distance, just don't make any loud noises or sudden movements."
You can hear her start to address the group and then the girl gets loud again. This is in New Zealand and we just started a new school term, I'm guessing this is an orientation for new international students. The "park" is the school field and it's possible there are classes going on nearby.
Yeah! We should all be more like this.
I feel like they are Highschool or college students. Highschools and middle school in East Asia are brutal. They had to go to school before sunrise and get back well after sunset. So it is possible that they never saw a rainbow if they spent their entire childhood studying.
I didn't see one till I was 18, and I didn't even live in a smoggy place
I'm really curious how. What type of climate did you live in? Or did you just not spend much time outside? I feel like I see a couple each year and assumed it was normal for everyone.
Without doxxing what kind of area did you line in. I live in a city of about 400,000 and I’ve seen TONS, even double rainbows across the sky. Roughly 3 SOLID rainbows a year.
LGBTQ is so heavily censored in China they actually blot out the sky
Saw a double rainbow while in Beijing... so, yeah. Maybe they're from an incredibly arid region?
Yeah I was going to say is this because of pollution or something? Pretty sure rainbows occur all over the globe.
Everyone knows rainbows are famously anti-Chinese.
Rainbows are capitalistic scum. A pot of gold that one short dude hoards for himself? Sounds pretty anti-communist to me comrade.
Yup, rainbows are just sunlight going through water vapor at the proper angle… refraction and all that. Pollution’s a bitch Edit- water droplets, my bad.
You can make your own rainbow on a sunny day with a hose. It's crazy to imagine people never having seen a rainbow...
The fact there are people who have never seen rainbows or fireflies specifically makes me so upset lol.
Fireflies are localized to regions so that one's a little more understandable. Like never seeing snow irl.
Worked at a subway in hs and lady there was from Ecuador. Brother came to visit and it snowed. His face and the subsequent snowball fight was glorious to watch.
California resident all my life. Never seen fireflies in real life. Lots of rainbows though.
really, never? You would not BELIEVE your eyes, if say for instance, 10 million fireflies lit up the world as you fell asleep. (like if you were camping or something I guess)
Younger generations may never get the chance, either. The firefly population is dwindling. Even since I was a kid, the numbers are now far fewer. It's sad.
i moved to the east coast recently and i've seen a few fireflies here and there. everyone i talk to about it says the exact same thing: "there were 100x more when i was a kid..." pretty sad.
Same, same and same. I had no idea fireflies were real until I was an adult. I literally thought it was something made up for movies.
Yeah Ive spent my entire life living in California and Hawaii. Then we went to Wisconsin (where my wife is from) in the summer. I thought I was having a fucking stroke until they explained what all those flashes of light were.
I've seen rainbows in Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai. Which Chinese city are you referring to?
OP clearly has never been to China and is just talking shit. Well it is normal on Reddit.
Not sure they've ever seen rain either or knows how much it cleans even the smoggiest of air.
The \*vast\* majority of China is not smog filled nor high rise filled...
Ah that makes sense I was thinking "damn, did they outlaw rainbows in China or something?"
No, you're thinking Florida
LOL! You know they would if they could.
But... She spoke English with no accent, meaning she prob grew up in the west
If you've ever been to a city with smog (theyre not absent in the US either) you'd know that you absolutely can still see rainbows lol You guys are brainwashed to believe the silliest things
Like in Tokyo, there are people who not only have never seen the sun rise or set behind the horizon, there are people who have never seen the sun rise or set period. It is entirely possible, with a little effort, to live your day to day working life never going outside at all, including commuting to and from work.
They are common in smog filled cities too. All from Shanghai https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kMMAOoNokJg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVaP3HSdBmw https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xsOdhdJkgU8 The distance between observer and the rain droplets reflecting light isn't that far no way smog could block it. Its basically impossible that this girl has never seen a rainbow. What I suspect is happening is their dumb US counterparts think the USA is unique for having rainbows and the Chinese girl is taking the piss.
Fun fact people who live in giant cities like LA and New York with tons of light pollution commonly have never seen the Milky Way. There's been some instances in the past where there's been massive power outages and people freaked out calling 911 because they saw the Milky Way and a lot of stars for the first time in their lives. Completely mind-boggling that things like that are just completely oblivious to some people. I really feel bad that so many people are missing out on so many beautiful things.
Went camping one time, and it was pitch black, but the sky was lit with so many stars. My mouth dropped and couldn't take my eyes off them...it was magical!
