• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Daytime Darkness Events (New England 'Dark Day', etc.)

Carole wrote:
I remember reading in the paper afterwards that there had been a cloud cover about 5 miles thick which had caused this darkness.

Emps quoted a report:
Day turned to night across Shenyang when a freak cloud formation 8,000 metres deep blanketed the northeastern city.

Curiously (or not) 5 miles = 8 km = 8000 metres....

I wonder if that's a standard thickness for this phenomenon?
 
I remember being in school in Birmingham around 1983-1984 and one bright and normal day it suddenly get as dark as night in about 5 minutes.

Suddenly there was the most violent storm I have ever seen. There must have been about 2 or 3 lightning strikes per second, most of which we could see connecting with the ground. We watched from our science room window as a particularly large a bright bolt hit the road just in from of a moving car which quickly stopped (obviously the driver must have been pooping it!). It all lasted for about 20 minutes and many of the kids were scared.

Afterwards, many parts of the school were flooded and in a couple of places the roof had caved it. Apparently the storm was pretty localised as my mom could see it from our house about 1 & half miles away but they had no rain or thunderbolts there.
 
dark day

A recent storm triggered off in me a lost childhood memory. I would estimate the time to be somewhere between 1968 and 1970.Another boring day in my Manchester comprehensive school seemed set to unfold. By lunchtime, the dull leaden skies began to darken rapidly,but not in the manner of a thunderstorm with swirling black clouds, it was just a case of the grey sky getting darker.Early afternoon,all thoughts of lessons were forgotten as the light disappeared and conditions became as black as night. I cannot remember the time of year but I know the event was unseasonal because the headmaster let us leave school early due to lack of streetlights.Does anyone remember this event?
 
I wans't even born yet and when I was born, I was In Canada so I didn't see the darkness. However, sounds like a solar eclipse to me.
 
Yup, I remember our whole class going out to watch an eclipse equiped with small sheets of dark blue glass. Would've been early '70's.
 
When I was only about eight years old, so that would make it around 1968, I was living in Oldham, just a few short miles from Manchester. I remember being out on the street playing a game with my friend Dennis, when the sky grew very dark, much darker than when a storm is gathering. My dad called me into the house, believing a large thunderstorm was about to break out. The wind picked up but nothing like the strong winds that usually blow during a storm.

We sat in the house with the lights on, but the storm never came. It was an eerie experience. My dad passed the time telling me about a great storm that had taken place when he was a young boy, when the day turned as dark as night. Apparently in the 1930’s lightening had struck Oldham Parish Church, destroying a wall in the graveyard and bones were washed out into the street.

Whilst the wall was being rebuilt, a night watchman was employed to guard the cemetery, and dad, as a small boy, clearly remembers the watchman being joined by the local townsfolk as he said prayers before starting his vigil.

That day in the late sixties when the sky grew dark enough to turn day into night has stayed in my memory, partly through recalling dad’s grim tale. I think the light returned to normal about one hour later. Being the late sixties and Apollo years of manned space exploration, I was a keen moon watcher back then, so if this odd darkness had been due to the eclipse, then I am certain that I would have made the connection.

However, thank you ingham, because to date you are the only other person that I have found who seems to remember the incident.
 
I'd have to say eclipse, too, but since your dad didn't say that's what it was and the teachers sent everyone home, it's a puzzle. I mean, eclipses don't last THAT long so why would they send the kids home? Why not just wait it out? Thinking about it, I'd say it must have been something else. But what? Also, isn't there somewhere online you can find out when solar eclipses take place? Let's see what I can find. Be back soon.
 
