Strange Flashes in the sky-US

So this last Friday, Dec. 31, I was on holiday visiting relatives in Providence, and as we were driving the night sky over the southern part of the city kept on illuminating very bright, like a flourescent light tube. Almost the luminosity of lightning, but much brighter and more opaque, taking up a very wide surface area in the sky. It occurred exactly at 8pm est and was intermittent. Now the curious thing about this is that a few years back I witnessed the same exact flashes in a small city in Pennslyvania, at 8pm on numerous Friday nights over the course of a few months. Does anyone have any idea as to what these might be? Somehow the entire fiasco reminded me of an account about a Tesla experiment in the early 1900's where he would electrecute the entire atmosphere.

sounds like "project bluebeam" Project blue beam has to do with holograms (using the sky for a theater) and the 'fake rapture' projected by sattilites.....



mod edit to remove quote pof previous post

[edit on 3-1-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

Funny that you mention that.
I live in Pennsylvania and a few years ago me and a few friends were driving home and we say the exact same purpleish blueish light. It wasnt lightning, so we had no idea what it was.

Cheers!!

Fireworks on the horizon have been known to do this.....and it was new years eve,right?

I'm sorry that was a typo. It was Dec 30th Friday night. And there absolutley no way that anyone could confuse this with fireworks. Nice try though. I know your just doing your job.

I'm new here, and I live in Canada. Just been scanning the posts for a few days untill I seen this...

Sounds like the northern lights to me?? Its been known after a MCE (mass coronal ejection) from the sun has created the aurora as far south as San Francisco, possibly even further?

Just a thought.

I live in the Providence area, Newport county to be exact.

I have noticed these lights that you talk about over a dozen times. On two occasions I was fairly certain that we were under attack, either that or our anti missile system was engaging enemy missile threats or aircraft.

The times I thought we were under attack was when I heard what I thought was a missile battery going off. It sounded like a distant rumble met by the whole sky lighting up almost like missiles were being shot off and flying up into space.

Quonset Airbase is not far, there is rarely a night I dont hear a B2 bomber, c-130. or fighter jet (or whatever they are) at least once during the day or night. On occasions the sonic booms are enough to shake the house or make you think armageddon is surely going to happen at any second when whatever munition these planes are carrying prematurely explodes and takes your town with it in a nuclear accident.

But the weirdest thing isnt the constant military aircraft flying around, it is those lightshows and "artillery battery's".

I cant explain to you when you look out your front door and you see the sky lit up like independance day when the aliens started entering the atmosphere. You KNOW it isnt lightning, you KNOW it is some kind of weapon. You start getting anxiety knowing that SOMETHING happened for air/missile defense to kick in.

It is not the Northern Lights, it is not heat lightning, it is definatly military related.

The direction they ALWAYS appear would be in the direction of Quonset Airbase or Newport. Rhode Island (which is right on the coast of the Atlantic in southern Rhode Island).

If I had to guess I would say it was taking place in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of the US and it is semi MASSIVE weaponry since it can be seen and heard from so far away (I am 20+ miles away from where I beleive it is happening from).

Definatly a projectile type weapon system, like a rocket/missile barrage because you can hear the whoosh whoosh everytime the sky lights up, as well as hearing what sounds like "a distant boom" which I think would be the actual shell/missile being shot off from its gun.


Oh and the night the Persoid meteor shower happened was the WORSE. I walked outside to take a picture of the moon because it was ORANGE and then I could hear the sounds of massive distant explosions and the sky would light up every minute or two from incoming meteors.


Weird, yes. All of it. The sound of some of our Military airplanes is definatly exotic. They sound more advanced then I thought they would of sounded like. Most of them sound like armageddon by just being obnoxiously loud, others sound like something out of science fiction. Others that fly low sound like those warthog's, how they sort of sound like an electric whirl.


I never heard anyone from Newport talk about it, so I dont know. I never really asked either. The lights are high up in the atmosphere, maybe it would be directly over them if they tried to look, or not even visible. Maybe they only hear it. No idea.

Long story short, I see it, I hear it, im with you.

Originally posted by PKD
So this last Friday, Dec. 31,...the southern part of the city kept on illuminating very bright, like a flourescent light tube. Almost the luminosity of lightning, but much brighter and more opaque, taking up a very wide surface area in the sky.

