Orange lightning

I woke in the early hours last night to see flashes of orange light through the curtains. I initially thought a neighbour's hazzard lights had gone off but going outside to investigate (I did dress first!) I saw the sky to the South being lit by these flashes which appeared to be lightning but I could hear no thunder and there was no rain. Slowly the "storm" moved eastwards and into the distance. Apparently (I read up on it later) orange lightning is a known phenomena caused by Rayleigh scattering, named after the British physicist Lord Rayleigh and is the scattering of light or other electromagnetic radiation by particles much smaller than the wavelength of the radiation.

I enthralled by this display, I stood watching for some time. When I looked down I was surprised to see a hedgehog had snuggled up to my foot!

Alf