Okay, apparently, there were two solar eclipses each in 1968, 69 and 70. They only give longitude and latitude, not actual locations (like Manchester) but the longest any of them lasted was 3 minutes! Definitely not a reason to send kids home. I mean, you'd barely have time to register it WAS an eclipse and it would be over! So, what was it, really? Hmmm. :confused:
 
Well, I know England and Florida are a bit of a distance, but hereabouts, we get odd weather phenomena all the time. The sky will grow hideously dark, or everything turns a yellowish sickly colour. Sometimes no rain accompanies, just a high wind. And even here wherre I have seen it throughout my life, it still strikes me as a bit-- well, very weird. It's just nature, however.
I think it was probably just a really freaky weather thing.
 
I used to work in a weather office managing computers in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. (Still live here but don't work there.)

One afternoon I was there alone but for one of the meterologists.

I noticed that the sky had gotten a little dark but thought nothing of it.

Just then, the meterologist came back to my office and said, "Watch out your window and you'll see something really cool. In about 5 minutes, a wall of dust is going to roll through."

'Cool' to a nerdy weather guy is a sort of relative thing so I didn't really think anything of it.

About five minutes later I looked out the window and gasped as I saw a literal and quite massive wall of dust (apparently miles wide), sickly yellow gray, roll over the nearby ridge moving fast. I could feel more than hear a 'moaning' sound as it came toward the building and I distinctly recall it as the only time in my life I felt a real urge to run and hide from a weather event.

After just a few seconds, it rolled over the building with a loud *woomf*, leaving everything very, very dark outside. Had I not actually seen the dust wall, I would have been very confused as to what had happened.
 
tygerkat said:
Okay, apparently, there were two solar eclipses each in 1968, 69 and 70. They only give longitude and latitude, not actual locations (like Manchester) but the longest any of them lasted was 3 minutes! Definitely not a reason to send kids home. I mean, you'd barely have time to register it WAS an eclipse and it would be over! So, what was it, really? Hmmm. :confused:
1968 Mar 28 23:00 P 119 -1.037 0.898 61.0S 79.7W 0
1968 Sep 22 11:18 T 124 0.945 1.010 56.2N 64.0E 19 104 00m40s
1969 Mar 18 04:54 A 129 -0.270 0.995 14.8S 116.3E 74 16 00m26s
1969 Sep 11 19:58 A 134 0.220 0.969 15.6N 114.1W 77 114 03m11s
1970 Mar 07 17:38 T 139 0.447 1.041 18.2N 94.7W 63 153 03m28s
1970 Aug 31 21:55 A 144 -0.536 0.940 20.3S 164.0W 57 258 06m48s
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEcat/SE1901-2000.html

The formatting is lost, but to summarise:
Eclipse 1 - southern hemisphere. Forget it.
E2 was only total for 40 seconds, in Kazahkstan area, well east of Manchester.
E3 - southern hemisphere. Forget it.
E4 - Pacific side of Mexico
E5 - Caribbean area
E6 - southern hemisphere. Forget it.

Only E2 and E5 were total anyhow. So no eclipse in Manc.

I have a feeling there is (or was) another thread on a similar darkness on this board somewhere.
 
Thanks, Rynner. I had no clue as to how to translate the coordinates to actual locations.
 
Dark Day

I can't see how Ingham's experience could possibly have been a solar ecxlipse, since solar eclipses in any given geographical area are normally given full coverage by the local newspapers and broadcast media for weeks or even months in advance.

There was a rather famous "Dark Day" in New England during the earliest days of United States history - around 1784. I think, without checking. This has been blamed on forest fires in Canada, but I don't believe this was ever actually proved.

My favorite story from this particular day concerns a state legislature session (New Hampshire?) where the members debated whether or not to adjourn, since some members worried that the darkness might be a sign that the world was approaching its end and the Second Coming at hand.

But the speaker ruled that:

"This is either the end or it is not. If it is not, there is no reason to adjourn. But if it is, I prefer that the Lord find us here doing our duty."

The darkest day I personally remember occurred in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, around 1963 when the skies at noon turned black as late evening. All the streetlights came on.

