Stuff in the Sky Stuff in the Sky Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay First-time Visitors: Please visit Site Map and Disclaimer . Use "Back" to return here. Scattering Scattering is the process of light bouncing off small particles. There are many kinds of scattering. However, short wavelengths of light (blue) are more effectively scattered because long wavelengths simply pass over particles the same way large ocean waves ignore pebbles. Why the Sky is Blue This turns out to be an amazingly complex problem. If short wavelengths of light are scattered more than long wavelengths, then violet light should be scattered most of all, so why isn't the sky violet? The answer depends on many factors. First, the sun emits the largest amount of light in the green part of the spectrum. There is less blue light than green and less violet light than blue. Second, our eyes have evolved to see the light emitted by the sun, so our eyes are most sensitive in the green part of the spectrum rather than to blue and violet. So we see blue better than violet, and there's more of it to see.

Next, scattering increases toward the violet end of the spectrum, so even though there's more green light in sunlight, less of it gets scattered from the open sky. Violet light gets scattered the most, but it also gets absorbed the most, so some of it never reaches our eyes. Finally, there's the way our eyes respond to mixtures of colors. Sunlight is strongest in the green part of the spectrum, but we don't see the sun as green. We see that mixture of colors as white with a hint of yellow. If we illuminate something with a mix of green, blue and violet light, our brains will process that mix as blue. On the average, a photon of light from blue sky has been scattered just once. If particles are numerous, however, the light may be scattered many times, a phenomenon called multiple scattering. When light has undergone multiple scattering, our eyes get a random mixture of colors from all over, and we see white light. Virtually everything that is white owes its color to multiple scattering: clouds, snow, paper, sugar, salt, beach sand, milk, white paint. Also, since light is scattered so much, the chances of a photon making it all the way through in a straight line are very small.

Small amounts of multiple scattering, as in thin fog, wash out colors and reduce visibility of distant objects. Larger amounts of multiple scattering, as in thick clouds, make the object completely opaque. This is why clouds look dark when they are not sunlit. In the photo at lower right above, even though the salt, sugar and milk are made entirely of substances that are intrinsically transparent, they all cast distinct shadows because scattering prevents light from getting through. Side comment: one material that is very good at scattering light is titanium dioxide. It is a principal ingredient in white paint. Surprisingly, it's also an ingredient in black ink, because any light that gets through the ink is scattered by the titanium dioxide. It helps make the ink opaque. The Setting Sun Red Sun When the sun is setting, it looks red because it is traveling through a long distance of air, and all the shorter wavelengths of light are absorbed or scattered before they reach your eye. The atmosphere also bends or refracts light, so much so that when the setting sun appears to be on the horizon, it has actually set.

This effect is greatest the closer the sun is to the horizon, so that the setting sun appears flattened because light from the bottom of the sun is refracted more than light from the top. The fact that sunlight is reddened and refracted by the earth's atmosphere means that during an eclipse of the moon, reddened sunlight refracted through the earth's atmosphere still strikes the moon. Only once has an eclipse of the sun by earth been photographed from the moon. This astonishing picture, surprisingly, is rarely seen. Taken in 1966 by one of the Surveyor lunar landers, it is the only picture ever taken of a lunar eclipse as seen from the Moon. The Earth is totally eclipsing the sun, but sunlight scattered by the Earth's atmosphere creates a bright ring around the Earth. The Green Flash Not the latest comic book (sorry, graphic novel) super-hero, and not an urban legend as some people claim. It's real. The atmosphere bends different wavelengths differently, just like a prism. This effect is called dispersion. If you look at a very bright star just above the horizon with binoculars, you may see it flicker with different colors because of dispersion.

If the sky is extremely clear at sunset, then the refraction of sunlight may bend red and yellow light into the ground before it gets to your eye, while blue and violet light are scattered or absorbed before they reach you. The last pinpoint of the setting sun may appear green for a second or two. This is rarely seen because it's rare for the horizon to be that clear and unobstructed. You need a very flat horizon, otherwise the sun won't be low enough for dispersion to be effective. A sea horizon would be best, but even on very clear days at sea there is enough haze on the horizon to redden the sun too much. The green flash is often seen in the Arctic and Antarctic because the cold air is very dry and because the sun sets at a grazing angle to the horizon, making the effect last longer. (Around here, try northern Door County after the Bay is frozen.) The green flash above actually appeared as a bright blue-white star on the horizon for a few seconds. Blue is even less common than green and requires extremely clear air. (Small consolation if you want to see green! The sky is blue.) This picture was taken at Palmer Station, Antarctica.

The Earth's Shadow After the sun has set, the sky overhead still looks blue because it is still sunlit and still scattering sunlight. But in the east, the atmosphere is no longer illuminated by the sun. We see the boundary as a rather sharp line between light illuminated sky and dark blue sky. This boundary, which is actually the shadow of the earth cast on the atmosphere, is sometimes called the Girdle of Venus. The earth's shadow is seen here as a blue band grading sharply into pink. Note that the full moon is very close to the boundary, hence exactly opposite the Sun. So it should be no surprise that there was an eclipse of the moon a few hours later. From an airliner, the earth's shadow can be seen sloping down toward the sun. The curvature of the earth's horizon is just barely visible from an airliner at 10 kilometers altitude. On high mountain peaks, not only is the earth's shadow visible, but the shadow of the mountain itself. Crepuscular Rays "Crepuscular" actually means "pertaining to twilight." I heard a talk on mountain lions once that described them as crepuscular.

Fortunately, just because you see crepuscular rays doesn't mean there's a mountain lion lurking nearby. Usually. These rays are most dramatic near sunrise or sunset, hence the name. These wonderfully picturesque rays are due to scattering. Dust or water droplets in the air are illuminated by the sun and scatter sunlight while shadowed areas do not. Light also scatters through the thin edges of clouds, making them bright white, while the same scattering prevents light from penetrating through the thick parts of the clouds, leaving them darkly silhouetted. The rays are actually parallel but appear to radiate away from the sun because of perspective. Crepuscular rays over water are sometimes said to be the sun drawing water up into the clouds. Nonsense. Anti-Crepuscular Rays Now here's some nicely confused terminology. Strictly speaking, anti-crepuscular should mean the opposite of twilight - in other words, rays you see at noon. However, you can only see these from the ground when the anti-solar point is close to the horizon, that is, near sunrise or sunset. Under the right conditions, you can see them from an airplane any time of day.

Actually, these are crepuscular rays that cross the entire sky to converge on the opposite horizon. Again, the rays are parellel and the convergence is a perspective effect. Shadows can penetrate hundreds of miles across the atmosphere, so these rays can be created by clouds or distant mountains far beyond the horizon, up to hundreds of kilometers away. They can occur in a completely cloudless sky. A spectacular set of anti-crepuscular rays. Anti-crepuscular rays seen from an airplane looking down into a hazy sky. Rainbows The poet Keats once lamented that science had explained the rainbow and robbed it of its mystery: There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: We know her woof, her texture; she is given In the dull catalogue of common things. Philosophy will clip an angel�€™s wings. (Lamia. Part ii) As a scientist, I can look at a rainbow and see all the beauty that Keats saw, plus I can see things he could not. For one thing, every single rainbow is unique and no two people ever see exactly the same rainbow. For that matter, you never see the exact same rainbow for more than a split second.

