Red/blue/orange/white flashes in cloud during storm & super bright white flashes...

So the power went out here about 1am and I went for a drive to see WTF was going on, it was odd how it went out and tried to come back on like 8 times - totally not normal. 1/2 of town was out (location about 90mins west of philly). Talked to town maintenance guy, said they knew about it, he was coming from waste water treatement plant (which has unusually high security, like a lot, for a small town crap treatment facility...). went home, sat for a little and though I saw police lights reflecting off something, but they were coming from the wrong side of street (dark woods), so looked over and it looked like there was a rave in the clouds. I thought it was some kind of missle attack or something (with what has been going on...), and the odd thing is, it was directly over the treatment plant, which has nothing to do with power (thought it could be arcing from turning power back on..). Also, the plant never looses power for some reason, the entire town can go out but it has 70, 400 - 1500w mercury vapor lights on lighting it up brighter than day (damn light pollution, that place kills sky views for miles...)

Edit: I want to add that when I noticed the lights I also noticed an unusually low cloud above the treatment plant. If you have ever seen a cloud front roll across a clear sky, it looked similar to this. I couldn't see how far it extended vertically but the entire town was covered in rain clouds and it was bright enough from street lights & a HUGE parking lot (with 100's of bright lights) to see the low cloud that I'm guessing was about 1/4 - 1/2 mile wide and about 2000-3000ft off the ground. The light was coming from inside the cloud at about 3000-4000ft above ground, and it was clear that it wasn't radiating from the ground and bouncing back down or to the sides, this was very clear about the light. It really looked like missiles or rockets were being fired from within the cloud and even some explosions within it. The response of the transformer (below) made me comment about this b/c I've seen transformer explosions before and this isn't like that at all, though somewhat similar.

So I get out and start video taping, but realize that nothing is showing on the screen but I can see it clear as day, It looked like there was a police car about 3-4,000 ft in the sky surrounded by THICK clouds. Then there would be super bright flashes originating from the cloud, as bright as lightening, lighting the entire viewable area like day time. No sounds whatsoever in fact it was eerily quiet except for the wind and rain. It had started raining again about 20-30 seconds before the lights and wind picked up to 40-50mph (from about 10-15mph), rain was coming down in sheets and then stopped like someone turned off a switch, that is when I got out and started filming. It was still extremely windy and the temp is about 35 or so (about 15 lower than normal).

So these lights lasted about 45-60 seconds and it was truly amazing. The white flashes were caught on camera but none of the other colors showed up, at least not that I can see on the phone screen. They were pulsing back from red, orange, blue and maybe some yellow/green after the blue if it was going to the white flash. Each color lasted about 1/2 second or so and the bright flashes lasted the same and the white flash might pulse 2-4 times before going back to colors.

The worst thing about seeing something like this is not knowing what it is, and wanting to watch it and record video at the same time. Most people complain that there is never video of things like this, but it is damn hard to record and watch and you end up missing some of the best things while recording. I fumbled with my camera for like 20 seconds before it would record and missed a decent amount of the show, which sucks, but I wanted to show others the thing's I've seen b/c I have no clue what they are.

On another note, I've seen really strange stuff above this treatment plant before, like isolated lightening directly above when no other lightening in the clouds as well as some low flying air craft that seem to fly like helicopters but no sound and I'd be able to hear choppers from where I am, they also have a non-standard light identification/strobe pattern, blue/red/white (each light flashes through each color) on 3 locations on the body and it is a really odd pattern unlike any standard airplane or helicopter strobe i've seen. It is more like police light strobes than plane ID/warning strobes. The pulses seen aggressive if that helps you imagine that..

Also, I am sure that these lights were not from the aircraft I have seen before, unless they were 500x brighter for the red/orange/blue and a million times brighter for the white strobe..

I'll get the video posted when I get things up and running from the power outage.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Sounds a lot like a transformer was hit by lightening.

a reply to: dragonridr


When I get the video posted, you'll see that what you posted is somewhat similar in that it is night and a bright light illuminates the surroundings, but what I saw was much brighter (300-500 times brighter) when it pulsed white, than what was in the transformer video. It was similar to when a major lightening flash strikes within a hundred yards of someone and everything is bright as day for a split second. In my case it was like that, but it wasn't the "sharp" light from lightening, it was a softer light because it had the cloud in front of it. Luckily the camera recorded this part but the colored light just didn't show up which I find very odd because it was pretty bright itself.

