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Canada’s Northernmost Capital Turned Pink for Some Reason

Iqaluit, located on the eastern coast of Baffin Island in Canada's Arctic, is a city of less than 7,000 people. The temporary pink hue was apparently due to something called light scattering.
Photo de Nick Murray/CBC

It's one time where #nofilter really became hard to believe.

But a handful of social media posts from Iqaluit, nearly 4,400 miles north of the equator, showed the city basked in a pink hue on Tuesday.

A post from CBC Nunavut, showing the town looking downright fuchsia, drew commenters acknowledging that they saw a similar phenomenon.

A meteorologist for the CBC says the weird glow is probably thanks to light scattering, caused by the refraction of the setting sun on particles in the atmosphere.

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Iqaluit, located on the eastern coast of Baffin Island in Canada's Arctic, is a city of less than 7,000 people.

The city is facing challenges as global warming strikes the Arctic, disrupting access to water and food. But, as ice thaws through the Northwest Passage, Iqaluit and the region could find itself in the middle of a strategically important shipping route.

That aside, the region is often the venue for stunning and unusual weather and environmental phenomena, like Tuesday's pink dusk.

Pink-hued morning photos of Iqaluit, NU tweeted today by — Jane George (@sikugirl)January 13, 2016

No filter — Sima Sahar Zerehi (@SimaSaharZerehi)January 12, 2016

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