China has taken their anti-lgbt policies too far, now they've banned rainbows altogether.
Only explanation!
Are rainbows not a global phenomenon?
No. They originated in Ireland sometime around the time of the celts. They subsequently spread the rainbow to different parts of the western world. During their mass exodus from the island due to the potato famine, it led to rainbows becoming so commonplace throughout the western world that they became taken for granted. The reason the Chinese people are amazed is because there’s no Irish in China and thus no rainbows. tmyk.
Additionally, the Chinese first learned about the phenomenon of rainbow through Venetian merchant and explorer Marco Polo. Reply with CHINA to subscribe for more interesting information regarding the spread of the rainbow to the East.
CHINA
Thank you for subscribing to more fun facts about the spread of the rainbow to the East. Despite the introduction of the rainbow to China through Marco Polo in the 13th century, the Chinese en masse did not experience seeing rainbows until opium and its rainbow-inducing hallucinatory effects were introduced by the British East India Company in the 18th century. Reply with POOH for additional fun facts regarding the journey of the rainbow from the West to the East.
This is why I come to Reddit.
Indeed, rainbows were one of the first navigation devices invented by the ancient Irish tribes to catalog and retrieve their caches of valuables. Passed down through the centuries in secrecy by descendants from Ireland, rainbow technology still eludes most cultures including the top scientists of the world. In fact the Manhattan Project was originally formed to reverse engineer rainbow technology and use it to win World War 2, with Americans theorizing that it could help the Allies locate and destroy all Nazi treasuries in order to bankrupt their war machine. Knowing the true destructive potential of rainbows if used in the wrong way and following a sacred oath to never use rainbows for war, The Irish urged the Americans against this idea, so they researched the far less powerful technology of atomic weapons instead.
Then during WW2 the arms race for rainbows was so intense that the USA no longer allowed the export of rainbows. To protect their horde of rainbows the US military forced a significant volume of rainbows to remain in San Francisco, and Long Beach CA, as well as New York.
You think there's that many pots of gold just laying around?
They are. Rainbows only need (1) moisture in the air to refract the light and (2) a strong source of light at the same time. So in theory a country with very low rain wouldn't get them often, but there would have to be water for humans to survive. Some people are floating around the smog would prevent it. Don't really trust that, but that should be limited to only the most polluted of cities. Equally important, you can easily create a rainbow as an elementary school science experiment. I know because I did in elementary school, and a quick google search yielded these directions: https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/saturday-science-make-a-rainbow So even if there was such a place that couldn't naturally see a rainbow, the effect is easy to replicate. That being said, there are people who just aren't exposed to things. Sometimes its purposeful (I didn't try pork until my 20's because I was raised on a kosher diet) sometimes its just by chance. But yeah, the detail about them being "Chinese students" is extraneous, they're just kids who haven't seen a rainbow before lol.
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probably because its her friend letting her know she's being a little loud
I was just as confused, why is she shushing and consoling her or something (the tapping)? It could be that they don't want to draw attention, but if that's the case, then why?
This reminds me of when I was in the military. Base pre-emptively closed down for snow because we were on the gulf coast and they had absolutely nothing to deal with it. Snow was supposed to start late that night. I remember waking up around the time I normally get up for work to check to make sure it did in fact snow. We got like half an inch. At the time I was in the dorms and it was a U shaped building with a courtyard in the middle. I looked down into the courtyard and you saw 2 very different kinds of people. People like myself (from PA) who had experienced plenty of snow and considered this to barely count. And the people from obviously warmer places who were running around like a bunch of little kids in complete wonder of the whole situation.
similar thing happened to me out in W Texas. It randomly snowed, and being Texas, they were not prepared and the whole base was shut down till it melted around noon. We were in training and at formation that morning, the instructors just told us class was postponed until later. Then they just started pelting us with snow balls while we were still at attention, all confused if we were allowed to fight back or not! It was fun to watch a bunch of people who had never seen snow before experience it. I had seen snow before but grew up in Fl, so the snow was a big deal to me. I was supposed to be answering phones in the office for the instructors, but this big giant sergeant saw me looking wistfully out the window and ordered me to go make snow angels. 100% my silliest day in the military, but one of the best.
Real beauty consists in simple things
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You’ll scare it away!
Fun police :-(
I thought her friend had tears coming down her eyes because she was very excited and she was trying to console her.