The only thing that matters with a rainbow is the angle between the sun, the drop and your eye. Distance doesn't enter into it at all. So it's possible to see a continuous rainbow formed by droplets from a distant rainstorm, a nearer waterfall, and a nearby fountain. Rainbow over Niagara Falls Even though a rainbow isn't a real physical object, this one can be seen faintly reflected in the water. The explanation is below. In theory a rainbow should make a complete circle. Inverted bows are rarely seen from commercial airliners. To see one, you'd have to be flying through sunlit rain. Here a rain shower is illuminated just right to see that the rainbow also has a lower half. When the sun is high in the sky, rainbows are low. If the sun is higher than 42 degrees, the rainbow is below the horizon. The drops can be any distance away and it is common to see rainbows in front of distant objects. The whole pot of gold business is a reflection of the fact that the rainbow is a purely optical effect and has no real physical location. So you can never get to the end of one.

A rainbow isn't a physically real object, merely a cone of drops that refracts light back to our eyes at a particular angle. Nevertheless, it's possible to see rainbows reflected in water under the right conditions. How can that be? The answer is that it's different drops that produce the reflected rainbow. These drops refract light on a path that would normally miss you completely, except that it's reflected to your eye. Secondary (and Higher?) Rainbows We often see double rainbows, with a fainter bow outside the primary bow and its colors reversed. The secondary bow is formed by light reflected twice within the drops, and is always fainter. After all, any light that exits to form the primary bow is no longer available to form a secondary bow. The fact that the two bows are close together is misleading. Actually, the right side of the primary bow corresponds to the left side of the secondary, and vice versa. That's why the colors are reversed. So is it possible to see a third order or tertiary rainbow? The surprising answer is that the tertiary bow wouldn't be just outside the secondary bow as you'd expect, but back in the direction of the sun.

Light from the primary bow gets bent through 137.5 degrees, light from the secondary bow gets bent 231 degrees. Since we look opposite the sun (180 degrees away) to see a rainbow, the primary bow has a radius of 180 - 137.5 = 42.5 degrees and the secondary bow has a radius of 231 - 180 = 51 degrees. That's why they appear close together. Light from the tertiary bow gets bent 317.5 degrees, so the bow is only 42.5 degrees from the sun. It's in a completely different part of the sky. To see a tertiary bow, you'd have to be looking through rain toward the sun, and there's a lot of glare in that direction. I've tried on several occasions without success. There are a few claimed sightings but no photographs. To make matters worse, the fourth order bow overlaps the third order bow but with reversed colors, meaning anything you do see will be washed out. High order "rainbows" can be observed in the lab. Not the entire bow, but rays of light that have been internally reflected many times.

A drop of water and a laser will do it. Fogbows and Cloud Bows In principle, water droplets in clouds should produce rainbows. In practice, when particles are very tiny, light experiences a process called diffraction that produces colored halos around each droplet. These colored halos smear out any rainbow colors, so all you can see is a diffuse white arc. At left center is a fogbow on distant low clouds. The arc is sharply defined but lacks color. The nearest part of the fog bank is maybe half a mile away, but the horizon is many miles away. Nevertheless, the bow extends right to the horizon. Coronas Coronas are fairly simple. They are colored rings around the sun or moon, caused when water droplets or ice crystals refract light passing through them. The bend angle isn't large so the colors are always very close to the sun or moon. The droplets don't have to be far away to create the effect. A fogged up window pane will do it nicely. Ice Halos Ice can both reflect and refract light and the range of optical effects produced by ice is enormous.

Ice crystals can vary in shape and can produce special effects if the air is still and the ice crystals have some specific orientation. Some of the more common effects are shown below. Halos are due to refraction through the ice crystals. Sun pillars and parhelic circles are due to reflection off vertical and horizontal faces of the ice crystals. These appear when the air is calm because any turbulence would cause the ice crystals to be randomly oriented. This picture, tinted green by window glass, shows a 22 degree halo and a rarely seen small halo. The cause of the small halo is not certain but may be due to unusual crystalline forms of ice that form at extremely low temperatures. Here we have a very intense 22 degree halo and sun dog plus a sun pillar. These are due to wind-blown snow and thus end not far above the horizon. A spectacular sun pillar seen from an aircraft. Flying above a cirrus cloud layer may present the opportunity to observe a halo in the clouds below. Sometimes, thin cirrus layers below your plane will have ice crystals all with similar orientations that reflect the sun like a mirror. Sometimes an anti-sun will be so bright it can even have its own sundogs.

The Glory Air travelers commonly see the shadow of their airplane surrounded by colored rings. This phenomenon, the glory, is fairly complex. When light hits a water droplet at a grazing angle, some of it is refracted into the droplet and some travels along the surface. The refracted light bounces off the back of the droplet and exits on the other side, where it encounters the light traveling along the surface. If the light waves are in step, they add up (called constructive interference). Other waves are out of step and cancel out (called destructive interference). The wavelengths that experience constructive interference show up as colored rings. We can see from this that: Glories only occur in water droplet clouds. If you see one, you know the clouds are made up of water droplets. They are most often seen during takeoffs and landings. They depend on the size of the droplets so are quite variable. If your plane is far from the clouds, it no longer casts a shadow. As seen from the clouds, your plane is silhouetted against the sun, but doesn't cover it. Nevertheless, the glory still appears as a series of colored rings.

In this photo, the glory appears under the wing near the left edge and a faint cloud bow appears extending vertically below the rightmost wing pod. Before air travel, the only way to see this effect was to be on a mountain peak with the sun casting your shadow onto clouds. It was rarely seen. If a group of people observed this effect, each person saw the glory around his own shadow. Some people think the haloes in religious art were inspired by this effect. A mountain in Germany, the Brocken, is a place where this effect occurs frequently because of its foggy weather, and the combination of the observer's shadow and glory is sometimes called the Specter of the Brocken. It sounds simple but the Specter of the Brocken is rarely seen. You need bright sun behind you and thick fog in front. This is the only time in my life I have ever photographed it. Volcanic Effects Large volcanic eruptions eject large amounts of sulfuric acid droplets into the stratosphere. These photos were all taken after the great eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, although smaller eruptions can produce short episodes of these effects. One effect is long-lasting sunset colors extending high into the sky.

Often the colors are light purple, so this effect is called the purple light. Intense sunset colors can persist long after sunset. Bright glare around the sun often grades into the blue sky in a diffuse purplish or brownish halo, called Bishop's Ring. Report your Unusual Phenomena: Unusual Weather Merrimack, NH USA - Monday, October 24, 2011 at 19:05:26 (PDT) A red glow filled the air around 9:48 pm above my house. This glow lit the entire sky then faded into two parts. This glow started out fire red (not the whole sky) just a portion then faded away. I am not aware of how long this took place. Give me an explanation. Flannagan < crystalflannagan a yahoo com > Patrick Springs, VA USA - Monday, October 24, 2011 at 18:56:17 (PDT) My Husband and I witnessed what we thought was odd phenomenon on 10/10/2011.