But this was merely an approaching thunderstorm. Still, it was impressive enough to engrave itself into permanent memory.
 
the most impressive and dark thunderstorm i ever saw was in cincinnati too (except it was in '99). must be a good place for thunderbolt and lightning...
 
tygerkat said:
Okay, apparently, there were two solar eclipses each in 1968, 69 and 70. They only give longitude and latitude, not actual locations (like Manchester) but the longest any of them lasted was 3 minutes! Definitely not a reason to send kids home. I mean, you'd barely have time to register it WAS an eclipse and it would be over! So, what was it, really? Hmmm. :confused:

The "totality" of a total solar eclipse lasts 3 or 4 minutes, in rare instances up to 7 minutes. The totality is the period when the Moon completely covers the Sun.

However, the period leading up to it, as the Moon slides slowly over the face of the Sun towards totality, can take a bit of time, maybe an hour, more or less. The same thing applies after totality - the Moon slowly slides away to reveal the Sun again, bit by bit. This can also take an hour, roughly. The entire process can take 2 and a half hours.
 
It sure sounds to me like the darkness experienced by Ingham and the Boggart coincide enough for them to have been one in the same. pretty cool.
 
Another account from a poster (from last year as it happens) that you might find of interest:

caroleaswas said:
I can remember such an occurrence. It would have been some time during an afternoon in June or July 1968. I was at school at the time and can remember the day growing darker and darker. In those days I don't suppose there was a facility for street lights to come on automatically, so it was even darker than night time.

I can't really remember how long this lasted - maybe an hour - but then there was a really heavy hailstorm with quite large hailstones about 1 cm in diameter, and the sky eventually lightened.

I remember reading in the paper afterwards that there had been a cloud cover about 5 miles thick which had caused this darkness.

Carole


link

I'll also merge these posts with the general Daytime Darkness thread.
 
Still Another Dark Day

I've not yet vetted the details recorded below, which I read just today in a pop-Fortean collection of strange and weird stories which I don't entirely trust due to errors in several of the other tales.

But Montreal, Canada, reportedly endured a "dark day" 186 years ago, on November 10, 1819.

For what it's worth, a heavy "sooty" rain seems to have fallen two days earlier, on Sunday, leaving a dirty, scummy film behind.

By noon on Tuesday Montreal had apparently become wholly as dark as night. The very few times the sun could briefly be seen through the thick cloud cover it appeared as a dismally dull burnt orchre.

An extremely violent thunderstorm arrived a couple of hours later. Lightning's stabbing fingers struck everywhere at once, like a mad pianist at the keyboard. One bolt slammed into a church spire, knocking the cross (crucifix?) to the ground, where it broke into pieces.

Things were calm again by Wednesday morning.
 
This 2012 BBC News Magazine piece:

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18097177

... focuses on the New England Dark Day, but also provides some notes about the general phenomenon.

What caused the mystery of the Dark Day?
Three centuries ago in parts of North America, a strange event turned morning to night. It remains wreathed in mystery - so what caused the Dark Day?

Halfway through the morning the sky turns yellow. Animals run for cover and darkness descends, causing people to light candles and start to pray. By lunchtime night has fallen. Is it the end of the world?

The Dark Day, as it's become known, took place on May 19, 1780 in New England and parts of eastern Canada. For the past 232 years historians and scientists have argued over the origins of this strange event.

Today there are many theories. Was it the result of volcanic eruption, fire, meteor strike - or something more sinister? ...
 
The BBC News Magazine article cited above states:

William Corliss, the physicist and chronicler of unexplained events, found 46 accounts of dark days around the world between 1091 and 1971.

These events were presumably listed in his 1983 book Tornadoes, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipitation, and Related Weather Phenomena.

In his book Seven Steps to Bethleham:

https://books.google.com/books?id=3...epage&q="dark days" "William Corliss"&f=false

... author Arthur Eedle cites Corliss' list and provides (in Appendix Four; pp. 173 - 174) the following excerpts most relevant to his own book:

DarkDays-Corliss-Xcerpts.jpg

 
Any mentions of fog, clouds, smog or smoke seem to suggest the obvious cause in those cases. If the sun is obscured and momentarily glimpsed thorugh the cover, then there is no real mystery just adverse air conditions. However, accounts which state clear air but just a total lack of daylight are fascinating - even if impossible.

