The Sky Suddenly Glowed Green...

Wondering if anybody has any ideas on what this could have been?

Well to start it off, I live in the Central valley of California, and man are we finally getting some good rain. I'd say it's been a steady flow now for about 2 or 3 hours, and I'm absolutely loving it. So i just had to be outside, to soak-in the beauty of mother nature and cause Im not sure when it'll rain here again. So I was in my backyard - that faces East - and im getting ready to put out my cigarette and head inside. I'm looking up into the sky nd taking my final drag when suddenly, the entire sky in front of me glowed a bright-greenish hue. It had gotten brighter before fading away. I saw this happen twice within 20 seconds and after that, I haven't seen it since. Its weird cause there hasn't been any thunder or lightning to blame it on? There was no sound when it happened, too. Another thing that was also weird, was that the rain died down to a light sprinkle afterwards.

I've seen something somewhat like this before, about a year or two ago - while also in my backyard during a storm - but the colors were purple and orange. One of my friends was over at the time and had seen it too, and actually got a video of it.

Well I hope to see it again, as well as get a video of it this time so that I may share this...visually interesting experience, with all of you.

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

Typically, during a storm especially, bright colors in the sky are the result of ice crystals in the storm interfering with the normal refraction process. A blue sky is only blue because the atmosphere refracts the light so that the color blue is scattered more diversely than the other colors; the atmosphere itself is transparent and has no color.

In a storm, ice crystals can overpower that normal atmospheric refraction. It's common around here for a storm to turn everything yellow (and it's kind of eerie, too). Yellow skies have come to be accepted around here as an indication of potential hail. The same way, although it is rare, there can be enough ice in the atmosphere to shift the refraction even more, resulting in a green sky. Green is one primary color away from yellow.

Yellow skies also mean a decent possibility of tornadoes (which are often accompanied by hail)... green means even worse. You likely dodged a bullet, as the storm apparently didn't continue to develop. Not all severe weather touches the ground.

Too bad you didn't get it on tape... it can be an awesome sight!

TheRedneck

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

it seems something untoward is going on. If you go to the project camelot page you will see a photo in which there is something burning with a blue flame.

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

was it at night ?
Could it had been the northern lights popping out?
I dont know how far south they are visible. But up here in the north,
we can see them almost any night.

Check if there was any geomagnetic storms that could of been visible from your area as well.

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

There are very informed ATS members in the aviation forum, some of them might be able to help

There are a few threads about the lady that burns green.

I’ve seen exactly the same, with the same weather conditions.
My green glow was due to a meteor shower that was taking place, cloud cover reflected the green, so it looked insane.

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

Thank you for sharing this. It definitely seems interesting the way it got brighter and then died down, like a sudden event rather than ambient steady colors like we see during sunsets...and then it happened again within 20 minutes.

Probably a power transformer arcing. Sometimes it's a green flash and nothing. Other times it varies in brightness and color. And in your case, sometimes it's steady before it goes dead.

This is common, especially during high winds, heavy rains, icing conditions, or thunderstorms.

Did it look like this? WARNING: a few F-bombs here.

www.youtube.com...

originally posted by: TheTruthRocks
Probably a power transformer arcing. Sometimes it's a green flash and nothing. Other times it varies in brightness and color. And in your case, sometimes it's steady before it goes dead.

This is common, especially during high winds, heavy rains, icing conditions, or thunderstorms.

Did it look like this? WARNING: a few F-bombs here.

www.youtube.com...

I will second that. This happened with me as well going down Rt3 near Plymouth MA. All of a sudden the entire sky went green, flashed a few seconds, went out, and then back again. After I cleared the trees off the road, I could see a green fire ball near the town. It was an exploding transformer.

a reply to: LtFluffyCakes96

I saw the very same here in Scotland and after a little research it turns out it was a form of lightening that happens without thunder. It needs the right conditions and is usually associated with snow, if I remember correctly.

Can second the transformer explanation from personal experiences. Definitely gets one's attention. I have also seen something very similar, but a bit different, during an electrical storm that I would be inclined to say might have been lightning of some sort (or possibly yet another transformer).