We were in our back yard,it was very still outside (The wind was not blowing ect.) And suddenly the completely STILL water in our backyard swimming pool began spinning CounterClockWise This lasted for about 1/2 and hour then stopped. I've tried doing searches on the internet to see why this would happen and really have found NO useful information.Anyone know why this would happen ? Or does it mean something Eg.Like an earthguake will occur soon ? Any thoughts ??? Ford, VA USA - Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 08:17:09 (PDT) Negative rainbow. Seen around 4pm on Sept 29, 2011, just west of Woodinville. Rainbow was odd for several reasons: 1. Curve of rainbow -away- from the sun, curvature well defined. Normally curve is a ring or halo around a light source, not a curved arc away from light. 2. Inside was curvature was blue, outer curvature red. Normal rainbow is red inside, blue outside. 3. Sun was fairly low in sky, rainbow near zenith. Outside of the 'sun-dog' angle.

Sun-dogs were present near sun, but nowhere near this thing. 4. No rain, but thin cirrus-type clouds. Nacrescent clouds? I managed to get several photos, and a short video, which I can forward on request. Greg Gallacci < piro bot 668 a gmail com > Kenmore, Wa USA - Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 18:39:18 (PDT) It was about 3:30 today (9-28-11) I heard heavy rain fall to my left, I looked out the front door wich was ahead of me and saw nothing. So I returned and looked out the window to my left and saw heavy rainfall. So I went out side and noticed it was raining hard on just the left side of the house, not even reaching me in the front and maby as far as the back of the house, and it faded off and was barely sprinkling on the neibors house, and about a foot into thier house it had stopped. I guess long story short raining on only my house about a 8-10x8-10 feet area.

Brooke Winn < brookeeesue a hotmail com > Fort Madisn, Ia USA - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 14:00:52 (PDT) I was standing outside at about midnight, and I heard some thunder but saw no lightning. I thought this was strange considering that the thunder was of such a magnitude that it shook the ground vigorously. What happened next is something that is hard to explain, my sister came outside to see the storm and within seconds everything started glowing progressively brighter green, until I could see every detail of my surroundings as though through a night-vision apparatus. I felt a pressure or pushing sensation on my chest and then every light within range of my sight increased in intensity by a great many times and then went black. I can't seem to shake this feeling that this phenomena was not a natural occurrence, there was no lightning, it was as if the light came from all directions and yet from none. Almost as if it was my perception of the night becoming brighter instead... Strange.

ottawa, Canada - Saturday, September 03, 2011 at 22:27:03 (PDT) Early this afternoon while I was sitting at my kitchen table with the blinds opened, I noticed a big flash that was reddish orange in color. it was raining and had some thunder and lightning. Only my children were in their room playing and only that bedroom light went off and then right back on. It didn't happen through out the house, just their room. i'm not sure what it may have been, so I'm looking for some answeres. thank you Christina < rdcrlvr a yahoo com > gladstone , mo USA - Monday, August 22, 2011 at 13:04:37 (PDT) It was 11:45pm in Miami beach. I don't understand what happened.Lightening hit 50 yards away 15 minutes prior. I'm on the 15th floor, I was sitting in my restroom. Playing solitaire for a few minutes.

I heard boom a second later boom, I gazed my eyes up 6feet in front of me a cord to a small lamp I had sitting on the counter top where you wash your hands the cord hung 10inches from the floor resting against the cabinet below and curved up to the electrical outlet. It was swinging 15inches away from the cabinet then hitting the cabinet with a rhythm boom boom once a second. Then the cord came out 20inches strait sideways stayed there 3seconds then slowly (3seconds)came to a rest against the cabinet. That was it, I wasn't scared but confused. My friend an electrician said even a power surge couldn't cause my occurrence. fl USA - Friday, February 11, 2011 at 00:03:11 (PST) To whom it may concern, My name is James and I am contacting you on behalf of a very good friend of mine who was doing Ecological Research in Charters Towers, Australia last year. Storms are quite frequent in this area most evenings and he would spend time watching them of an afternoon/evening. One evening he noticed something quite peculiar and decided to record it.

He managed to capture a very strange weather phenomena which he believes could be an unknown form of lightning or other weather event. As I am in the I.T industry and quite computer savy, he passed the video on to me to see if I could get someone interested enough to have a look and offer some explanation as to what it could be. After doing much research and contacting some people, we have come up with no explanation as to what this could be. After spending countless hours looking, we managed to find other people from around the world who have also recorded this same strange phenomena on video. It is very clear that this is the same type of phenomena. I uploaded my friends videos to YouTube, you can see them here: Other people who have captured the same thing from other countries around the world here: (THIS ONE IS VERY CLEAR) (SAME LOCATION AS THE ONE ABOVE, BUT DIFFERENT CAMERA) We would greatly appreciate it if you can shed some light on this matter. If you do not know what this is then would you mind passing this on to someone else who may be interested?

Thank you very much, James Wood < jimbob80 at gmaildot com > Brisbane, QLD Australia - Sunday, November 08, 2009 at 03:18:43 (PST) Today at around 8 pm i saw a violet light in the sky. Today its very windy here in new orleans so at first i thought that its lightening but then i saw that light all around that part of the sky for few seconds. It wasn't like lightening as they were like sparks. I assumed that it might be highly charged ions but i don't know if one can ever see those like this. Anonymous New Orleans, LA USA - Tuesday, May 03, 2011 at 20:29:14 (PDT) I first want to state that I consider myself as a highly rationale person and I have a great interest in Physics and a PhD degree in engineering. In 2002,a cloudless summer night, I was playing table tennis with my cousin in our garden. There was no trees or plants surrounding us. I felt like it started drizzling and asked my cousin to go inside.

But it was not raining at all, it was only me getting the sprinkled water. We got into the apartment. It went on drizzling only on me. Then I made a couple of experiments. It was apparently nothing to do with being outside or inside. Also, when my cousin was not around me I wasn't getting any drizzle. My family was suspicious about this; to prove them, I dried my back with a towel and then took a short walk with my cousin following behind me. When we were back in a minute, my back was soaked with water. I was amazed with the last thing I saw. I was again sitting in a table with my cousin. He put his head on the table and started to take a nap while I was reading. It suddenly started drizzling on me again, and that time I saw the actual position in the air where the drizzle was coming from. 2 feet above and 1 feet to the right from my head. It was starting from about 3 cm^2 of a plane in the air and looking like an actual rain drops. I am asking anyone for any scientific explanation of this phenomenon I had experienced several years ago and swept underneath the rug until now.

Thanks USA - Sunday, April 24, 2011 at 08:01:56 (PDT) We spent the weekend in Hilton Head , SC. On a tour boat Monday around lunchtime we saw a cloud with really strange colours. The captain said in 32 years of running the tour he had never witnessed anything like it. We were all gobsmacked. The boat was Captain Mark's dolphin tour, started at 11 AM and finished at 1 PM. Aiken, SC USA - Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 21:23:32 (PDT) April 9 2011 12:15 pm kingman arizona THUNDERSNOW!!! helen quinly < hquinly1 at yahoodot com > kingman , az USA - Saturday, April 09, 2011 at 12:27:19 (PDT) There is still snow falling, not much of the winter snow has melted and it is almost April in Alberta. The north Atlantic oscillation?

