Blue flashes in West Los Angeles 10:10pm

Sorry, not sure where to post this - mods feel free to move. I live in West LA and about 10:10pm tonight my wife and I were getting ready for bed and we saw a bright flash of light from our apartment. We looked at each other and asked "did you see that?" It was so bright we both thought it was lightning but there was no thunder. About 10 seconds later there was another and then about 45 seconds the third and final one.

By the time the final one flashed we could see other people in the nearby apartment buildings standing at their windows looking out.

I seem to recall reading something about ball lightning occurring around earthquakes or something and all of the earthquake stuff lately has me a little nervous (not enough to keep me up tonight, mind you, I have been on this site a loooong time).

Anyway, I just wanted to report from the street here and also see if anyone else in the area saw it or knew what it was or if, God forbid, there is some kind of quake tonight you can throw this peculiar event in the data slurry.

Blue flashes have been recorded before.
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Dude, Im out here and seen nothing???
Is the skies clear over there?

Could be just distant heat lightning, and it appears there is some rain activity in the area:

www.wunderground.com...

?

Distant lightning?

Too far away to hear the thunder?

Any noise associated with the flashes?

Were the flashes on the horizon? Blown transformers for over-head power lines emit a quick bluish flash. Any reports of some power failures? Even if just a city block?

ETA: Multiple transformers will typically be common if one is blown. As each transformer is now taking more of a load. Especially in older areas where the transformers are 10+ years old.

Hello,

I don't know if this will help but the following site has a lot of updated information on weather conditions so I just thought I'd post it - in case you can find some weather information near your location that would help ease your mind:
Weather.com's interactive map

These are a few links on Earthquake lightning/lights :
Earthquake lights
Weather watch article

From the second link:

When I was in the big Christchurch quake two Saturday's ago I noticed three or four brilliant blue flashes that lit up the sky (but didn't light up the city itself, as normal lightning would do). My first instinct was that it was power transformers exploding. However on reflection I realised the lights were simply too bright and lit up too much of the night sky. I had a few comments posted here and at WeatherWatch about the lights being caused by the quake itself. So I decided to find out - I called GNS (Geological and Nuclear Sciences) in Wellington. Dr Martin Reyners was the Seismologist I spoke to and he indeed confirmed that what I saw was most likely a direct result of the earth shifting.

I hope it wont be the case and all will be well there.

reply to post by Marid Audran


There's 3 small EQ's going off in and around cali coast and Mexico.

I was wondering if the light you saw had any color to it?

Here's 2 vids... 1 from China and 1 from Japan...

China Lights before Earthquake


Japan lights before earthquake

Did they resemble these lights at all?

Also: I'm guessing you did not get any of the lights on film? Get you're camera ready, phone, just in case you see the lights again. Maybe some of you're neighbors caught it on film?

Thanks for the info...stay safe and blessed
Trace




Transformers? The only way I can see where people would point out transformers is if they knew the area as well as Marid. I'm assuming he knows the difference between Transformers going off and a light that he see's that totally has him stumped? Again.. I just want to add that I am ASSuming..lol

Hmm, interesting.
I thought the lights that preceded the earthquakes were more ambient rainbow-like auras not flashing lights?

Most likely a distant transformer:

reply to post by defcon5


Heh pictures are always better...I guess I am old school and only give words to describe it

Depending on where in the sky the OP possibly saw the flash of light, it is most probable they were transformers 'popping'. Only odd factor, but not one to discredit the speculation of transformers is calm weather. Though it happens more than we realize.

Great. I just watched Skyline tonight

Might they have been Gamma bursts or sprites? Hmmm, that would keep me awake!

reply to post by ownbestenemy

Could be a car hit a pole with a transformer on it.
Can also simply be one that failed due to mechanical reasons.

reply to post by Marid Audran

You can take a look at a post reply I wrote on 15-3-2011 about a scientific paper by F. St-Laurent on odd anomalies before earthquakes here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

to read the authors paper go here: www.itacomm.net...

and take a look it only takes about 10 mins to read and well worth it he discusses these topics

Seismic Lighting, similar to ordinary lighting and to "sheet" or "heat" lighting but without thunder Luminous band seen in the atmosphere, sometimes horizontally or vertically and sometimes in a bundle, like some polar aurora. Globular incandescent masses, sometimes seen attached to luminous bands, and sometimes called "meteors" Fire tongues, small "flames" creeping near the ground, or like ignis fatuus, flickering around. Seismic "flames" seen emerging from the ground but rarely causing damage. different colored globular masses colored yellow/green/orange/blue. Atmospheric illumination, luminous discharges rising from the ground, arched bands rising from the horizon ovoid mass with streamers.

There are graphs and charts and lots of information..hope that helps Cheers coco

The transformer idea is real good except for 2 things:

1) Not likely 3 of them at once would go

2) I actually had a transformer go before right up the street and they make a pretty big boom. Enough to get most of the neighborhood out in the street pretty quick.

reply to post by Marid Audran


I'm about 50 miles No-Est of you, as a crow flies partner. Although I havn't seen anything tonight I havn't been watching either. I plan on being up for the duration any ways so I look your way now and from time to time. I'll bring it here if I see anything. thanks for the heads

SnF

Okay everyone thanks. It was almost exactly the same color as the transformer blowing up video - really cool, btw, thanks for that. All the power seems to still be on everywhere though.

There are some clouds,the weather is supposed to be changing. Nothing else unusual to report.

edit: clouds aren't unusual where I am - about 5 miles from the ocean - we get clouds almost every night.

Can't help you with what it is, but can discount your ball lightning theory. Ball lightning tends to be prolonged and finish with a loud bang or 'pop'.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Not likely, but probable. Depending on the age of the transformers. And I think we can agree that the infrastructure in California isn't exactly top-notch. They could have been in series and in that case each transformer in that series will take on a power-spike or greater load. In that case, it increases the chance of failure. Seen in on a small scale and seen in on power-lines.

You are correct though...it is not common at all.

On your second point, it all depends on location. If the OP saw it at a distance, it is more than likely he didn't hear a 'pop'. West LA has a ton of ambient noise to drown out such a pop.

We are all speculating on a personal account based on the data we have been given. I just gave one plausible reason for the flash.

Yeah, I didn't really have any theories on it, it was just something unusual and I wanted to pass it on and see if anyone else had an idea. We are pretty close to westwood and they do movie premieres and such up there and sometimes they get kind of crazy - honestly, I was half expecting someone from UCLA to say something like "oh yeah, that was us doing something or other" but my wife was kind of freaked out so I figured I would check.