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  1. SummerLightning

    Weird Weather

    Both the Lynmouth and the UAE events were the result of large-scale systems which couldn’t have resulted from cloud seeding, which at best - and this is disputed - works on a local level. Although rare, the mechanisms are well understood and the phenomenal rainfall can be accounted for without...
  2. SummerLightning

    Fortean Headlines

    Viagra and other similar meds can be bought without a prescription in the UK - so they’re already recreational drugs if that’s how people choose to see them.
  3. SummerLightning

    British Bigfoot?

    There’s the South Pond at Midhurst. But it’s not exactly Lake Windermere, and there are lots of houses nearby.
  4. SummerLightning

    Collapsing Terrain: Landslides / Landslips / Rockfalls / Etc.

    Old Roar Gill. Hmm - no clue in the name, then?
  5. SummerLightning

    Megalithic Site / Petroglyph Beneath Lake Michigan?

    It seems there are some doubts about this… https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2019/06/fake-news-researchers-did-not-find-rock-with-carving-mastodon-at-underwater-stonehenge-of-lake-michigan.html
  6. SummerLightning

    Fortean Headlines

    No wonder he looks unhappy...
  7. SummerLightning

    Putin Is Already Dead? Was He Ill?

    As someone with Parkinson’s, the suggestion Putin has the condition (or Parkinsonism, not quite the same thing) seems plausible to me - but the signs aren’t conclusive. Tremor can be caused by quite a few conditions, and steroids aren’t usually prescribed for Parkinson’s - in the West, anyway...
  8. SummerLightning

    A Small Round Ball Of Rock

    It could also be something less deadly. Compare it with these 19th century stone marbles, found by a Thames mudlark and now in the V&A. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1263667/stone-marbles-unknown/
  9. SummerLightning

    Suspected Chinese Spy Pigeon Released After Eight Months: Mumbai Police

    Peta isn’t exactly an unbiased source, but this piece on Taiwanese pigeon racing makes it sound horrendous. It’s no surprise birds go astray and decide to ‘defect’ to a foreign power. https://secure.peta.org.uk/page/18675/action/1?locale=en-GB
  10. SummerLightning

    Latest Reports Of UFO Sightings

    Virtually everything on Wizz Air is Barbie pink, and I suspect the flight attendant was heading in the right direction when she wondered about a reflection of some kind It reminds me that one feature of pilot Ray Bowyer’s 2007 sighting was that the yellow UAP was a good match for the livery of...
  11. SummerLightning

    Car Park Shenanigans

    My car is a delightful shade of what you might call seasick green. So I can’t mistake it for anything else or forget where I left it, even though I might like to.
  12. SummerLightning

    Waste Coffee Grounds Make Concrete 30% Stronger

    Walnut shells have been used in concrete to make factory floors more durable for many years. Many unexpected ingredients find their way into construction materials - like pulped Mills & Boon novels (allegedly) being used in road surfaces.
  13. SummerLightning

    When Satellites Fall (Intentionally Or Otherwise)

    I don’t imagine a satellite would explode either - it’s unlikely much would survive re-entry if had gone into orbit, and they don’t carry fuel or a means of propulsion. Could be a turbine, or perhaps an aerial vehicle such as a drone?
  14. SummerLightning

    Ball Lightning

    Not everyone is convinced about Steve and Karen Alexander - and any doubts about crop circles would surely have to raise similar questions about ‘earth lights’ footage. https://temporarytemples.wordpress.com/
  15. SummerLightning

    Hail & Hailstorms

    Hailstones in Italy have set new European records, with the largest measuring 16cm in diameter. https://weather.com/storms/severe/news/2023-07-26-italy-hail-europe-record
  16. SummerLightning

    Mystery Tremors On Danish Baltic Island Puzzle Scientists

    "... pressure waves from an event in the atmosphere” might suggest a meteor, but I haven't seen a reference to any sightings. Apparently military exercises were taking place in Poland at the time - see...
  17. SummerLightning

    Stenches & Stinks: Foul Odors & Smells (IHTM)

    Demolished in the 1970s, according to this Tweet: The man who put the 'vril' into the eponymous drink was novelist Edward Bulwer Lytton, and thereby hangs a somewhat Fortean tale: https://www.chr.org.uk/anddidthosefeet/bovril-factory-old-street-london/ Bovril memorabilia turned up in Hackney...
  18. SummerLightning