Global warming Some experts believe the negative North Atlantic Oscillation seen for the past two years has something to do with global warning. Strong warming over the Arctic is melting the sea ice year-round. The heat from the ocean flows into the atmosphere, creating high pressure, which pushes the cold air out. I believe the ice age is slowly going to cover Canada with that high pressureushing the cold air out. Doreen savoie < Dsavoie at telusdot net > USA - Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 16:37:14 (PDT) Timmins Ontario summer 2006 july fireworks et Gillies Lake witnessed by whole city while fireworks were going on a black cloud storm came very swiftly from the north west when about a quarter mile away the storm produces a round circle lightning that stays in a circle for about 5 seconds almost like a spinning motion and then It Imploded on Itself shooting triangular bolts in a circular fashion. All this while the july fireworks were going on, the circle round lightning was like fireworks from god.

Jean-Marc Bolduc < my__people at hotmaildot com > Timmins, Ont Canada - Friday, March 18, 2011 at 14:30:42 (PDT) Look at the NOAA's radar 1/09/2011 from 5:47 am to 6;32 am and look at the area at HWY 45 and farm rd. 646 League City Texas . A front is moving east. As it approaches this cross street, it looks as if something is affecting the front putting out some kind of waves to about a 15 mile radius. Houston, tx USA - Sunday, January 09, 2011 at 05:16:17 (PST) security number is my street address for starters... What's with the weather over the central us atm? huge, unbroken temp line nw to se coming from ne while atmospheric activity moves in from west. all the while, remains of last atmospheric cycle recycling around and even exchanging conditions over great lakes.

Jon Hyneman < thibold at hotmaildot com > evansville, in USA - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 22:29:13 (PST) It may have been a year or two, I saw what looked like Spiral Vortexing Tubular Lightning. It came from fairly high clouds; It started as a huge circular motion of lightning that was round like tubular, in a very large curvature, that in one instant motion spiraled down in a vortex shape, perfectly spiraling, not in any way jaged or sharp, but perfectly vortexing lightning. I clearly remember how it was not like a bolt, but like tube shaped. And that it made a huge instant perfect downward vortex spiral. All along the tubular main beam of lightning was visable little sparkes of flame like effects all along the tubular lightning as it spiraled down. This was high and wide and very amazing and beautiful. Anyone ever heard of this kind of thing? Please email me and share.

Maurice Brown < bullfrogsblues at yahoodot com > Montgomery, TX USA - Monday, October 25, 2010 at 16:21:39 (PDT) friday 13 2010 there is a storm in our area-i am standing in a bedroom within 3 feet of a window-outside this window suddenly i heard a very loud explosion sounds like many explosion within an explosion then a flash of fire like light-as soon as the first one is over another explosion-just like the first one followed by a burst of yellow like light madeline cornett myrtle beach, sc USA - Sunday, August 15, 2010 at 19:50:43 (PDT) A few days ago I was waiting for a storm and standing on my second floor deck. I was looking to the west and I noticed what I first thought was a firefly but more orange. It was at the very top of a spruce tree. I then observed that it was growing in intensity and it was the very tip of the tree slowly burning like a sparkler that had almost burned out.

Soon the adjoining branch tips began to glow/burn as well but without any flames. I thought it was an optical illusion and stepped a couple feet to one side to see if maybe I was confused by the perspective. At this point it had been burning for almost a minute on several of the upward pointing branches. It didn't make any noticeable sound or smoke. I thought it was a good idea to go inside since the tree was only only 15 feet away from me and thought it might be a sign of a coming lightning strike. The next day the treetop was barren of needles but no visible burns. The phenomenon happened right in front of my eyes. The other trees in the row right next to it and even taller did not glow. There was also a power line close to the row of trees but I don't know if that was a factor. Otherwise the thunderstorm was unremarkable and never did the house lose power or get a near strike. Three Rivers, MI USA - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 10:50:48 (PDT) Last fall..

10 to 12 feet in diameter 6 to 8 inches deep saw three within a quarter mile of each other in town along Liberty rd.Eldersburg, Maryland Appear to have been created by small whirl winds.. the local weatherman was no help.. ken t < kthelencbg at yahoodot com > westminster, md USA - Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 18:07:23 (PDT) Last night my boyfriend and I went to Red Top Mountain State Park to watch the sunset. It was about 8:30 pm. We sat on the edge facing a bridge that goes over Lake Allatoona, with Allatoona dam and the marina behind us. We knew that there was suppose to be a storm last night and the following day. But the weather didn't seem too bad and we weren't going to be there long. For about 20 minutes we sat on a rock looking out at the lake and the trees. The wind was starting to pick up but it wasn't that bad. The water seemed to be crashing more than usual but we figured it was the coming storm.

Not until after it became dusky did the wind really scare us. It became almost like a gale, throwing my skirts around and our hair back from our faces. The wind blew like this for maybe 10 minutes. It would slow down occasionally for a matter of seconds then start again. None of this seemed all that weird to us. The winds in North Georgia we knew could be strong. What weirded us out was when the wind completely stopped. There was no gradual slowing of it, just complete silence, which also scared us. We later were in agreement that we both couldn't hear the cars crossing the bridge, or the waves that we could visibly see still moving violently, or even the slight sway of the trees above us. Needless to say we ran to our car and got out of there. There was just something about the wind and the silence that shook us up. Since it happened i've been trying to find a way to explain this phenomenon.

Jessie Temple < dieromantic567 at yahoodot com > Cartersville, GA USA - Monday, May 03, 2010 at 07:04:13 (PDT) If there isn't such a weather phenomena in known science I am proposing one based upon the content of this report. The following occurred at 10:40 p.m. PST on March 16, 2010: While traveling in a car with my significant other along a residential street at the rate of about 30 mph on the way home from an errand, I spotted a perfectly straight line of amber colored light traveling at slow rate of speed toward an illuminated street light. The street light is the conventional sodium type with concrete pole, the variety that casts a yellowish glow. By contrast, the light traveling toward it was an orange-amber light, positioned roughly 3 ft below the level of the street lamp bulb, dense in form with a hard-edged look. As soon as the light "wave", with its tapering edges on either end intersected the bare winter limbs of the tree surrounding the pole, it disappeared as fast as it appeared.

Notes: 1) This light did not shoot across at a rapid clip the way a meteor or lightening bolt might. 2) It did not "switch off" the way a switched-light might. It did not flicker. 3) The light was perfectly parallel to the ground, with no angled "trail" suggesting someone at street level pointing a laser or a flashlight. 4) The street lamp casts a diffuse, wide glow, precluding most forms of reflection. The presence of a physical object should have caused a shadow were a solid object to obstruct the light's path. That was not the case. There was no blocking of light above, rather the light grew somewhat dimmer due to lessening contrast as it entered the direct glow of the street lamp. It began to emerge from beneath the lamp into the tree limbs, where at that point it disappeared. Beneath the light pole was a parked car and a curb. No water or other unusual phenomena below the lamp could have accounted for what we initially saw above the street (left side). 5) The light did not have a flapping or beating characteristic consistent with some sort of animal or insect. It was too narrow, almost pencil-like, perhaps 4 ft in length.

