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Giant Smoke Rings In The Sky

liveinabin

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Please move if needed.


Now I work near some docks

ASome staff reported three gigantic smoke rings coming from the direction of the docks.

The smoke was described as being like a contrail from a plane but black.

One of the staff ran in to get a camera. If he has got any pictures then I'll post them.

Any ideas what they may have been?
 
Any explosions, sirens?

The photos'd be exciting. :D
 
Nothing obvious. We are really close so any sirens would be clearly heard.

I'll have to remember to ask about the photos tomorrow.
 
I have seen something similar from a diesel loco which was starting up.
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rious-object-sky-captured-girl-16-iPhone.html

Weather experts have been baffled by a black ring which appeared in the sky above Leamington Spa on Friday evening.

Schoolgirl Georgina Heap was playing tennis with her mother Jo Heap when she looked up at the sky near Warwick castle and saw a mysterious black ring.

She photographed the circle on her iPhone but so far, no one can explain the origin of the strange black mark.
 
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Just seen this on the BBC website, Warwick Castle have confirmed that they were testing fireworks at the time.
 
Wouldn't the best time to test fireworks be at night? And why test them anyway, it's not like they are re-usable.
 
Doesn't look like any fireworks I've ever seen.
The video doesn't show any movement, so it's hard to tell what it might be.

My initial impression, when I first saw it, was 'insects' - but insects don't usually display this behaviour.
 
I'm sure Warwick Castle will be happy to put any doubts at rest by testing the same fireworks again and getting the same result... :?
 
It doesn't seem that amazing to me. It's clearly a smoke ring and I'm sure I've seen devices that intentionally project smoke rings like that for outdoor entertainment. Some fireworks might intentionally (or due to luck) produce smoke in that form, perhaps.

Nothing seems particularly out the ordinary about it.
 
markrkingston1 said:
It doesn't seem that amazing to me. It's clearly a smoke ring and I'm sure I've seen devices that intentionally project smoke rings like that for outdoor entertainment. Some fireworks might intentionally (or due to luck) produce smoke in that form, perhaps.

Nothing seems particularly out the ordinary about it.


Agreed ...

I've seen such large smoke rings resulting from large fireworks fired upward from mortars.

This similar October 2013 incident in Florida was found to have been caused by a fireworks test-firing:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/340891 ... ery-solved


This 2008 Bonnaroo forum thread mentions someone who'd generated such giant smoke rings as an adjunct to the shows:

http://bonnaroo.proboards.com/thread/14331


A similar smoke ring was observed above Lake Zurich in June 2013:

http://strangesounds.org/2013/06/strang ... tists.html


... And in Oregon in October 2013:

http://www.katu.com/news/local/What-was ... 88985.html


... And here's an article illustrating how such rings have been interpreted as UFO activity back into the 1950's:

https://cassiopaea.org/2010/09/14/myste ... t-a-cloud/


And finally ... Volcanos make them, too! :twisted:

http://gizmodo.com/5830880/extremely-ra ... ted-thrice
 
Nice research EnolaGaia!

EnolaGaia said:
This similar October 2013 incident in Florida was found to have been caused by a fireworks test-firing:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/340891 ... ery-solved

Indeed, this one is very similar to what was seen in Leamington Spa.

Pinellas County, Florida:
smoke_ring_UFO-e1382715694861.jpg


Leamington Spa:

article-2604240-1D1BF24500000578-384_634x724.jpg


EnolaGaia said:
... And here's an article illustrating how such rings have been interpreted as UFO activity back into the 1950's:

https://cassiopaea.org/2010/09/14/myste ... t-a-cloud/

This is interesting reading!

EDIT: The externally-linked Florida photo had gone MIA. It's now been replaced with a news photo of the same incident obtained from:
https://doubtfulnews.com/2013/10/smoke-ring-in-florida-ends-up-being-unmysterious/
 
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EnolaGaia said:
... And here's an article illustrating how such rings have been interpreted as UFO activity back into the 1950's:

https://cassiopaea.org/2010/09/14/myste ... t-a-cloud/

The person who wrote that seems to accept that these smoke rings can a/ have a mundane explanation and b/ can be interprested as UFOs, but they then go on to say that c/ some of these smoke rings might have exotic explanations after all.

Well, that may be true, but it seems redundant. If something has a mundane explanation, why start trying to make that explanation exotic by adding extra layers of mystification?
 
eburacum said:
The person who wrote that seems to accept that these smoke rings can a/ have a mundane explanation and b/ can be interprested as UFOs, but they then go on to say that c/ some of these smoke rings might have exotic explanations after all.

