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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 2:35 pm Post Subject: Electrical storm?!
Last night i saw something strange happening in the sky, there was some kind of electrical storm inside a massive cloud right above my house, every 10-15 seconds there would be a huge flash and i would see the lightening forks inside the cloud but i never heard any thunder which seemed wierd..
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 814
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 2:49 pm Post Subject:
That's interesting Bloodhound,
On Tuesday night, fairly late, we were outside and saw quite a significant flash in the sky, high above us... We waited for the thunder, but there was none. We only saw it once and thought it most strange at the time. It seemed a sort of localised flash, like the flash from a camera, but there was nowhere it could have come from that would satisfactorily explain it. The night sky was fairly clear, we could see some stars, although there were some clouds. It wasn't raining.
Was it raining over your way, when this occurred? It was a very clear night out this way...
Now folks that is seriously weird, Wednesday night the same thing happened up here due North of my place, a huge incandescent lightening like flash but the thunder never arrived. I just put it down to the distance but to have it happen directly above your house and not hear anything seems strange!. Talking to other parents at soccer this morning and a couple of them had seen the same thing without noise either.
man made lightening? or just man destroying the atmosphere?
there was no rain
i was only there to watch it for about 5-10 minutes but when i came back 30 mins later the cloud had completely flattened out and there was no sign of lightening..
the cloud was very very big to begin with and seemed very high
I too watched the lightening display. It seemed to be over the hills to the north of my place and I watched the display for about half an hour. As Bloodhound says there was no rain at all. The flashes were one to two minutes apart and some of them were sheet lightening and some forked.
It seemed unusual to me that there was both sheet and forked lightening at the same time, no thunder and no rain. In fact the sky was quite cloudy but by no means overcast.
Well I have a new sighting of this phenomena. Last night while watching the rugby I saw a large flash in the sky outside my lounge window. Very bright and very similar to a lightning flash. Only problem with that was a cloudless night. No noise and didn't see it happen again. Took note of the time 7.15 PM Sat night. Pretty strange that one
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 387
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:56 pm Post Subject: More Flickering Lights
Hi all,
Sunday the 10th had been a hectic one preparing for our expedition to the South Island, loading the van in readiness for an early morning departure. Restless and wide-awake at about 2am, I lent across and pulled the drapes back to check that the window was open. Immediately I saw a flickering flash just like the one reported by Mel on the 2nd April in this thread. The night was clear and still and the sky seemed cloudless. A few minutes later, it happened again then continued to repeat about every 3 or 4 minutes. No sound of thunder at all...
The next day at Arapawa Island in the Marlborough Sounds, we happened to be talking to Hamish, the water taxi skipper, about chemtrails and strange stuff in the sky and he volunteered the info that the week before late at night on his boat somewhere in the sounds he'd experienced a strange flickering strobe-like light. Hamish has spent all his life in that area and had many night trips in his boat out in the Sounds, never before, he told us, had he ever experienced anything like that light. The night was cloudless and the stars were clear - and it definitely was not lightning...
Strange stuff indeed. I wonder if it's associated with modification of the atmosphere, sort of like plasma sphere lightning perhaps...
I have just come across this site and was very intrigued with this thread....
We have owned a house in Kenepuru Sound since before I was born. About 2 or 3 years ago I was out on the balcony and was watching large flashes light up the whole sky. The sky was completley clear and had been all day and all night. I must have been around 10pm. There was no thunder either. I always figured that the must have been a large storm just over the hill.
I spend a lot of time there now and what is obvious is that the weather can be different from one valley to another. You can have a brilliant day in Kenepuru and have rain in QC. Low cloud seems to stay in localised areas.
It is also very dark there too compared to a city. On a good night, there are 1000 times more stars visable compared to Chch on the same night. And without a moon you have not hope if you don't have a tourch. It is very dark!
Do you think that a localised storm and the fact that any light is a lot more noticable could explain this?
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 387
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 2:36 pm Post Subject:
Welcome Harry,
From our research so far, it would seem that your bach is located in a general area where much mysterious stuff is occurring. We have to give more consideration to your question, but in the meantime here is a quite definitive statement on lightning without thunder:
Quote:
Lightning is an electrical discharge produced by thunderstorms. It is often mistakenly believed that lightning can occur without thunder, some folks even insist that they have seen it. This is because the sound of thunder rarely travels farther than ten miles. It may travel farther across valleys, but in lowlands or at sea, ten miles is the limit. So you are seeing the lightning but are unable to hear the thunder associated with it due to distance.
Thunder is the result of lightning, therefore one without the other is impossible. Thunder occurs from the expansion of super-heated air along the path of the lightning flash. The air explodes outwards and sends pressure waves reverberating through the surrounding clouds.
