Northern Lights Tonight Fail to Show Up as Social Media Users Discover Their Neighbor’s New RGB Christmas Lights Were the ‘Aurora’ All Along
As excitement built for a rare display of the northern lights tonight, millions of star-gazers took to social media to share their disappointment—only to discover that the vibrant greens and purples flooding their feeds were actually coming from 47-year-old Kevin’s backyard, who had just installed a $30 programmable LED string from Amazon. “I was so ready to post my own northern lights tonight shot,” tweeted one user, “until Kevin’s wife accidentally posted a photo of the broken reflector in their driveway. Now I’ve lost my aurora and my faith in viral astronomy.” The meme irony? We all knew the aurora wasn’t real this time, but we still liked it more than Kevin’s actual lights. Meteorologists are reportedly “not even mad,” just impressed by the influencer marketing potential of a discount lighting display.