6) Because either end of this light "rod" tapered off and faded out, it gave the impression of possibly following a cylindrical path, as seen from an oblique perspective. 7) The light maintained a level, linear coarse — giving it the appearance of artificiality due to its unwavering geometric form. It had to it a strange weightless, levitating quality that did not look look familiar in any way. The night on which this just occurred is cloudless, unseasonably warm and dry for these waning days of winter. Note also that this is not far from the epicenter of the 4.4 Pico Rivera earthquake and the Whittier Narrows faultline, which also calls into question whether this is weather related or potentially something akin to the "earthquake lights" some people report seeing.

(The locals often refer to sudden, unseasonably dry and warm weather shifts as "earthquake weather", conditions that have prevailed over the past 48 hours here.) Where the above-described phenomena to happen during the day, there would be no means to see it, I suspect, for relative to the intensity of the street lamp it was only modestly brighter but red-orange in hue and therefore appearing somewhat dull in comparison to other light spectrum/sources. My best explanation is to speculate that a series of statically charged, suspended dust particulates aloft emitted this electrical charge in the form of a dull, amber light. That fails to explain the linear appearance, as I would expect a natural phenomena to have a more diffuse, smoke-like characteristic, but it is the best hypothesis I can come up with at this time. According to my Davis weather station humidity earlier today was 20 percent, temps in the mid 80s and winds gusting at 20mph. At the time this occurred nighttime humidity was on the rise, nearing 40 percent, winds calm and temperature 65°F.

The "event", from start to finish, lasted no more than 3-5 seconds, at which point I said, "What in the world is that?" The driver, my SO, said "I don't know, that was really weird." At that point we began to compare notes, at which point we came to appreciate that our accounts of this event are identical. This phenomena is new to us and we hope someone comes up for a logical explanation for it. Anon < jobs at seseervicesdot net > Whittier, CA USA - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 00:02:25 (PDT) A few years ago I was servicing a air conditioner on a commercial building in the Sunnyvale California area. It was sunny and a bit warm so I sat down in the shade with an a/c unit as a back rest. When I looked up I could hardly believe what I was seeing. A roof turban a few feet away was spinning as expected on a hot day but it was doing so about 5 feet off the roof with nothing between it and its base.

It startled me and I shut my eyes and for a few seconds and when I look at it a second time it was on the roof again and spinning as before. This was the only time I have experienced anything like this in my 50 years and I have never used drugs and am a none drinker so I don't have a clue. Another time on a different roof a few years later a strange sputtering sound came down on me from straight up and lasted about 15 seconds. Later in the day a news report mentioned an earthquake had occurred in Los Angeles at the same time I heard the strange noise from the sky in the Mountain View area.

mark < makeeny at hotjunkdot common > USA - Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 22:22:03 (PST) I use to live,at 3rd street,3rd avenue in florida city in 1992.The night sky was very bright,the weather man warned of a direct hit for our area.It was too late to evactuate,so me and three of my friends had to ride out the thing.We all stood in my front yard and gazed east ward,toward turkey point,homestead bay front when all of a sudden we witnessed a pulsating black ball hoovering and flying up in the air mayby 2000to3000 ft.You could see it very plainly,and it was headed straight towards us,it was shooting lighting bolts down at our power plants,you could hear the transformers explode in the distance.Now the hurricane was behind this thing,boiling clouds and loud noises that come with a hurricane.I'll tell you what,it looked like something out of startrack.we watched awe inspiring,scared to death,the winds picked up,it was all we could do,but to head inside the house and get under my king mattress andhold on for

 dear life.Don't know what happened to the black ball.

davey < dwilliams88 at comcastdot net > homestead, fl. USA - Monday, January 11, 2010 at 17:42:14 (PST) In 1970 in Kent Ohio I was walking home in a powerful thunderstorm at night. I was first distracted by low buzzing or crackling sound behind me and when I looked in that direct I saw what I would describe as a small blue-green cloud about the size of a refrigerator. It was moving slowly through the air about 10 meters off the ground in the direction of a telephone pole and eventually struck near the top of the pole causing a transformer on the pole to explode and fall to the ground. After this explosion the cloud was gone. I always assumed that what I saw was "St. Elmo's Fire" but after reading about that phenomenon, what I saw was somewhat different from the description of St. Elmo's Fire in a few ways. First, it appeared to be moving independently through the air towards the top of the telephone pole, not emenating from the pole.

Also, it lasted for what I would estimate to be about 20 seconds then vanished with the explosion of the transformer. I found it quite thrilling and lament that this is apparently a rare occurance that I can't expect ever to see again. Hope this is helpful to anyone who studies this kind of thing. If from this description someone can correctly determine what I saw as either Elmo's Fire, or "Ball Lightning," I'd be pleased to hear it. Thanks, James Stone < greenston at hotmaildot com > Oakland, CA USA - Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 22:24:32 (PST) I have often seen sun dogs indicating ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. In the past month I have also seen inverted rainbows directly overhead twice in the last month; the last one in a seemingly cloudless sky. Obviously something had to be there to refract the suns rays into the rainbow colors I observed so I must theorize there was ice in the atmosphere without visual clouds. Today was another first; two sun dogs accompanied by an inverted rainbow of approx.

30 degree segment; all three each 90 degrees apart placed on a faint large ring around the sun indicating ice crystals in the upper atmosphere....an amazing optical display! wilson < will-lucy at hotmaildot com > bowmansville, pa USA - Friday, December 18, 2009 at 12:40:04 (PST) I was a young child at this time and my family lived in St. Louis, Mo. It was the early sixties, and we were all enjoying a summer vacation day. One of St. Louis's storms began to come up, so we were all racing around to get the barbecue pit moved onto the porch and to collect up the croquet set from the back yard. I was looking towards the side yard when there was a flickering up in the darkening clouds. Just a moment later, this glittering, blue-white arch-like display appeared in the air at the end of our house. It flickered there, slowly rotating for a few seconds, then quietly winked out. I would estimate that it was somewhere around six feet wide and six to nine feet tall.

I have often thought it might have been a form of ball lightning, though I do not know. William L. Adams < wladams at uarkdot edu > Fayetteville, AR USA - Tuesday, October 06, 2009 at 15:37:03 (PDT) First of all, I will say that I am not a believer of UFOs, ghosts or any other strange phenomenon of that type... but my whole life I have not been able to explain or find a similar occurrence since it happened. Background: I'm from Russia, this happened when I was around six years old which puts this event around early-mid 90's. I was laying in bed getting ready to go to sleep. My grandma was sitting by a window and sewing while we were both watching television. It was very dark outside and our curtains were closed. All of a sudden, fairly quickly... almost immediately there was a bright glow coming through the curtains from outside... it was bright yellow, almost lime in color.

