I just saw the damnedest thing

I'm hoping someone here with knowledge of climate, or just general knowledge of weather stuff can help me figure out what I just saw, because I have no idea.

I live in the East end of Toronto and I was just on my balcony having a smoke when I saw a weird light out towards the Scarborough area (Northeast of me). Basically what I saw was a perfectly straight beam of teal/aqua green light come from the sky. It flickered, maybe that's not the right choice of word, picture a lightning bolt in slow motion and that's probably closer. It definitely appeared to be coming from the sky and not from the ground, I'd say that it was about the width of a block. Happened twice, there was no noise.

Type of lightning that I'm just ignorant of caused by crazy weather in the area?
Anyone in the area see the same thing?

I should also mention that I'm used to seeing spotlights from clubs in Toronto at night, and this definitely wasn't that. The light was too wide, too bright, too solid/consistent in brightness the length of it, and too teal/green.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

I think this is what you saw.
Enjoy, it's too cloudy here to see a thing.

reply to post by recycled


I second that

reply to post by FuzzyDunlop


There is such a thing as green lightening, were there any storms around? What was the sky like?

I live in roughly the same area as the OP and I saw the same thing. I happened three times about 15 minutes apart. When it happened the power went out in the area. I saw the same thing this morning about 7am only there were two flashes first pink then green. It was bright enough to light up the entire room. I live on the 12th floor of a highrise.

If it was from Geminid, how come the they were green round flashes not that high up in the sky? They seemed to be just over the treetops.

I also think it was a meteor shower. I saw one once and it was exactly how you described it.

It's currently overcast here with light snow so basically the sky isn't clear.

Originally posted by kikiboma
I live in roughly the same area as the OP and I saw the same thing. I happened three times about 15 minutes apart. When it happened the power went out in the area. I saw the same thing this morning about 7am only there were two flashes first pink then green. It was bright enough to light up the entire room. I live on the 12th floor of a highrise.

We're supposed to be hit by a solar storm today. Check the ATS for the thread.
?

Here:

12-12-10 Solar Storm Inbound
www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.telegraph.co.uk...

Northern lights.
There was a solar storm today, I have no idea how long they last for, but it fits your description.

thanks everybody.

Here's the latest auroral oval map from www.swpc.noaa.gov...
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/de2cf6359107.gif[/atsimg]

ehh. probably swamp gas reflecting in a thermal pocket capturing the light of venus or something like that.

heh. i second the green lightningn thing.

Originally posted by kikiboma
I live in roughly the same area as the OP and I saw the same thing. I happened three times about 15 minutes apart. When it happened the power went out in the area. I saw the same thing this morning about 7am only there were two flashes first pink then green. It was bright enough to light up the entire room. I live on the 12th floor of a highrise.

According to this post it was probably a transformer exploding. I have that happen many times during ice storms. It is indeed like a slow motion lightning. If you are close enough there is a horrendous sound that accompanies it, but if you are farther away, then it is just a long, slow, very bright flash in the sky. It can be many colors, aqua/teal, blue, or yellow are the most common, but I have seen a fantastic red as well.

Originally posted by kikiboma
I live in roughly the same area as the OP and I saw the same thing. I happened three times about 15 minutes apart. When it happened the power went out in the area. I saw the same thing this morning about 7am only there were two flashes first pink then green. It was bright enough to light up the entire room. I live on the 12th floor of a highrise.

It sounds like lightening to me then, especially if it was snowing, lightning comes in both pink and green especially during snow.

Originally posted by FuzzyDunlop
Basically what I saw was a perfectly straight beam of teal/aqua green light come from the sky. It flickered, maybe that's not the right choice of word, picture a lightning bolt in slow motion and that's probably closer. It definitely appeared to be coming from the sky and not from the ground, I'd say that it was about the width of a block. Happened twice, there was no noise.

You are the first person to describe what I saw near the Melbourne area in Australia in the summer of 1970. I was working for the summer after graduation at a friend's feed ranch out in the country. It was about 3-4 AM. I had gotten up to urinate, and I'm looking out the window while peeing. (I'm telling the truth here, OK?)

It was the damnedest thing. But there it was, a near vertical beam of green light. It was there for a "long" time--not a flash. (I was lucky I didn't miss!)

The variety of green I remember was a bright, emerald green. I don't remember any flickering--it was a steady beam like a laser.

I was thinking ET right off the bat--I never even thought of lightning. I looked at the pictures of lightning suggested here in this thread, but they don't fit what I saw at all.

Since then I have always wondered whether it came from the ground or the sky. I couldn't tell. It was there until it wasn't.

(I should probably say that, although I was probably a little groggy from just waking up, I hadn't been drinking alcohol. Years later I learned that all my late night trips to the bathroom were because I had moderate obstructive sleep apnea.)

Sorry for all the detail, but that's a story I don't get to tell much. Hope it helps.

Anyway, you are not crazy.

reply to post by FuzzyDunlop


At the time you posted the Geminids would have been within a couple of hours of the peak, and the rates would still have been very high. Your description also fits that of a Geminid, so I would say you almost certainly saw a Geminid. It's not uncommon to see 2 or 3 in the space of a few seconds at peak, and this year was certainly no exception!

Check out the Quadrantid meteor shower, which is peaking next week and there is a good chance you will see more green meteors as the Quadrantids have a reputation for producing meteors with a green color.

Originally posted by kikiboma
If it was from Geminid, how come the they were green round flashes not that high up in the sky? They seemed to be just over the treetops.

edit on 13-12-2010 by kikiboma because: (no reason given)

Sometimes meteors can light up the sky/hazy cloud around them and look round. The can also suddenly flare up to many times their original brightness.

Also, a meteor that appears to be "just above the tree-tops" is almost certainly many tens of Km in altitude. If you look out across the sea, and see the Moon rising "out of the ocean", is it really only just above the water? The same is true for meteors, and it's also quite common for people to claim that they saw a meteor land just over the hill. The brain is actually very bad at estimating size and distance when it comes to objects/lights in the sky, and the result is that the brain misinterprets the few visual cues that there are.