Flashes In Northern Sky (East Yorkshire; 2001)

[austen27]

I wonder if anyone else saw anything strange in the sky over East Yorkshire yesterday (8/11/01)?

From 7pm until nearly 1am I and a number of other people saw a number of flashes in the sky over Cottingham and other East Yorkshire villages. The flashes were brief, occured about once every few minutes, blue in colour and though diffuse seemed to come from a point due north. Also there were fluctuations in the power supply and a blackout in part of Cottingham.

Lightening of some form seems a likely explination but there are various things that don't fit with a typical thunder storm:

1. The weather had been quite violent earlier in the day with hail and snow but the flashes occured at times when the sky was clear enough for stars to be visible.

2. The flashes continued for at least six hours and always came from the same area of the sky in the north. I would guess they could have been above the town of Beverley. The wind was strong and a normal storm would have approached and retreated quite quickley.

3. There was no associated sound with the flashes. No one seems to have heard any thunder yesterday.

4. The flashes were much fainter and bluer than typical sheet lightening.

Also the lights did not resemble a typical firework or laser display.


So any thoughts?

 

[intaglio]

Same night down in merry old Cornwall we had sleet and snow and distant lightening. The wind was also blowing a hooley but there was no sound of thunder, although the flashes were quite bright. I have been in a snow thunderstorm before under similar conditions but the thunder then was definitely audible.

 

[rynner2]

The wind around thundersorms can be deceptive, because thunderclouds are often caused by thermal updraughts - the cloud sucks in wind from all directions, locally. But as the air mass as a whole (with the cloud in it) keeps moving, this can result in a thunderstorm appearing to approach from downwind!

Then again a thunderstorm can get anchored to the area that caused the updraughts - I remember one storm in Suffolk that rattled around the River Orwell all night long.

Contact your local TV weatherman might be the best bet, or there are telephone services available.

 

[austen27]

I haven't been able to find any reports of thunder storms for that night but I think that you could be right. Possibly a storm was stuck up north near Pickering or even on the North York Moors. I did wonder if the flashes we were seeing could be related to the "sprites" meterologists are now reporting above thunder storms.

Another possibility I considered after my first posting was that the wet weather was causing some sort of problem with the transformer stations between Cottingham and Beverley, but on balance I will go with the thunder storm explanation.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

It was not only East Yorkshire that was experiencing flashes. I was walking home at 8.30pm on the 8th nov here in Gedling, Nottingham when I saw several bluish white flashes over the course of my journey of half an hour on the north or north east horizon. I thought it was lightening at first but the sky was clear with no clouds. ThenI thought that it was fireworks but I heard no sound at all. Also the flash seemed to be lighting up the upper part of the sky itself.

It was so unusual I remarked on it to my housemate, we looked out of the window but due to the buildings I did not see any further activity. Perhaps it was some odd meterological effect.

mr mark