Last night in my area, Zurich Oberland, was extremely bright. I had clear visibility for at least 100m. This was most unusual, at 10pm, it was still dark as ever, then at about 10:45 the entire neighborhood lit up. The sky was overcast, and the snow stopped falling.
It was really strange, full moon is not until 09 January.

On 19th October, a bright falling Meteorite was seen over Bubikon ( 8km from my town)

Has anyone noticed the same phenomena?

..I did some light reading right around that time. Maybe it was the light from my nightstand.

Maybe it was from your halo, you must remember to turn the damn thing off at night!

..true, but I like to spice things up some times.

Getting back to my question, so it wasnt unusually bright in Olten last night?
And I mean outside....

..I wouldn't know, but the day before, right after it snowed it was bright just as you mentioned it. A clear, crips star filled sky....it sure was pretty.

What you were seeing was the snow reflecting light. I love when it does this as I find it very romantic. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

yes, that is what my hubby said, but it was as dark as ever earlier, and I am pretty sure about this because I was painting next to a window without curtains.

Its darker when its clear. When it became overcast the lights reflected down thus making it more bright even though it was more cloudy. I love this phenomenon as I said before the light is almost magical.

The night looked brighter than an hour before because it had stopped snowing. Once it's on the ground snow makes things brighter, but while it's falling it does block out a lot of light. Think of the difference in brightness between an overcast-but-dry day and heavy rain - snow's the same. We don't always notice it (probably because we assume snow=white=bright) but you can sure see the difference when it stops, even at night.


The night looked brighter than usual because you had a combination of snow on the ground and low overcast skies. These work together to reflect whatever light there is back and forth between them. A clear moonless night, or an overcast night without snow on the ground, would have been darker.

A layer of snow in a built-up or forested area also enhances contrast - walls of houses and undersides of tree branches are dark, roofs and tops of branches are white, etc. When we can see better for any reason, we tend to feel that it's brighter.

I do find it depressing to read that there is such a down to earth logical explanation for something pretty.

Not quite! As it turns out, mathnut is completely wrong this time. See, it usually snows when the snow fairy sprinkles her magic dust into the wind...this causes the atmosphere to cool down and clean the air of unwanted negative energy...giving it this clear, crisp magical feel to everything. During the cleansing period, time stops and all white noise is cancelled out, as they're only insignificant manmade instruments which entrap us in our daily routine....ehm, yeah ...I will...I will lay of the caffeine for a while.

Its also much more quite when it snows. Which is why it is useless to scream out if your ever trapped in a blizzard as no one will hear you.

Wow that must be some kind of light that I could see it all the way to Zug

Its a well known urban myth that loving ones self causes blindness.

Not if you close your eyes...or so I've heard.

Thst's sweet.

Wow LIB,quite a fairy tale you were reading last night!

It's been very bright at night last few nights - combination of snow reflecting the just waning full moon.