    Oldest Life On Earth (Earliest Organisms; Early Evolution)

    Stromatolites are still with us - and Western Australia is home to one of the few significant surviving colonies: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/stromatolites
  19. SummerLightning

    Meteorites (Meteors That Landed / Impacted)

    Did a meteorite cause a house fire in Nevada County, California? As this video pretty much acknowledges, it's highly unlikely!
  20. SummerLightning

    Latest Reports Of UFO Sightings

    Airline pilots do have a lot of training, but not in the identification of ufos or unusual phenomena. Research suggests they're not great witnesses: see, for example, this piece by Jim Oberg: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna38852385
  21. SummerLightning

    Weird Weather

    Inevitably, wind turbines are an irresistable target for lightning:
  22. SummerLightning

    Flashes Of Light Outside Window

    How far are you from a railway/underground line? Arcing from third rail/overhead lines can be the source of flashes like these in parts of London.
  23. SummerLightning

    Ukraine River Turns Blood Red

    The NGO Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOB) suggests the red colour is the result of contamination by iron oxides from the tailings used as a backfill in a temporary dam repair. A post on CEOB's website also suggests that the redness has been enhanced in some of the photos posted online...
  24. SummerLightning

    Smartphone Oddity: Mystery Photo Setting Itself As My 'Lock Screen'

    Oddly, I've seen that product with the mushroom lid twice tonight - once in a YouTube video, and now in your photograph. As coincidences go, it's utterly trivial, but it's certainly not a thing I've seen before or expect to see every day.
  25. SummerLightning

    Hail & Hailstorms

    Probably the storm of 7 June 1983. Hailstones between 50 and 75mm in diameter (smaller than the Spanish example, but plenty big enough to cause serious damage) were widely reported in Greater Manchester and Cheshire. An area 10km wide and 130km long, stretching from mid Wales to NW England, was...
  26. SummerLightning

    New Types Of Lightning: Sprites, Jets, Elves, etc.

    The credit on the left hand side of the video says it's from the Gemini Observatory, which narrows it down to Hawaii (Gemini North) or Chile (Gemini South). I think it's probably the Hawaii location.
  27. SummerLightning

    Mirages

    More fatuous fata morgana nonsense from the British press, as a 'flying' ship appears off the north Cornwall coast: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11062187/Giant-tanker-appears-hover-sea-Cornwall-cool-optical-illusion-Video.html Maybe we should have a 'things that are not mirages' thread.
  28. SummerLightning

    Mysterious Red Glow Over The Atlantic Leaves Pilot Baffled

    Here's a promotional video for LEDs used for saury fishing, which are likely to be behind the 'red glow':
  29. SummerLightning

    Mystery Booms From The Sky (Skyquakes)

    The quarry at Penmaenmawr (next door to Llanfairfechan) has apparently been as regular as clockwork for many years: https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/mysterious-big-ben-north-wales-23757688
  30. SummerLightning

    Meteors & Meteoric Fireballs (Observed Aloft)

    That makes sense - there were a few reports of a sonic boom with that one, and its trajectory took it across the SW peninsula (source: ukmeteornetwork.co.uk):
  31. SummerLightning

    Weird Weather

    The Pennal incident has been confirmed as a tornado - quite a strong one by British standards. Site investigation and photos by John Mason here: https://www.geologywales.co.uk/storms/april-2022-tornado-pennal.htm
  32. SummerLightning

    Mystery Booms From The Sky (Skyquakes)

    A sonic boom may well have accompanied a meteor seen and allegedly heard over southern and south-western England on 19 March: https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/meteor-seen-flying-over-west-6830396 (The picture in the article shows Bristol, not Bath as stated in the caption).
  33. SummerLightning

    Weird Weather

    These episodes are quite common in the UK - the Met Office says they happen 'several times a year', though that sounds like an overstatement to me and usually the amounts of dust that fall out in rain or reduce visibility are unlikely to be noticed by most people. This latest event was caused by...
  34. SummerLightning

    British Or Irish Reached Remote Faroe Islands Before Vikings

    Archaelogical evidence hinting at pre-Viking settlement of the Faroes seems to have been published in early 2013: https://sciencenordic.com/agriculture-agriculture--fisheries-archaeology/new-signs-of-pre-viking-life-on-the-faroe-islands/1381829
  35. SummerLightning

    Strange Sounds In The Sky!

