content: Scientifically - this normally happens in arctic and very cold regions, and with any source of light, too - city lights on horizon, the moon. When N. America gets these cold waves we been getting, it tends to happen and the photography is beautiful. "A sun pillar is a vertical shaft of light extending upward or downward from the sun. Typically seen during sunrise or sunset, sun pillars form when sunlight reflects off the surfaces of falling ice crystals associated with thin, high-level clouds (like cirrostratus clouds)."