Rogue Shadows

While I was perusing my local Borders here in northern Virginia this morning, coffee in hand, I got a call from a friend and strolled outside to take it. I reached in my pocket, extracted a Nat Sherman and my Zippo, and lit up. While I was taking my first drag, I saw them. Two massive shadows, one seemingly tailing the other all the way across the mostly empty parking lot, then across the street and over the bordering tree line. The sky was completely devoid of clouds, planes, and helicopters. Anyone who lives in NOVA knows today is beautiful and the skies are as blue as can be.

Now, anyone that I've bantered with in this forum knows I am a skeptic that wants to believe; although I lean very much to the more skeptical side of conspiracy theory. Has anyone else seen the kind of anomaly which I'm describing? I can't be one hundred percent sure, but the shadows seemed round in design, almost saucer like, but I'm well aware this may just be my mind trying to make sense of the event. I can't even find any sources on the internet about something similar.

I know this may sound silly to some, because it sounds very silly to myself, but I saw them. Is this a naturally occurring phenomenon? Has anyone else seen anything like this? If so what do you think they are?

reply to post by PartChimp


Can you give me an approximate time and location? I'm also from NoVa, so I can try to ask around and see if anyone else saw what you're describing.

Manassas, around quarter of eleven. I hope someone saw it, or has seen something like what I'm describing; it doesn't make sense to me.

Interestingly enough, there are some things on ATS that bear a resemblance to what you tell. A few weeks ago there was a thread with a bunch of Google Earth pictures. One of them was a shadow of a helicopter on a roadway, but no helicopter could be found in any wider view of the picture.

I myself have heard the sound of very close aircraft, but even with an unobstructed 360 degree view, could not find a sign of them.

You may not be crazy, just in the right spot, at the right time, to catch a glimpse of the unknown.

could have been some high alt clouds casting shadows from above? Why has there been like 3 stories that all started the same way.."I was outside having a smoke.." lol

Originally posted by atsguy_106
could have been some high alt clouds casting shadows from above? Why has there been like 3 stories that all started the same way.."I was outside having a smoke.." lol

Well... in short, smokers go outside. Most unexplained aerial phenomena occurs... outside! It's possible there were some high altitude clouds involved I guess. These were definitive shadows. For instance, if it's sunny where you are, go outside and look at the ground beneath your car. They were shadows that dark. Would it be possible for fast moving clouds so high to make such formidably dark shadows?

Originally posted by PartChimp
Would it be possible for fast moving clouds so high to make such formidably dark shadows?

No, high level clouds do not create shadows. High level clouds like cirrus, cirrostratus and cirrocumulus occur in between 20,000ft and 35,000ft and consist of ice crystals, so a lot of the time the sun significantly penetrates them. The thickest cirrus clouds occur at the top of thunderstorms but you said that the sky was pretty much clear, so that rules that out. I cant presently think of any atmospheric phenomenen that would occur how you described it.....certainly strange

Originally posted by OzWeatherman
No, high level clouds do not create shadows. High level clouds like cirrus, cirrostratus and cirrocumulus occur in between 20,000ft and 35,000ft and consist of ice crystals, so a lot of the time the sun significantly penetrates them. The thickest cirrus clouds occur at the top of thunderstorms but you said that the sky was pretty much clear, so that rules that out. I cant presently think of any atmospheric phenomenen that would occur how you described it.....certainly strange

Thanks for the response! This is one of those frustrating things that I suppose I'm going to have to file away under the "I guess you had to be there" category.

reply to post by PartChimp


I'll see if I can't find anything out. I don't expect to come up with anything though. Anyone I could ask is from Loudoun County, so they probably wouldn't be in the Manassas area on a Saturday morning. What direction were they coming from and what direction were they going?