She puts her arm around her at the same time. I don't think it's shushing like she's telling her to be quiet but shushing like you do when you're comforting someone who is overwhelmed. The girl in gray seemed like she was in tears because she was so incredibly excited.
Disagree, she's doing that to reinforce her desire for the other girl to quiet down. That's why the other girl does quiet down in the middle of her exclaimation and she looks a little embarassed. You can hear the shushing start two seconds before the camera pans all the way over in fact.
I thought the same , maybe second hand embarrassment , what a shitty friend
I live in china and I saw rainbow many times🙃
Yeah I was trying to understand, because rainbows can occur anywhere.
I was trying to finde someone in the comments, that can tell me why this is related to her beeing chinese in anyway way ?
It's not, really. Chinese people know what rainbows are. The caption tries to make it seem related, but that only really works if you think the entire country is at like 200 AQI 365 days per year. It's 100% believable that this girl as never seen a rainbow in real life before, but that's definitely more of a her thing than a Chinese thing.
Pretty sure it's because of the smog over there isn't it? The reason they haven't seen one? There's a lot of smog I think I've heard.
They have rainbows in China lmao. Even in the smog you can see them.
Yeah what the hell are these comments lmao. They still use oil in china so the sky is brown? Huh??
I have no idea why these Chinese girls were freaking out, lol. It's not like rainbows are exclusive to western countries. I was in China earlier this year. Most days the skies were about as clear as they are in LA.
maybe the scale of the rainbow? They might be able to see them through the buildings but maybe they are excited about seeing one in all its glory. One of the girls even shouted double rainbow.
No you don't understand, after Mao made that quote about women holding up half the sky, the CCP evil-ly took down all the rainbows in the sky (since the other half would clearly be held up by men and not bourgeois rainbows). Source: idk a reddit comment I saw years ago
I heard it was smog. I think smog is the reason. You mentioned smog. I think smog is the correct assumption here. #Smog
Smaug is no joke. He ruled the lonely mountain uncontested for 2 centuries.
You can still see rainbows in every part of China I've been to (Fuzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Dongguan, Shenzhen.) Maybe the video is old? I heard the smog there used to be a lot worse than it is now. Its still not good now, so I can sort of imagine it being hard to see if it was worse.
It's never been that bad permanently lol. I've had a lot of days in China where I couldn't see the ground from my apartment window because of the smog, but even that was just *sometimes.* Other days it's fine.
DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE SKY YEAH YEAAAAAAH SO INTENSE
I had a friend in her 20s that moved to the US mainland from Hawaii that saw hail for the first time. It was pretty cool to see someone experiencing something entirely new to them.
Churrrr Rains plenty in NZ so a few around :)
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"A rainbow is one of the most fantastic phenomena of our natural experience. It symbolizes our insignificance and our dreams of fulfillment. There can be gold at the end of our Rainbows."- Ronnie James Dio
I had projects in Petaluma, California for a couple of years and during the rainy season there were rainbows weekly if not daily. That area is dairy ranches and farms and was so whimsical with baby goats, cows, and sheep running around (with a slight tinge of manure a couple times a year).
They don’t have rainbows in China?
I’m pretty sure they have rainbows in China.
iirc the last batch of rainbows were made around ten years ago
Depending on the region, the smog and pollution of cities like Beijing very rarely if ever have blue sky's. It's always cloud covered and grey, with what looks like fog throughout those cities. So those who live in those regions very rarely would be able to see a rainbow let alone a clear blue sky. When I was there, 2 of the days had patches of blue skies and people were saying that hasn't happened in years. So yeah, it's possible. Edit: To all the people saying it's misinformation. I'm just telling my personal experience in Beijing as well as conversations with locals. I was there 12 years ago. The pollution from the city discolored my mucus when I would blow my nose every morning. So sure I hope that it has become better in the time since.
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Yeah this was my thought as well. I've been in Shanghai and Beijing during rain season and I saw plenty of rainbows even in smog. It's way more likely that she's from somewhere with little rain.
This isn’t true. Yes the air in Beijing is worse than many other cities on average and some days are bad but there are plenty of sunny days. I’m not sure why people told you that blue skies are rare.
the smiles on their faces 🦄
I kinda remember this moment in my life. I lived in the industrial outskirts of Seoul in the late 80s and early 90s. When our family moved to Canada, it blew my mind that the things I saw in movies and picture books were in fact, very real. Green grassy hills, blue sky, rainbows, Sundays breaking through white fluffy clouds, the clear and crisp wind, and seeing miles and miles towards the horizon.