toronto sunset

People in Toronto were blown away by last night's ultra-vibrant sunset

Toronto was treated to another spectacular winter sunset on Sunday evening, prompting locals to lean out their windows or, better yet, slip on some boots and head out into the snow with their cameras.

And it wasn't only beautiful colours turning heads this time around, but accompanying clouds that decorated the sky in various shapes and formations.

While warmer than Saturday, which posted a low of -15 C, Sunday's temperatures stayed below the freezing mark. An abundance of crisp, clear Arctic air like that circulating this weekend is known to make for beautiful winter sunsets.

Interesting cloud formations started catching the attention of onlookers well before the sky exploded into vibrant colours.

Some managed to capture the beauty from the comforts of their condos.

Of course, plenty of winter warriors were already outside when the sunset struck, allowing them to capture unique images from the middle of Lake Ontario and beyond.

Some even braved icy shorelines to get a great snap.

Depending on where in the city one took the sight in from, they would have seen various shades of pink, purple, orange and amber through blanket-like altostratus clouds...

Wispy cirrus and cirrostratus clouds made from ice crystals...

And various combinations of different cloud types rolling through the region.

Pink was the name of the game as the sky began to turn from day to night...

But the show finished out, as it so often does, with an intense, fiery red skyline.

It really was a "pull the car over" type of sunset, as one Instagram user put it.

The surprisingly stunning sunset lent a warm feeling to the end of an otherwise dry, pretty chilly weekend in the city.

Sky shows like these don't happen as much in the winter as we're used to during the summer and autumn months, but when they do appear, they're among the most beautiful people will see all year thanks to their low humidity and other specific atmospheric conditions that allow our eyes to pick up a fuller spectrum of light.

A little pick-me-up from the universe, perhaps, to keep hopes up amid long, harsh winter seasons.

Lead photo by

Marissa Bronfman


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