My grandma opened a curtain and I could see that all surroundings were lit up by the glow (there was an empty unattended field in front of the house that was relatively large with trees and everything was being hit by the glow)... my grandma told me to stay inside as she went outside to look at what's going on. I should mention, unlike me she is superstitious and what she told was exaggerated. What I do believe is that the clouds looked very odd and were oddly shaped... she said she saw formations that looked like faces that were communicating with her which I have trouble believing :). She also said that that the light or the glow was evenly spread out throughout the sky and did not look like the moon was the source. Other facts: This happened about 140 kilometers from Moscow, I am not sure which direction. It was a farm type village with many farm fields and thick forests surrounding all around in the middle of nowhere. There is a military base not too far away (which of course was my grandma's explanation). There was very drastic weather changes in the past days. If you have any explanation for this strange event, please let me know.

Dmitri < ruso at audio-rusodot com--- > Ellensburg, WA USA - Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 13:46:25 (PDT) i saw something a bit strange in Hartlepool, UK near the marina in a few minutes the sky turned from clear to dark, cloudy with thunder and lighting the strange thing was that the clouds had turned a dull grayish green colour the majority of the lightning was coming from this point which was above the football ground i was close enough to see that the lights were not on i waited and watched from the asda car park which is just across the railway line from it. i can't remember exactly when this was Possibly around 2005 USA - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 11:36:27 (PDT) july 24, 2008, 11pm. bride lake, bc, canada i was about to lie down for the night when i saw a quick flash off my east, south east facing deck. before i tell you what i saw, i will first give you an idea of the setting i was in.

first i live in the country, with many lakes around me it was a hot night i would say around 20 degrees, the sky was clear with many stars, the milky way is also present. it has been dry and hot here for the past week or two and today was also hot no thunder storms. i stood out on my deck when and with in seconds it happened again. the sky would light up quite frequently with flash lightning and within every five minutes there was a ball of light . there was two specific areas where a ball of light would illuminate the first spot was very bright and then it would sort of 'burn off' and the other spot was a smaller ball of light, it was quicker lasting maby 5 seconds. this went on for about 3 hours! all in all i would say i seen about 30 orbs, and countless flashes!

i have never seen an electrical storm in life so i cant say for sure thats what i was seeing, but i thought it was strange because there was no sound, only a couple of times when the larger of orb illuminated i could hear a faint 'puck' sound, it was quite an amzing sight no the less with sky in front being filled with stars and the light show off in the horizon, i would love to get some feed back on the phenomena, what causes "eletrical storms" what are some of similar characteristics of other "light shows?" thanks for reading please feel free to email and where can i report this if it happens again, someone out there must be studying this?! kyuss < kyussfournier at yahoodot ca > bridge lake, canada - Saturday, July 25, 2009 at 13:34:21 (PDT) While I was at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica in 1958 I experienced the following strange phenomenon: I was observing hourly weather during the summer of that year.

The sky was free of clouds, the air dead still, visibility unrestricted, sea level pressure about 1012 millibars, and air temperature was zero degrees Fahrenheit with the standard extremely low relative humidity. I was comfortably dressed in shirt sleeves and on my way back to the weather office. Before reaching the building I received a slight chill but the air remained calm. Within one or two seconds, ice cyrstals in mid air began popping into view and no more than 15 seconds elapsed from the first appearnce of crystal when I couldn't see more than 50 feet in dense ice crystals. Of course that surprised me but an hour later I returned to take the next observation and noticed the crystals had all but disappeared. I checked the thermograph record sitting in the thermoscreen and amazingly saw that the trace plummeted from zero degrees F. to minus fifty degrees F. in less than a minute. The thing that makes this condition so strange is that the air was never in motion.

Gene Boland (Retired USN Senior Chief Aerographer's Mate) Gene Boland < eboland at ec.rrdot com > Wilmington, NC USA - Friday, July 03, 2009 at 11:39:44 (PDT) My experience occurred about 20 years ago. I could not explain it at the time as I had nothing to compare it to; however, when I read about ball lightning a few years afterwards, I was sure this was what I had experienced. One evening we had a thunderstorm. My son, who was about 4 at the time was siting on the toilet. I was standing around the corner in the lounge-room with my other son(about 7 metres away). There was a crash of thunder and with that an incredible noise and a very bright light "exploded" through the window (above the toilet)shot around the corner to where I was standing and "exited" through the television with a very loud bang (the TV went off when this happened). I was left with 2 hysterical children and an experience to date, that no one I have spoken to can relate to.

It was obvious to me that it was lightning, but it entered and exited without leaving a trace. Suzanne Sydney, NSW Australia - Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 03:39:39 (PDT) this is not a report but a comment on some of the unusual weather reports. Double rainbows and rainbows near or during the moon phases are not unusual. They are rare but they do occur based on the amount of mositure droplets or ice crystals in the atmosphere and the refraction of sunlight or moonlight shining thru them this also causes the varied coloration. The ones at night around or near the moon are called Moonbows. Yes i have witnessed both occurances in my life time. Both these topics can be researched on normal weather sites on in weather books.Hope this helps. Roland Mass USA - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 19:19:47 (PDT) Many years ago when I was about 9 yrs. old and living on Long Island lightning came through the kitchen window, past my father, who was seated at the table, and then past the telephone on the wall, making it ring.

I was walking out of the TV/extra room and sensed the energy go by as the phone rang. I only missed being speared by the lightning, I guess, by one step. The force continued on and passed through one of the living room windows without breaking that glass either. Bay Point, CA USA - Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 10:29:07 (PDT) March 4, 2009. About 1 PM. I was walking down Concord Blvd in East Central Concord, California on my way home. That day it was raining off and on and some storms were in the area, so I was watching a dark cloud to the North hoping to see some lightning. I noticed a bright light under the storm cloud, but I can't guess how high up or how far away it was, it appeared nearby, maybe over North Concord, and I was staring at it wondering what the hell it was. Then it drifted to the right slowly and fizzled away within a few seconds. I immediately thought it must have been ball lightning, something I have been fascinated in for a long time, but I never though I would actually witness it.

It was very intensely bright and looked fuzzy almost. I kept watching but saw nothing else, no regular lightning, no thunder, nothing. When I got home I turned on Weatherdot com and looked at the radar showing an area of heavy rain over North Concord and the Straits, East of the Benicia Bridge. Then I checked lightningstormdot com but there were no detected lightning strikes in the area. I am convinced it was the ball lightning phenomenon, as hard as it is to believe I actually saw it. Eric Noakes < ericnoakes at yahoodot com > Concord, CA USA - Wednesday, March 04, 2009 at 23:25:45 (PST) Perhaps 7 yr. ago,I was driving to work in the dark,about 5:30 a.m. near Detroit;it was quite cold [<20F] the air seemed slightly hazy [not unusual-and it was not snowing] and breezeless.