Directly related to the idea of lightning without thunder is the idea of heat lightning. I've often noticed some people looking outside at an approaching storm and noticing such distant lightning without the rumble of thunder. They will undoubtedly respond "oh it's ok, it's only heat lightning." I don't know where this term came from, but there is no such thing as "heat lightning." Some folks think this "heat lightning" is harmless, perhaps because they do not hear thunder, or perhaps because they don't see an actual streak of lightning but rather a not-so-bright flash. This phenomena, known as lightning (yes, its just plain old lightning!) is simply lightning reflected by clouds from distant thunderstorms occurring beyond the horizon. It is the distance factor which makes this lightning harmless!
Perhaps someone else may care to also contribute to a discussion on your question.
BTW we heard a hint recently that planes may be suffering a more than usual number of lightning strikes, not dangerous as such, but the strikes tend to destroy rivets on the outer surface and have to be replaced...
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 814
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 2:43 pm Post Subject:
Dirty Harry wrote:
Do you think that a localised storm and the fact that any light is a lot more noticable could explain this?
Hmmm. The flashes we saw were is suburban Auckland - quite a bit more light around from streetlights and so on, as well as the usual reflected light in the sky from the city lights....
And I believe Azimuth's experience was in semi-rural Whangarei...
What we saw didn't really look like your typical lightning. More like a kind of sparking...
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 140
Location: Auckland, NZ
Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 10:42 pm Post Subject: Lightening without thunder (or a storm)
Hi All,
I believe I have experienced this phenomenon too.
I live in the hills over West Auckland and have seen odd, bright flashes of light on otherwise clear nights, from my lounge room window. I recall at the time it struck me as odd - it seemed like a lightening flash - but one off and without the usual bad weather or thunder.
Although I've seen this maybe two or three times that I can think of, I had just dismissed it as "one of those things!"
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 814
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 11:35 pm Post Subject:
Quote:
I recall at the time it struck me as odd
You know, this is the common thread here.... Almost everyone who has seen this 'flash in the sky' phenomena, feels that something is not quite normal about it....
Anecdotal 'evidence' is often dismissed by scientists as being 'unreliable' and inconclusive, invalid etc. It seems to me, that in these instances, scientists make the assumption that the average person's experience is irrelevant and that generally, 'normal people' are thick and have no credibility when it comes to ascertaining what is normal and what is unusual.
In our experience, these anecdotal accounts tend to be very healthily and naturally skeptical and do not seek to give these occurrences ridiculous and totally unrealistic explanations. Because they do not come from 'scientists' it doesn't have to mean that their eye-witness accounts and life experience should be dismissed. OK, granted, sometimes we see stuff that we don't personally have an explanation for. But most often, the accounts of everyday people are dismissed because the individuals do not have a science degree.
We should remember that people who saw metorites falling to Earth, were once considered worthy of derision:
Quote:
The 'Age of Reason' and 'The Enlightenment', roughly within the 18th century, were terms used and cherished by those who believed in the power of mind to liberate and improve. Reviewing the experience in 1784, Immanuel Kant saw emancipation from superstition and ignorance as having been the essential characteristic of these times. Philosophers and scientists alike pursued these ideals with enthusiasm and vigor and especially so the Académie Française, Europe's leading rational authority. To them may be attributed a strange anomaly that exists in the world today - in museums and collections there is scarcely a single specimen of meteorite that predates the year 1790.
The idea that stones can fall out of the sky was scornfully denounced by the Académie as an unscientific absurdity. Antoine Lavoisier, for example, the father of modern chemistry, told his fellow Academicians, "Stones cannot fall from the sky, because there are no stones in the sky!" The concept of meteorites was thus condemned as nothing but medieval illusions and old wives' tales. Embarrassed museums all over Europe, wishing to be seen to be part of this enlightened 'Age of Reason', hurriedly threw out their cherished meteorite collections with the garbage as humiliating anachronisms from a superstitious past.
Farmers who came to the Académie with samples of meteorites were laughingly shown to the door and denounced as superstitious ignorant peasants. On the night of the 26th of April 1803 however, perceptions started to change. On that night the people of L'Aigle were rudely awoken from their dreams by the thunderous noise of more than 2000 rocks falling from the sky. This undeniable display of meteorites also woke up the Académie Française who were compelled to take notice. They appointed a commission to investigate the event, the result of which was finally a reluctant admission that stones could indeed fall from the sky. Museums, freed from the stigma of non-conformity, started creating meteorite collections once again.
Strangely perhaps, American science did not wholeheartedly accept the Académie's findings until many years later. When, for example, in 1807, two Connecticut Scholars (one of them the chemist Benjamin Silliman) reported having witnessed a fall, President Thomas Jefferson (who had studied natural sciences) made a memorable statement. "I would sooner believe that two Yankee professors would lie than that stones would fall from heaven!" As in Europe it took a dramatic heavenly display, the 1833 Leonid Meteor Shower, before the American Astronomers turned to the subject of meteors and meteorites with any seriousness.
