Traditional Beltane fires seen by Metop

Traditional Beltane fires seen by Metop

30 April 2015 19:54 UTC

Traditional Beltane fires seen by Metop
Traditional Beltane fires seen by Metop

Hotspots from balefires in parts of Europe could be seen on the Metop image from 30 April.

Last Updated

15 September 2022

Published on

30 April 2015

By Martin Setvak (CHMI)

This is a folklore tradition in many parts of Europe (parts of Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Sweden) of lighting fires on the evening of 30 April.

Metop-A Night Cloud Microphysics, 30 April 19:54 UTC
Figure 1: Metop-A Night Cloud Microphysics, 30 April 19:54 UTC

This tradition is probably from Celtic origin (or maybe even older) and is related to the Celtic holiday called Beltane .

On the Metop-A Night Microphysics RGB the fires can be seen as red spots, particularly clustered in Germany.