Heat Lightning Or ? ? ?

[PrisonerOfHope]

Hopefully, someone can tell me what this is. Last night I was relaxing in the pool, floating on my lounge. Several times I saw "heat lightning," which I'm familiar with, but several times the sky seemed to have a reddish hue to it. (It was after 10 p.m.)

As I watched the skies, a number of times I saw in the far distance the sky glow red and yellow, as if there was a large fire or an explosion. Each time it lasted for maybe 20-30 seconds, only to make a repeat appearance a few minutes later; this happened several times.

Have any of you ever seen anything like this and, if so, do you know what it is? I've never seen this before in any of the different parts of the country I've lived in.

[baydoll]

Was it similiar to what happened in Fort Worth Texas a couple of months ago?

[baydoll]

I've experienced this myself several times within the last 10 years. Similiar to a transmitter blowing up. Very bright flash of light that lit up the whole sky and then the sky would glow a weird color.

[PrisonerOfHope]

It wasn't all over the place like Ft. Worth - it was like one BIG blast each time, and in the same area. The first time I saw it I thought it was a plane crash, but didn't hear anything.

[emortimer]

what were you floating with in the pool? ??? ??? ??? ;D

transformers are a blue flash not red...at least during the huricanes

fireworks...gas plant

[shann0]

I think it was a UFO.

[PrisonerOfHope]

It was definitely red and yellow, and filled a large section of the sky - same area each time.

No, not a UFO - I haven't seen any Unidentified Female Orientals around here.

[abeowitz]

Can you tell us what direction?

There were some large Sun CME's erupting the other day... spaceweather.com/ Read about the Night Time Solar Burst on August 4th.

but Aurora's are usually blue/green, right?

[PrisonerOfHope]

That's what I was thinking about auroras - they're more rainbow-like, with blue and green predominant.

I'd say the direction was about North-Northwest (which is why I thought if the auroras - but the colors weren't right).

[abeowitz]

Well, the timing correlates with the radio outburst /CME from the Sun, so perhaps you saw some effect from that.

But that would be more to the West, I'd imagine.

Dunno...

[emortimer]

plus the colors depend on what is in the air so it could have been

[maeday5]

Aug 6, 2011 14:15:43 GMT -5 abeowitz said:

Can you tell us what direction?

There were some large Sun CME's erupting the other day... spaceweather.com/ Read about the Night Time Solar Burst on August 4th.

but Aurora's are usually blue/green, right?

No auroras are not always green/blue, especially the further one lives from the poles. The greens dominate in the Arctic. Red/purple is often the color displayed in aurora's south of 45 degrees latitude.

[shann0]

Wow, I didn't know that Maeday.

[maeday5]

Aug 17, 2011 10:59:17 GMT -5 shann0 said:

Wow, I didn't know that Maeday.

;D me neither, until I started reading daily from: SpaceWeather.com

[PrisonerOfHope]

Well, this was yellow and orange. Thus far, of all the suggestions, CME makes the most sense.