Well, that may be true, but it seems redundant. If something has a mundane explanation, why start trying to make that explanation exotic by adding extra layers of mystification?

That's an excellent point, and it applies to a broader swath of Fortean topics than these smoke rings alone.

For a phenomenon / event to qualify as Fortean, it will invariably be construed as anomalous or extraordinary. These characteristics are attributed because the phenomenon itself and / or its causal explanation lie outside the bounds of what we (think we ...) know of the world and how it operates.

Absent knowledge of (or willingness to accept ...) any mundane explanation, one can either (a) passively marvel at the evidence or (b) actively seek a causal explanation. One could argue that Fort focused on (a) as a possible motivation for (b), stopping short of taking (b) to be an inevitable objective. One could similarly argue that hard-core skeptics presume (b) is the objective, and this objective is to be pursued with strict regard to some purported status quo (e.g., state of scientific knowledge).

In between these positions is the grey area within which one pursues (b) without subordination to this status quo - i.e., freely invoking anything to explain the phenomenon / event. This is how mystification originates and snowballs over time ...
 
Well I've just had a look at Warwick's upcoming events and....

1,100th Anniversary Firework Proms Spectacular


12th July 2014




1,100th Anniversary Summer Proms
Spectacular music, fireworks and pyrotechnics
Special commemoration of the 70th anniversary of D-Day

Gather you friends and family, prepare your picnic and join us for a spectacular evening of superb music and incredible fireworks as we celebrate Warwick Castle's 1,100th birthday with our greatest ever Summer Proms concert. Our popular conductor Jae Alexander returns and we are delighted to welcome the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, who will perform popular classics, film themes and all the flag waving favourites with 'the Last Night Of The Proms'.

This year we are also proud to feature a very special and emotional sequence of music and songs paying tribute to the heroes of D-Day, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

This will be hosted and narrated by our special guest. The section will also feature an aerial display by our original World War 2 Spitfire in the skies over Warwick, making this a truly moving tribute. Our special birthday concert will feature a magnificent fireworks finale, completing a spectacular and moving night of entertainment.


Looks like the sort of big event you'd want to get right.
 
davidplankton said:
Wouldn't the best time to test fireworks be at night?...

Black fireworks are becoming quite popular. There's a Chinese artist called Cai Guo-Qiang who does some amazing things with them.

There's an example here.

Clearly they aren't suited to night time - unfortunately neither are they suited to the miserable, drizzly, grey Edinburgh afternoon, which rather put the mockers on the only opportunity I've had top see his work in the flesh.
 
Spookdaddy said:
davidplankton said:
Wouldn't the best time to test fireworks be at night?...

Black fireworks are becoming quite popular. There's a Chinese artist called Cai Guo-Qiang who does some amazing things with them.

There's an example here.

I love that. There is something rather spooky about the black fireworks that I really like. Thanks for sharing :)
 
cherrybomb said:
...I love that. There is something rather spooky about the black fireworks that I really like. Thanks for sharing :)

Yes, there's something disconcerting about that sudden blackness - it's like someone's punched a lot of ragged holes in the sky with a sharp stick.
 
The person who wrote that seems to accept that these smoke rings can a/ have a mundane explanation and b/ can be interprested as UFOs, but they then go on to say that c/ some of these smoke rings might have exotic explanations after all.

Well, that may be true, but it seems redundant. If something has a mundane explanation, why start trying to make that explanation exotic by adding extra layers of mystification?
Probably because they can add confusion to a mystery?
 
Black fireworks are becoming quite popular. There's a Chinese artist called Cai Guo-Qiang who does some amazing things with them.

There's an example here.

Clearly they aren't suited to night time - unfortunately neither are they suited to the miserable, drizzly, grey Edinburgh afternoon, which rather put the mockers on the only opportunity I've had top see his work in the flesh.

It looks like WW2 anti-aircraft ack-ack explosions.
 
Here's a 2019 example from Montana, caused by a pressure release from an oil well.

Ring-Montana-2019.jpg
UFO alert! Mysterious black ring hovers in the sky above a Montana ranch - but can you guess what it is?

Bizarre footage shows a black ring hovering in the sky above snowy fields in Montana.

The baffling phenomenon was captured by farmers as they fed the cattle on their ranch. ...

... the experienced farmers had heard of the phenomenon before, living over the hill from an oil well and were quick to guess where it had come from.

They said: 'Had we not known it was a smoke ring that came from one of the oil wells over the hill, we would have thought we were being visited by aliens. ...

'This smoke ring was caused by an oil well worker that was blowing out the regulator in oil well flare.' ...

FULL STORY: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...k-ring-hovers-sky-Montana-ranch-guess-is.html
 
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