Sorry, I want to believe you but you are aware it was DECEMBER 31ST in AMERICA where FIREWORKS go off on december 31st, quite often. "But it was 8 pm" I've seen them at around 6 before.

So if you can answer that question I'll believe you . Thanks.

I was going to say that the flashes are likely the result of live fire exercises on Nomans Land Island off the western tip of Nantucket. The national guard I believe used it for bombing practice. (A-10s from Barnes in Westfield, MA and Bradley Intl Airport, CT) That would've explain the noises and flashes you're seeing. Though after a little research: en.wikipedia.org...(Massachusetts)

Apparently they don't use it anymore. Maybe they're unexploded bombs going off?

Originally posted by snuffy114
I was going to say that the flashes are likely the result of live fire exercises on Nomans Land Island off the western tip of Nantucket. The national guard I believe used it for bombing practice. (A-10s from Barnes in Westfield, MA and Bradley Intl Airport, CT) That would've explain the noises and flashes you're seeing. Though after a little research: en.wikipedia.org...(Massachusetts)

Apparently they don't use it anymore. Maybe they're unexploded bombs going off?

Definatly not nantucket. Wrong direction.




The green triangle represents the area I feel the weapons to be fired from.

The blue spots marked are major US Military installations. Hope I didnt break any law by highlighting the spots as blue X's, lol. They arent exactly secret spots anyways, they are well known.

The blue mark highlighted in the green triangle is the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and the Naval War College. There are aircraft carriers, battleships, and everything else located there.

It is directly in Newport. Rhode Island. Kind of hard to go unnoticed firing off weapons.

Maybe they are launched off the coast in a trajectory that would bring them over where I am, and only noticed at the angle I am. Maybe the booms and whoosh's and flash's I see are the sonic booms they make as they travel overhead.

The other blue mark is Quonset Airbase. The place is massive as you can see in the picture. It takes up the whole blue X plus a lot of the land around it.

My guess is a weapon, a missile defense system. Either being tested or used. I think so because it isnt one or two flash's, it is a bunch at a time. And it really does sound like like a lot of booms right after each other like an automatic artillery system that lights up the whole sky.

Check into Heat Lightning. Here in Florida, we're so used to it, we don't even give it a second thought, but it's basically thunder-less lightning that doesn't fork down to the ground.... When behind the clouds (relative to the observer), it makes a hell of a light show...

Originally posted by Gazrok
Check into Heat Lightning. Here in Florida, we're so used to it, we don't even give it a second thought, but it's basically thunder-less lightning that doesn't fork down to the ground.... When behind the clouds (relative to the observer), it makes a hell of a light show...

The chance of it being heat lightning is about the chance I will earn a million dollars this year. Possible but unlikely.

Lightning can act kinda weird sometimes, so maybe its not that strange to consider. I know it can strike horizontally, and i've heard of the 'blue lightning' phenomenon, where its more of a mid-range blue color, and I also know that it can 'strike' going up and/or down from clouds. Maybe that helps...

[edit on 10-1-2006 by BlackThorn311]

Ok, I've been on tehse boards for awhile, but I have yet to have a reason to create a user name, but ont he same night on Dec, 30 in hayward, California there were two flashes in the sky that where exactly how you explained it, I was outside with a friend, it was like pitch black dark outside, around 9:30 10:00, we were outside cause all teh power had went out in the neighborhood and then out of no where the WHOLE sky lit the hell up like someone was shining like the flouresent lights for reptile and fish aquariums. It happened twice, it took maybe about 45 seconds till the second flash came, I swear to god this flash was so unreal I thought like the sky was gonna open up and god was gonna like come down and the second coming was gonna happen it was just too unreal as in I have never seen anything like that in my life. The next day they said it was a car crashing into some electrical box knocking out the electricity and causing a flash to light up the sky... all the way to san francisco, haha yeah right, also keep in mind the power had already been out for a hour or so. Everyone in our city saw it, well not everyone, but enough people to have a buzz around town about it. But what I dont get is if it was from a car accident why was there two flashes and how could it of lit up the sky like that, I know for a fact it wasnt fireworks no firework can light hte sky up like that, I know it wasnt lightning cause it just wasnt that color. Put it this way it was completely dark outside, not even that much moonlight as there were lots of clouds and it had been sprinkling earlier and it lit up so brightly like if a switch had been hit and someone put in a flourescent light bulb. If anyone has any explination on this it would be nice to hear it as I'm still confused on what I saw that night and if it was a government project why would they be that stupid to test it in the San Francisco Bay Area when they can drive a few hours south to the desert and not worry about to many people seeing the flashes?