As I left my street, I noticed that all light sources produced a vertical column of light Without Lateral Dispersion; the height of the light columns being proportional to the brightness of the source [ e.g., a bright iodine light at a car dealer's lot was visible for hundreds of feet, an oncoming car's headlights perhaps 50 ft]. Again, there was NO divergence of the beams;the upper light columns were precisely as wide as the width of their light sources at their bases.I suspect tiny nonspherical ice crystals in cold fog were reflecting the light [but this should result in an roughly semi-circular reflected patterns]:was an ambient field orienting crystals? If so,what field [ microwaves?, HAARP?]-In 55 years, I've only observed this once. I'm a doctor, and assure you that this was not from haziness in my corneae. This phenom. persisted throughout a 15 mi. drive, and was not present within the warmed car cabin [I checked].

USA - Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 19:26:07 (PST) 9/2/09 Traveling due south in northern Indianapolis at 11:30 AM today I saw a vertical break in the cloud cover that ran from the horizon to a point where I couldn't see it above my winshield. At first I thought that it looked like a shadow on the clouds. It's appearance is hard to describe. Over a 2 or 3 minute period it rotated to the left until it was horizontal to the earth. During the rotation it maintained a perfectly straight line. You couldn't draw a better line with a ruler or creater a better arc with a compass. This can't be natural.

PL Patrice Lamumba < patrice_lamu##mba at yahoodot com > Indianapolis, IN USA - Friday, January 02, 2009 at 17:19:45 (PST) Got home from work after dark on 11-19-2008 around 6:45 PM and walked onto my porch to look at the stars when i noticed a bunch of lit up clouds in a vertical cylinder shape. the thing that got me was that they weren't moving. After calling my brother that lives a mile away to see if he saw them, which he did, i decided to call SETI. After calling i ran into my house and grabbed my digital rebel and set it to a 5 second no flash setting and took a set of pictures. after looking at them on my computer and sending them to SETI i then looked at the local weather radar and checked out the infared pictures and noticed a large area over my county uncovered by clouds but the whole state was covered with clouds.

still no idea what they are/were heather lewis < heatherlewis777 at yahoodot com!!nnaammhh > kitts hill, ohio USA - Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 19:45:35 (PDT) My father took my beagle outside to use the restroom this evening at about 8:00 pm. He came back inside minutes later with the report of a strange spinning light up in the sky. I followed him back outside, where I stood for ten minutes just looking. The light appeared to have no source whatsoever, and looked as if it was above the clouds. It slowly revolved, and the "center" of the orb changed places almost every time. We have no idea what it was, and would very much like to know, if anyone has any idea. We would like to dismiss the theory of UFOs in favor of scientific theories, but if a UFO is the only "logical" explanation, then so be it. That's all I can get on Google, anyway.

Hannah < almademusica at bellsouthdot net > KY USA - Friday, September 19, 2008 at 18:24:25 (PDT) Unusual weather seems to follow me! Yes I know, it sounds wierd, but I am beginning to believe. In the past 15 years I have traveled across America, back and forth several times. My husband was the first to notice and it is now a 'joke' he points out every time it occurs. For example; In late 1995 we moved to New York to help out his elderly mother. Enroute a tornado nearly took our u-haul as we were driving, and they closed the highway in Colorado as a freak ice storm hit. And after we arrived in NY, then the blizzard of 1996 hit. Moving to the Colorado river area soon after and a severe monsoon condition engulfed the area. The following 10 years the same pattern, I would roll into town and there would be reports on the news of what they would claim was 'unseasonable' storms or heatwaves etc.

Most recently in January of 2008 we were driving to Chicago and while passing through Rollo Missouri, 2 large tornado's hit the area. But as we huddled in the parking lot of a truck stop, they split and passed to either side of us. After our arrival here, this area was hit with the harshest winter storms in over 40 years! I am watching the news this morning, seeing the aftermath of serious storms that hit Indiana, and Chicago. Weather (including tornado's) the residents claim they have never experienced in their lifetime. North of us and below us, yet where I am, just some rain. Is it possible for a person to be a 'storm magnet'? I am beginning to wonder.... USA - Tuesday, August 05, 2008 at 08:56:58 (PDT) sounds all very recognisable. I first noticed light going out after i had a psychotic episode and took serotine drugs, after about a year after i stopped with that, i ocasionally walked or drove by streetlights who would suddenly turn of or on.

The lessions i learned from my episode is to almost never trust my own brain, which is not a very good lesson, i admit. But it's been 8 years, and i just got home turning one streetlight off and the next one on. Still makes me wonder, i've been kind of stressed lately and it was almost impossible both of those lights where faulty. Still don't know what to think of it, i'm merely just curious if the people i spend the evening with saw the same thing, but of course i don't like to be the laughing stock of the whole pub so i'll probarbly never now. T. Kraan < tino at tinonet.nl > Doetinchem, NL - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 14:51:06 (PDT) I wish to report anomalous lightning. The type of lightning I've seen normally accompanies severe thunderstorms, snowstorms and even wind storms. I first observed this lightning about the year 2001-2002. It was a severe lightning storm with very strong lightning strikes bordering the citys of Dallas and Mesquite, Texas.

I saw what appeared to be a shower of electrons, looking much like the pictures of the plume of the volcano of the planet Io, only this plume was: about one hundred feet up; translucent; a blue-green bright color; about 1-2 seconds in duration; with a hollow core; approx. 50 feet tall and 50 feet in circumference. I first thought a transformer had blown but it was not the case as I had just observed only minutes earlier a transformer blowing up on the side of the freeway. No comparison. The plume was much brighter but resembling an electrical short circuits time span. The storm moved away, however, I kept seeing green blue flashes up in the sky with no accompaning plume. I have since seen the blue green flashes on many occasions in the Dallas area accompanying storms. It appears to be the terminus of a lightning strike - as if the ground becomes supercharged and the bolt attempts to discharge into the atmosphere - with the characteristic blue-green plume. I've since moved to Albuquerue, New Mexico and have also observed it here - again during a severe rainstorm. I've also seen a blue-green discharge in the clouds during a snowstorm.

I'm pretty sure now that it sounds just like an electrical short. Most people have passed sighting this phenomena as a transformer blowing up as I was next to photographers on a hill in Albuquerque who were taking pictures. There has absolutely been no coverage of this phenomena. I am of the opinion that these are high-frequency discharges creating this beatiful glow. I'm fairly certain that what I observed was not natural which leads me to believe that this is an artifact of weather manipulation - perhaps H.A.A.R.P.. Interesting that as of July 1, 2008, there were similiar lights that preceded an earthquake in Peru and video taped. Since I'm familiar with such discharges I would like to say that the discharges are EXACTLY the same in color and duration - the only drawback to the videos is that they were taken at a distance. I've come to label them ground aurora's since they resemble an auroral display, albeit, only lasting a second or two and always with a fixed shower of electrons rather than the dynamic display of the northern lights. If others are looking for proof of weather manipulation - this is probably going to be your best lead. I have a B.S.

in Physics and am currently a computer programmer at Central New Mexico Community College. Thanks for letting me post! Larry Leija < jubilatedeo314 at yahoodot com4w2$ > Albuquerque, NM USA - Tuesday, July 01, 2008 at 18:25:56 (PDT) I was walking with my cousin in the Sierra mountan range around Downieville, CA at 5am, it was aout 50 degrees out and windy. The wind was cold and gusty. We were walking alongside a river and suddenly we both felt a HOT strong wind for several seconds. I dont know how hot but it felt like when you open the oven with your face to close. I say it was over 100 degrees hotter thanthe outside air, but this is speculation. Does anybody know what causes this?

