Weird flashing off the North East coast UK

There is maintenance work going on at one of the gas fields at the moment , can't remember which one but when I get back from work I will let you know' probably faring off lots of gas at the moment!

Well this is the first time I have posted here but I live in Gateshead, England and also saw these flashes. The wife was in the kitchen while I was watching the first half of the Man City game. She came into the living room and asked if I had heard that strange sound which I had not. She said it sounded like a train rumbling past but was not thunder. My house is quite high up and looks out over Newcastle to South Shields and I looked out the back. The sky was clear except for a large strange looking cloud which I guess was towards Shields but over land and about 1 to 2 miles away. As I watched it lit up from inside a bit like a paper bag over a light bulb.There was no sound or thunder and it was not lightening in my opinion. Around 2 minutes later (around 8.10pm) it happened again then something strange happened. A helicopter flew over the house and headed straight into the cloud. It seemed to be flying around inside the cloud and I could see its lights as it moved about. It was obviously looking inside the cloud. I went upstairs for a better view but the cloud was gone but I did see another flash but it was behind the houses opposite mine and looked like it was further down the coast line so I could not see anything else. As I said it was not lightening in my opinion and what was the helicopter doing

Hi all from East Anglia.
I have a small bit on video, the noise is only the wind as I was in the middle of a field.
www.youtube.com...
The next I cut too short, it is right at the end but you can see it.
www.youtube.com...
I sent it to the Met Office who replied that it was it was offshore lightning from several thunderstorms.
The sky where we were has no light pollution and was full of stars including the Milky-way. We could hear the owls and see one small cloud from which the lightning was coming. About one flash every minute or so. It was fantastic. I only had my phone with me so couldn't do any stills. Temp dropped last night to 6 c
I am going to load the full video at the weekend after I have removed the black.

reply to post by Catch_a_Fire


Just checked the radar and there were some heavy showers out to see off the NE coast last night.

I suspect what you saw was what used to be quite comon whan I was a teenager living in Suffolk: "summer lightning". Just cloud to cloud lighting in storms out in the North Sea. Aways silent (sound doesn't travel that far). Such lightning was observed off the NE coast last night (as already noted)

Originally posted by Tzavros
Hi all from East Anglia.
I have a small bit on video, the noise is only the wind as I was in the middle of a field.
www.youtube.com...
The next I cut too short, it is right at the end but you can see it.
www.youtube.com...
I sent it to the Met Office who replied that it was it was offshore lightning from several thunderstorms.
The sky where we were has no light pollution and was full of stars including the Milky-way. We could hear the owls and see one small cloud from which the lightning was coming. About one flash every minute or so. It was fantastic. I only had my phone with me so couldn't do any stills. Temp dropped last night to 6 c
I am going to load the full video at the weekend after I have removed the black.

Thank you.