When I noticed the light, I was sitting in my car and I saw red, orange & blue lights on the wall to my right. The road is also to the right, woods to the left, so there is no source of light from the left to light up the wall. I was really confused and wondered what could be so bright and thought there was a police car off-road. That it when I noticed it was coming from the sky.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

It sounds like it was pretty weird. I'm looking forward to the video.

I've seen a lightening strike from 80-100 feet away. Trust me, it's not something that can easily be mistaken for ANYTHING else if it's a ground strike. It was 25-30 years ago and I can still see it clearly in my mind. It scared the living poop out of me, I can tell you that!

That being said, lightening can do some really heeby stuff, though, without striking the ground.

You said it was 3000-4000ft above the ground, but how far away? As the crow flies, I mean.

a reply to: MteWamp

I have to edit the video as it is ~700mb for some reason. IDK how as it is less than a minute but that is what it shows in my phone, so IDK what to do. Most of the screen is black video so maybe I can put it through a video compression to make it smaller.

As far as lightening, yeah I've seen close strikes, one about 30ft from the house that hit a flag pole out on the deck and it was memorable, especially as a teen. Been through many storm living on the coast and also mid-west which seem to be totally different in how the storms form. This was completely different and the closest thing I've seen as far as the way the lights looked is from video's of Baghdad being bombed but the lights were much above the horizon.

Electrical arcs.

Electricity can produce lots of pretty colors depending on what it arcs off.

Very weird, right?

I've witnessed the same exact phenomenon many years ago in Pine Bush, NY.

originally posted by: HAARPO
Very weird, right?

I've witnessed the same exact phenomenon many years ago in Pine Bush, NY.

Yeah. I thought I was going to see something from the movie "the 5th element" with a flying police car (with lights on) up in the clouds, honestly I thought i was going to see something like that b/c it was so otherworldly.

Big Badda-Boom.

In the ATS thread "The Legacy of Pine Bush, NY" I recounted my experience(s) there.

Here is the link, if curious:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: MteWamp
a reply to: DigginFoTroof

It sounds like it was pretty weird. I'm looking forward to the video.

I've seen a lightening strike from 80-100 feet away. Trust me, it's not something that can easily be mistaken for ANYTHING else if it's a ground strike. It was 25-30 years ago and I can still see it clearly in my mind. It scared the living poop out of me, I can tell you that!

That being said, lightening can do some really heeby stuff, though, without striking the ground.

You said it was 3000-4000ft above the ground, but how far away? As the crow flies, I mean.

I had one 20 feet away. Sitting in the living room when suddenly there is this sharp crisp bang, brilliant white light which made me wonder where I was, and the feeling of time slowing down. Made me feel hot even though I was only wearing a T-shirt. My heart was racing seconds later.

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: MteWamp
a reply to: DigginFoTroof

It sounds like it was pretty weird. I'm looking forward to the video.

I've seen a lightening strike from 80-100 feet away. Trust me, it's not something that can easily be mistaken for ANYTHING else if it's a ground strike. It was 25-30 years ago and I can still see it clearly in my mind. It scared the living poop out of me, I can tell you that!

That being said, lightening can do some really heeby stuff, though, without striking the ground.

You said it was 3000-4000ft above the ground, but how far away? As the crow flies, I mean.

I had one 20 feet away. Sitting in the living room when suddenly there is this sharp crisp bang, brilliant white light which made me wonder where I was, and the feeling of time slowing down. Made me feel hot even though I was only wearing a T-shirt. My heart was racing seconds later.

Oh HELL no. That's WAY too close. Imagine if you had been outside standing in wet grass! You're lucky you didn't get your ticket punched right then and there.

I was on my porch watching for a tornado, and it struck the road by my mailbox. I don't know the exact distance, but it was a damn sight farther than 20 feet! However, I do remember the flash was so bright that I didn't really realize what had happened until the shock wave hit. Almost instantly, but not quite.

I'm embarrassed to admit that there's a pretty good chance I may have screamed like a little girl, and my mind just blocked that part out.

Yeah I hear you when it is that close. There were about 10 of us in the house when it hit and it did feel like a cardiac event and it was a strong summer storm on a large lake, so it had been fed from the hot sun and hot lake all day. I'm thinking it is very much like a tesla coil feeling even though you are not touching anything.