For example the Wimbledon event is an impossible puzzle. Any event large enough to block out the sun and plunge only Wimbledon into darkness had to have been at a low altitude, otherwise it would have blocked out sunlight from surrounding areas. This very fact makes the story impossible as an low altitude event would not be able to stop ambient and reflected light in the atmosphere from "bleeding" around it, lightening the darkened area.

Think about dawn/dusk when the sun is not visible. Where you are is in shadow yet you can see perfectly clearly. The sky isn't pitch black when the sun is almost visible. Nightime darkness only occurs when the sun is on the opposite side of the earth, not just obscured locally by something in the way. As no event was reported in the rest of London or South-East England, I find that type of darkness i.e. nighttime at daytime, very hard to swallow.
 
The only time I can remember it being pitch black here in the day was when my children were in Primary school.
You could see blackness coming from the south and when it arrived it was so dark that I had to turn on the lights to see.
Apparently it was a violent squall and a large flowering gum we had out the front was blown over next door's telephone line.
 
When I was only about eight years old, so that would make it around 1968, I was living in Oldham, just a few short miles from Manchester. I remember being out on the street playing a game with my friend Dennis, when the sky grew very dark, much darker than when a storm is gathering. My dad called me into the house, believing a large thunderstorm was about to break out. The wind picked up but nothing like the strong winds that usually blow during a storm.

We sat in the house with the lights on, but the storm never came. It was an eerie experience. My dad passed the time telling me about a great storm that had taken place when he was a young boy, when the day turned as dark as night. Apparently in the 1930’s lightening had struck Oldham Parish Church, destroying a wall in the graveyard and bones were washed out into the street.

Whilst the wall was being rebuilt, a night watchman was employed to guard the cemetery, and dad, as a small boy, clearly remembers the watchman being joined by the local townsfolk as he said prayers before starting his vigil.

That day in the late sixties when the sky grew dark enough to turn day into night has stayed in my memory, partly through recalling dad’s grim tale. I think the light returned to normal about one hour later. Being the late sixties and Apollo years of manned space exploration, I was a keen moon watcher back then, so if this odd darkness had been due to the eclipse, then I am certain that I would have made the connection.

However, thank you ingham, because to date you are the only other person that I have found who seems to remember the incident.

I think I remember this one, I was still at junior school so round about '68. this was in Halifax so only 10-15 miles from Oldham, and yes it quite quickly got very dark but with no resultant storm that I recall.
 
Well, I know England and Florida are a bit of a distance, but hereabouts, we get odd weather phenomena all the time. The sky will grow hideously dark, or everything turns a yellowish sickly colour. Sometimes no rain accompanies, just a high wind. And even here wherre I have seen it throughout my life, it still strikes me as a bit-- well, very weird. It's just nature, however.
I think it was probably just a really freaky weather thing.
Yellow sky... I remember some mid-Atlantic mornings where, if it was overcast at sunrise, you would get a suffuse yellow everywhere. It was gloriously weird and moody.
I also saw lightning that was amethyst-purple and went upwards, during a thunderstorm, though. Someone has an entry about seeing the same thing out at sea in, I think, some Reader's Digest mysteries of the unexplained type book. But no non-weather-related darknesses.
 
Dark Days.

A friend asked me about this some time back and I do remember it,
it was wile we were still at school so about 60 years back, we were
sent home early as it went very dark during the day and stayed that
way everyone had their lights on and it was not fog or smog the day
after things were back to normal there was no rain involved and until
I was asked about it I thought it was localised to the Bury area he comes
from the Chester area, so does anyone know anything about what caused
this? I remember it being eerily quiet and it did not seem to be a weather
thing no wind or storm.
 
Back
Top