It's Beginning To Look A lot Like Light Pollution

Santa doesn’t need Rudolph’s nose to find Leamington this Christmas.

For over a year or so, light pollution has been under investigation in the Kingsville/Leamington area. It has been the center of many complaints among its residents.
 
What is often dubbed as the “Leamington Glow”, this occurrence is essentially an orange, yellow or sometimes purple light that illuminates the sky at night due to the heating lamps in greenhouses to stimulate growth during colder months.
 
The greenhouse industry in the area is growing, and so is the amount of attention. The glow has even caught the attention of residents across the border.
 
Channel 4, the local NBC affiliate in Detroit, made a whole news segment about the glow, coining the term “Southern Lights” when discussing them during a segment that aired on November 25.
 
After a few years of resident complaints, enough was enough.
 
According to the Windsor Star, Leamington proposed a bylaw that would require greenhouse owners to install blackout curtains on the walls of their greenhouses by April 2021 and ceilings by October 2021. It also must be closed from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. to block all light from shining on neighbouring properties or into the sky at night.  
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Christmas came early for Leamington because by Tuesday, December 8, Leamington Council passed the bylaw for greenhouses to eliminate 90 percent of the light coming from their facilities between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.
If a greenhouse doesn’t have the proper curtains in place, it will not be allowed to operate the lights and subject to a $1000 fine each day.
 
It looks like the people of Leamington will finally be getting their wish this year. By 2021, the Leamington glow will finally extinguish, and the sky will be dark once again.
 
Tell us in the comments if you can see the lights from where you are, and let us know what you think of the lights and if you’re looking forward to dark skies again in Leamington.