Weird flashing off the North East coast UK

I live about a mile from the north east coast near Redcar, ive been watching weird flashes in the sky. They appear to be quite far out at sea, its very similar to lightning but ive checked the weather and marine outlooks and its pretty much very clear weather wise.

Is anybody else near that location who can at least confirm wether its lightning or not, it just seemed very localised and its been doing it for over an hour now. The flashes are random some brighter or bigger than others and theres no thunder to be heard, just to add its quite a clear night sky all round.

reply to post by Catch_a_Fire


can you get video of it please may help id what it is or isnt

reply to post by Catch_a_Fire


There's a wind-farm been built out there at the moment is there not? I'm sure work has begun.

Edit:
Work is in progress, www.gazettelive.co.uk...

Probably ARC welding flash

Originally posted by Catch_a_Fire
I live about a mile from the north east coast near Redcar, ive been watching weird flashes in the sky. They appear to be quite far out at sea, its very similar to lightning but ive checked the weather and marine outlooks and its pretty much very clear weather wise.

Is anybody else near that location who can at least confirm wether its lightning or not, it just seemed very localised and its been doing it for over an hour now. The flashes are random some brighter or bigger than others and theres no thunder to be heard, just to add its quite a clear night sky all round.

Hey is that middlesborough by any chance? could be heat lightenening from many miles away that
wouldn't be forcast for us, but elsewhere ..

reply to post by jerseychannelislands


I wish i could but i dont think my phone camera would pick it up very well.

reply to post by TedHodgson


theyre too big to be arc flashes its very far out and i think the light pollution between us and the flashes would drown out arc flashes. I could be wrong though.

reply to post by denver22


Yes but im a little closer to redcar.

Any oil rigs out there? Could be flares from them,.. but then again you would have seen it before I suppose.

Not sure how close you are to rigs there?

reply to post by Catch_a_Fire


The brightness of the large ARK welders used in wind turbine construction would easily be visible for many miles, Hell i can see them welding those things from Whitby!

reply to post by cahlmac


Theyre not that close.

The flashes were bright but some lit a much wider area than others, they were blue/white flashes. Ive never seen lightning out at sea like that before.

reply to post by Catch_a_Fire


Read this link my freind people have reported lightening in newcastle toowww.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/

Check out the recent weather to the right hand side when on the page.

reply to post by TedHodgson


Well im not ruling that theory out completely just yet, but id of surely saw them before tonight. I smoke outside every night and im usually looking skyward in that direction as my garden lines up that way, ive never noticed them before now.

reply to post by denver22


Lightning was my first thought, so maybe it is exactly that. It was quite a small flash what first caught my attention, then as i was waiting for the next one the whole sky over that area just lit up.

I was waiting for that distant thunder sound but it didnt come.

Originally posted by Catch_a_Fire
reply to post by denver22

 

Lightning was my first thought, so maybe it is exactly that. It was quite a small flash what first caught my attention, then as i was waiting for the next one the whole sky over that area just lit up.

I was waiting for that distant thunder sound but it didnt come.

50 miles away newcastle had thunder scotlnad had a bit too lightening can be seen
as flashes over distances without the sound etc.. glad the link helped a bit denver22

Someone I know updated their facebook status at around 21:50pm GMT in the peterlee area saying "anyone else watching these flashes in the sky?"

I came on here to see if anyone else had seen anything lol

reply to post by Tangled2011


I first noticed it at around 8.30 ish, it was still going just before 10pm. Just before i posted this thread it was still flashing, although not as brightly as it had seemed earlier.

Just to update, ive been out for another smoke and there was no flashing. It could very well of been just a big but distant lightning storm.

I would have loved to have been nearer for that one.

Ahoy hoy.

Long time lurker, first time poster and all that jazz. I’ll skip the introductions and get to what I saw.
Decided to pop my post cherry tonight because I live not far from the OP and have seen these flashes twice tonight myself

I’m lying in bed typing this now, so no I wont be hanging out my window trying to capture a split second flash with a camera phone, I will however try to provide as much detail and insight as I can. I’ve done my best to try to figure out where it could have came from and ponder on what it could have been, because in all my years living in this area I’ve never seen anything like it. Curiosity has got the better of me I guess, hence the post on here.
I saw two flashes at different times tonight, Both whilst having a cig in a friends garden, about 13 miles inland from the mouth of the Tyne, western outskirts of Newcastle, about 130m above sea level, Looking easterly. 1st flash was during half time in the Madrid v City game (8:30 to 8:45pm GMT), then 2nd was some time after the game, I would say about 10:30 to 10:45pm.

When I saw the first flash, I mentioned it to my friend who had his back to it, and he suggested lightning. I didn’t think so. What struck me about the light was it seemed to generate from the ground and arc, dome like over the sky. My friend did however see the second one, along with myself later on. This one appeared weaker, but he also agreed that it didn’t look like lightning. I know Denver22 has kindly posted a weather link, but the sky was totally clear, not a cloud to be seen. And then there was the lack of thunder. Also seems a long time for a thunder storm to be kicking around? I’m not closed to the possibility of it being lightning, I’m just saying it didn’t look like it to me, I’ve never seen lightning like that before.

One thing’s for sure, it’s almost definitely out over the North Sea somewhere. It would be interesting to see what directions others are seeing it from. I would imagine that catch_a_fire down over Redcar way * thought: Probably for his sins ;-). Who is viewing the light from further south/east from me, was looking in a north easterly direction at the time. For me, the lights seemed to be stationary (ish) surely a thunderstorm over that time would have moved somewhat?

This has got to be the point where I start to start throwing guesses into the ring as to what it could have been right? Flares from ship in distress? Arc welding from the many wind farms, oil & gas rigs off the shore line? Military training? Or something more other worldly even? . . . . . . . . . . . Hold on, could Denver22 Have been right? Let’s check. . . . . .

www.floodwarn.co.uk...

Yup, think Denver22 is onto something.

Oh well, that’s that for me, off to kip now. I’ll sleep better knowing that at least I’ve broke my posting virginity, and what I saw was most probably just lightning.

The strange one for me still though is the way it seemed to come from the ground. I’m guessing curvature of earth, distance storm was away from me, or some other shizzle. . . . . . .

Too far south to be the Northern Lights, so therefore I am going go with swamp gas, aliens, weather balloons and umm.. lightning.

reply to post by dancingbear1892


And what an interesting and well thought out first post, thanks.

I'd say it was probably lightening. I went to Thailand last year (clang ) and most nights I watched lightening flashing from distant storms on the horizon over the sea. It was a mesmerising sight and I will never forget it. There was never any thunder as it was too far away.