Following the storms, the sky transformed into eerie hues of red, pink, orange and green. National Weather Service meteorologist David King said the phenomenon occurs when water vapor in the sky scatters sunlight, which can have unique effects at sunset.

“It all comes down to the angle,” he said. “It’s not necessarily specific to the fact that we had storms yesterday, so much as it is the sun angle that it’s coming through and the amount of clouds available.”

Crystal Lake resident Andrew Zydell described the sight that occurred around 8 p.m. Thursday as akin to “looking through a filter” – but there was no color filter on the stunning photo he shot above the city.

“It didn’t look real. It looked very surreal,” he said. “It looked something out of a science fiction movie, or something that was not normal.”

Zydell compared the effect to when the Canadian wildfires in 2023 created an overcast haze over the skies.