Billy < evans813 at yahoodot comjustremovethispart123 > USA - Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 20:18:39 (PDT) Well, about 40 minutes ago I was sat watching television as you do, and the brightest white just lit the conservatory followed by a huge explosion, the house shook and alarms went off. 6 or 7 neighbours congregated in the street, with no explanation, about 5 to 10 minutes later 2 Fire engines were searching around. Something definetly happened, someone suggested BL so I decided to look it up.. and this is where it lead me. Any more questions - email me :) Manchester, UK - Monday, April 07, 2008 at 16:43:57 (PDT) I'm not sure if this was weather phenomena or not. When I was about nine or ten, I notice something very strange in the night sky. I was riding home in my mom'm car. Just as we turned down our street i looked into the sky and notice a dark circular figure.

On that figure was four red bulbs, all equally apart from one another and forming a square. As we moved down the streets it seemed to follow us. I turn to tell my parents but they did not believe me. When i looked back, it was gone. It was the weirdest thing i had ever seen in my life. USA - Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 14:21:56 (PDT) February 10, 2008 3:00 AM I was looking out my window and noticed it had started snowing. The snow was very unusual in that it would come down in 1" to 6" long, mostly thin strings. There were a few that were about 1/4" in width and 3" long. As they were falling they would collapse down to make a flake before hitting the ground. Barb Payne MO USA - Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 16:23:13 (PST) It was a warm late-spring day in central Oklahoma about 25 years ago.

A powerful thunderstorm had roared through, and it was now cloudy and very still outside. I looked out my front window, and suddenly the entire neighborhood.. cars, trees, the entire sky...everything...was enveloped by a green glow. It lasted perhaps 2 seconds. The experience doesn't seem quite the same as any other I've read about. Has anyone had a similar one?

> Norman, OK USA - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 11:49:59 (PST) A friend and i did witness the end of a rainbow and we actually got to drive right through it one site i was in said that there's no rainbow's end HA when we first saw it we took a left a the lights in oromocto headin towards the irvin station on waasis road when we were on waasis i said holy f sher look the rainbow's end i made her speed up n when we caught up to it again it was at then end of the treeline n headed into the golf course field i still told her to speed up to at least go under it then all of a sudden we ended up drivin right throught it's prism it came right for us and another white jeep in front of us Dee M < Agonyl at Yahoodot com > Oromocto, NB Canada - Friday, November 16, 2007 at 11:54:48 (PST) My name is Ellen Bullock and I reside in Las Vegas Nevada and would like to share with you an observation I had in the month of Oct

.

2005. I had been in my backyard doing some gardening in the early afternoon. The morning had started off with blue skies but as usual the planes were making all those chemtrails as some people refer to them.The trails seem to stay and spread out & become clouds. The sky was full of these smaller almost square looking clouds. I quickly became aware of something that looked like cobwebs was falling down out of the sky. Some landed on my clothing and seemed to disapate after a short while.This stuff continued to come down for over 4 hrs. As I continued to watch the patterns of clouds in the sky I saw something even stranger. I saw some movement in the clouds, it was a large defined rectangular area with rows of horizontal flowing ripples in between the borders and it was moving from the northwest to southeast. As I watched it disappear in the distance I suddenly noticed another one exactly as the first moving in the same direction and again I watched it until it was out of sight. They were moving against the wind. They just moved over the clouds all the while keeping the same shape and there was absolutly no sound. It really was very visable for anyone to see.

I could see through it and the clouds behind it and around it were not moving and thats what made it stand out. Can you tell me what i saw or if maybe you know of someone who has seen something similar. Las Vegas, NV USA - Saturday, September 15, 2007 at 19:31:01 (PDT) 0027 alaska standard time Unusually strong auroral events are occurring, right below them is an isolated "thunderstorm" however it is entirely silent with multiple lightning strikes within in the cloud only. No other cloud cover except for that single cloud. It's moving east to west at a normal rate of speed for clouds in this area. Lightning is illuminating the cloud in pinks, greens and blues. It's unusual due to the lack of thunder, the intensity of the lighting and how it's isolated in the one cloud. No rain or any other precipitation. The lightning strikes are in all directions as well. So far only the radio stations are commenting on the event.

raina douglass < raina.douglass at alaskadot net > North Pole, ak USA - Saturday, September 01, 2007 at 01:32:41 (PDT) I saw the most amazing thing this afternoon! Around 4:30 p.m. the sky looked like it might rain. The weather has been sooo hot that I thought it might kick up a good storm. I had left my car windows down, so ran out to the parking lot to put them up. Coming back into my office, I happened to look up into the sky. There was a large ball of brilliant white light that appeared for a split second. Then the light seemed to explode into jagged lightening-like "spokes." There was no thunder, just the bright ball. I had hoped I would hear news reports of others who saw this, but heard nothing. Or, perhaps others had seen it, but like me did not report it. I looked it up on the internet tonight and it is called "ball lightening." Kind of neat.

Deenie Daugherty < deenied at hotmaildot com > USA - Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 21:17:36 (PDT) Our odd event occured during March of 2007. We were traveling back to my (Chuck) apartment. It was around 10 PM. It was a cold night, however the weather wasn't bad. The skies were pretty clear (as we remember as this was months ago). We were driving down Route 3 West towards Clifton when we saw 1 giant bolt of green lightning stretch horizontally across the sky. It happened briefly, but occurred long enough for both of us to look as far as we could to the left and then as far as we could to the right and saw nothing but the lightning. At first it seemed unbelievable to us so we weren't sure if we had actually seen it. It wasn't until she brought up that she saw it that I agreed that I had seen the same thing.

I know that some of the details seem a little bit sketchy because they aren't very specific, however, realize that this was months ago and until we found this website neither of us really had anyone to talk to about it that would believe us. If anyone else has experienced this or has any info to shed light on the situation, please email me. Thank you. Lisa Ostros & Chuck Chobot < dropchucky at aimdot com > Clifton, NJ USA - Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 21:09:26 (PDT) In the winter of 2004 I saw what looked like an electrical discharge of energy. To say that it was Lightning would discredit the uniformity of the charge. If you can visualize what looks like a drop of water in a still pond and watch the wave effect, that is what this discharge of electricity looked like. It was between 1 and 3 a.m.. the climate was cold and the clouds in which it passed through were at about 800 ft. It had been snowing and Im trying to figure out if any one else has seen such a phenomena. perhaps the same event.

For some reason I believe the origin of the discharge might have been the doplar radar tower about 10 miles away giving the diameter of the "anomaly" and the course of its movement... If any one knows of such an event please let me know what it was...

Question: What unusual shape might a rainbow adopt when seen from a plane flying above the clouds?
Answer: Ring