Purple haze in the sky over Delta, B.C., inspires awe, curiosity and questions

A purple haze in the sky above Metro Vancouver is shown in this undated handout photo captured by local resident Catherine Latremouille. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — Catherine Latremouille (Mandatory Credit)

On the darkest nights of winter when the cloud cover is just right, there’s a purple haze above parts of Metro Vancouver and it has nothing to do with Christmas or Jimi Hendrix.

Cathy Latremouille said she looked outside her Crescent Beach home in Surrey on Friday night to see what looked like a “great big candy floss sky.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Latremouille. “It’s a good thing I don’t face south, I would have thought the United States was going up in flames.”

The magenta glow was a puzzle.

“I don’t think the aliens were landing, or anything,” chuckled Latremouille, a retired broadcaster.

She asked the question as she posted a photo on Facebook and most agreed that the glow was coming from the greenhouses across Boundary Bay from her home.

Greenhouse produce grower Windset Farms said in a statement that there are a number of greenhouses in the Lower Mainland that use the colourful LED lights, but their greenhouses are equipped with light abatement screens to keep the light inside when it’s dark.

“This is something we implemented, but it is not mandatory in the area,” the statement says.

Delta Mayor George Harvie has had a long history with the greenhouse lights in his community.

As the city manager more than two decades ago, Harvie said he reached out to the provincial government about the beacon of light the greenhouses throw out at night but was rebuffed.

Harvie said some people may not be happy with the lights but they are legal, and the COVID pandemic has taught them that local food production is extremely critical.

“Be honest with you, we don’t get many complaints,” said Harvie.

Ian Paton, the B.C. Conservative member of the legislature for Delta-South, said in an interview that he is starting to get complaints from some residents in the area.

Paton’s family has a farm next to the Boundary Bay Airport in Delta and said one of the greenhouses that emits the purple light is just a few kilometres away.

“We see it every night,” he said.

Other greenhouses in the area are also lighting up the sky, but those lights are more natural, he said in an interview.

“You know, they could put some kind of shade on top of their windows so that the light stays inside the greenhouse instead of going outside,” Paton said.

The Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says on its website that the full spectrum LED can combine red, blue and amber lighting to encourage plants to make their own nutrients.

The department says the LEDs not only increase plant yield, but can significantly improve nutritional quality.

The colourful lights didn’t bother Latremouille.

“We’ve got all the houses lit up with beautiful lights around here, too. I thought, oh, that’s just one more,” she said.

She admits to some worry about the strange lights, adding it was good to get an explanation on social media.

“Anything’s possible nowadays. I just kind of, you know, you get to be my age. It’s all weird,” she said.

This report by Nono Shen, The Canadian Press, was first published Dec, 23, 2025.