SMOKY SUNSET Taken by Laura Kranich on August 22, 2017 @ Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Yesterday when I left the house in the morning I saw a strange haze in the sky. I then thought, it might be aerosols from the wildfires on the North American continent. On the satellite images one could see a broad band of thin clouds moving over Germany from northwest towards southeast. When sunset was near, I went outside again to a bridge over the Kiel Canal because I suggested that a nice sunset was in the offing.

I could already see this strange white to grey haze again, with fine structures, lines and waves and the sun was surrounded by a beautiful orange light long before it finally set. After the sun had set the real show began. The sky began glowing in an eerie yellow, then orange and finally red tone which was so intense, bright and colorful that Im pretty sure Ive never seen something like that before. Everything behind me was glowing in bright orange light. I had to use my fisheye and ultra wide angle lens to capture the whole scene, as the colors were stretching to almost 180 degrees wide before me.