Iposted something about one of these flashes a while back but i cannot seem to find it. My experience happened in east texas, it was a bright purpleish blue flash that happened during the night and lit up a massive area. It was not lightining, when i looked out the window i could see it moving across the sky very quickly, it then took what appeared to be a 90 degree turn or at least a turn and then vanish from what i can remember. # of my friends also saw it. The weatherman came on the news later that night and had no explanation for it, he also witnessed it while leaving choir practice.

I had this happen to me as well a couple years back...I live in Chicago and I was on the expressway with one of my friends (he was driving I was passenger). There were absolutely NO cars on the road that night which both of us thought strange considering Chicago traffic is normally rush hour at all times of the day. But out of nowhere this blinding bright, purpleish white light flashed in the sky and it seemed to almost be a flash bang grenade but on a far larger scale, well after the flash ALL the street lights go out and it becomes pitch black on the road. His headlights BARELY helped us see where we were going. Well like a minute or two after the flash there was this light streak in the sky that was moving incredibly fast and then it just dissapeared it was traveling south to north. then nothing and the street lights went on...Made the hair on my body stand up and kinda gave me and my friend a wierd feeling inside, Kind of like we just barely escaped death type of feeling like something was trying to get us but it missed. When I asked about it I "heard" that Comed had hit a power line in the area and that's what caused the blakout...but Noone has EVER explained the flash of light that night or the streak in the sky.

Originally posted by ImplementOfWar
Oh and the night the Persoid meteor shower happened was the WORSE. I walked outside to take a picture of the moon because it was ORANGE and then I could hear the sounds of massive distant explosions and the sky would light up every minute or two from incoming meteors.

HI ImplementofWar!

The classic problem with these types of posts is that the poster never has a camera to hand, so no one ever believes them, but as you were going outside with a camera to take some shots you're obviously going to have some to post! I mean why would you not take some shots, the orange moon ones will be interesting but I'm sure as you had your camera with you you took some of the phenomena! looking forward to seeing those!!

Cheers

Robbie

Originally posted by munkyjitsu
The next day they said it was a car crashing into some electrical box knocking out the electricity and causing a flash to light up the sky... all the way to san francisco, haha yeah right, also keep in mind the power had already been out for a hour or so. Everyone in our city saw it, well not everyone, but enough people to have a buzz around town about it. But what I dont get is if it was from a car accident why was there two flashes and how could it of lit up the sky like that

It’s an electrical transformer, and when they fail, they will light up the sky from horizon to horizon. They will sometimes flash like this repeatedly until they fail, they are incredibly bright. I have seen them light up the sky to such a point as to cast shadows on the ground just like being in full daylight. Sometimes they make noise, but not always, and it depends on how far away you are from them. I have also seen them make a blue dome of light that went 60 or so feet into the air after being struck by lightning, pretty scary stuff when you think about it.


ImplementOfWar
You sure your not seeing a strobe or rotating beacon light for a runway at the base?


[edit on 1/16/2006 by defcon5]

Originally posted by robbie414

Originally posted by ImplementOfWar
Oh and the night the Persoid meteor shower happened was the WORSE. I walked outside to take a picture of the moon because it was ORANGE and then I could hear the sounds of massive distant explosions and the sky would light up every minute or two from incoming meteors.

HI ImplementofWar!

The classic problem with these types of posts is that the poster never has a camera to hand, so no one ever believes them, but as you were going outside with a camera to take some shots you're obviously going to have some to post! I mean why would you not take some shots, the orange moon ones will be interesting but I'm sure as you had your camera with you you took some of the phenomena! looking forward to seeing those!!

Cheers

Robbie

I did take pictures. Except for some reason they came out all black. I didnt have it on the right setting. Not even the moon pictures came out, nevermind the horizon and clouds lighting up.

my best guess is artilliary tests or munitions demolitions, perhaps out at sea or at a nearby base or artillary grounds.I see these flashes from nearly 100 linear miles away where i live.Havent read the entire thread so sorry if someone else has already suggested this.