    Our local press are excited about a 'skyquake' - it was a long roll of thunder, says the Met Office (the simultaneous observation of lightning being a rather large clue): https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/homes-across-somerset-vibrate-skyquake-6320011
  36. SummerLightning

    Mystery Booms From The Sky (Skyquakes)

    Even noises that should be familiar seem to baffle some people. We regularly hear booms from the army's tank and artillery ranges on Salisbury Plain, about 20 miles away. They can propagate a long distance on a still day, and can be amplified or muffled by topographical features - hills, valleys...
  37. SummerLightning

    Strange Green Light Appears In Sky During Storm

    There's a thread on Metabunk about this: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/explained-unexplained-green-light-during-thunderstorm-water-on-lens-caustics.10242/
  38. SummerLightning

    Italian Pyramids?

    There's more on the Italian pyramids on the Modern Explorers YouTube channel - this is part 1 of 3:
  39. SummerLightning

    Wild Winds: Twisters, Tornados, Dust Devils, Whirlwinds & Waterspouts

    The Gateshead 'tornado' certainly looked like and behaved like a dust devil, but the dynamics in the area at the time were if anything more supportive of a weak convergence zone tornado. Sadly the video doesn't give us any idea of whether this was a funnel cloud that touched down, or a...
  40. SummerLightning

    Eburacum's Own Sighting (1966; Eastern London Suburbs)

    You don't remember the date, do you? Something very similar was seen over a large area of Essex on the morning of 1 July 1966, when I was nearly 12. I witnessed this, and I keep meaning to do some further research. I was in NW Essex, but what appears to have been the same object was also seen...
  41. SummerLightning

    Weird Weather

    I'm assuming it was cloudy at the time? It looks to me like lights reflected off a low cloud base. Is there a strong source of illumination in that direction - such as floodlights from a sports ground or an industrial site?
  42. SummerLightning

    Meteors & Meteoric Fireballs (Observed Aloft)

    Looks like an aircraft contrail to me - or a passing dragon.
  43. SummerLightning

    Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

    It's difficult to explain if the egg was in the middle of a dense mat of material, but hens will certainly lay in pots of plants. Many years ago, I visited a friend who kept rare breeds of chickens, and a hen was happily sitting on eggs in a hanging basket outside the front door. Some sources...
  44. SummerLightning

    Weird Weather

    Mediterranean 'episodes' like this aren't a rarity in southern France during the autumn and winter months, but the one associated with Storm Alex was astonishing in its severity - 500.2 mm of rain in 24 hours at Saint-Martin-Vésubie in Alpes-Maritimes, an all-time record daily fall for the...
  45. SummerLightning

    Somerset UFO footage

    I remember seeing that some years ago. I think it's safe to say it's not what it purports to be or what we might like it to be. One of those involved in the filming, Rod Dickinson, is an artist whose work on creating crop circles is well-known. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Dickinson...
  46. SummerLightning

    New Types Of Lightning: Sprites, Jets, Elves, etc.

    I doubt that photo shows anything of the kind. Sprites are not that persistent - they last for milliseconds, not five minutes. They're also high in the troposphere (30 miles or more): these seem to be in front of the clouds. A storm producing sprites wouldn't necessarily be visible - it could...
  47. SummerLightning

    Lost & Found

    Maybe you're thinking of former BBC and ITN newsreader Julia Somerville, who in 1995 was arrested, together with her husband Sir Jeremy Dixon, after photos they sent to Boots for processing were found to include one of her daughter naked in a bathtub. It was an innocent bathtime photo...
  48. SummerLightning

    U.K. UFOs

    I'm sure Elon Musk had nothing to do with it. Looks suspiciously like a reflection from a ceiling light fitting inside her house.
  49. SummerLightning

    Invasive Species

    Alligator snapping turtles released into the Canal du Midi in France: https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Dangerous-exotic-turtles-found-in-France-Toulouse?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork
  50. SummerLightning

    The Coventry Cubes

    They're modern, and they're a religious offering. Some similar items are found in the Thames at Richmond in this mudlarking video:
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