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Berserker's avatar

What was this white flash in the sky?

Asked by Berserker (33548points) January 4th, 2013

So there’s this weird thing that happened today that, at first I was convinced was an explosion…lol.

So I’m walking outside this evening, and then everything goes white for like a split second. Kind of like a lightning flash, but a little softer. But it seemed everything flashed white, and I couldn’t tell where it came from. It seemed to have come from EVERYWHERE. I know it sounds like lightning, but this is Winter here…(although I HAVE seen lightning during Winter once, which was very weird)

I attribute this to an explosion because of the following;

I thought it WAS lighting, and I awaited the thunder that would come after. A sound did come, kind of like a huge balloon popping. Except at that point, I attributed it to a snowplow dropping the shovel on concrete. That usually makes a pretty loud noise which also has a strong echo, and it kind of sounded like that. But it wasn’t thunder.

But if this was an explosion, wouldn’t I hear the boom and see the flash at the same time? I’ve never seen any real explosions, so it dawned on me that I have absolutely no idea what one is like, besides what I see in movies, and most of those are probably bs.

The other thing, a minute or so after this white flash, it started to smell like burned plastic and rubber. Smelled gross, like some kind of radioactive ass. But the smell went away pretty quickly. (extremely violent winds today, so maybe the winds took the smell in a direction where I could no longer smell it) Still, if an explosion happened and was so far away, would you even smell it so fast?

There was also a cop car that went racing down the street, to which at first I assumed must have been where this so called explosion was. Except that police car could have been going to a completely unrelated incident, and as I mentioned, I wasn’t able to tell where this even came from at all. :/

Some kids came running to me and asked if they were going nuts, I confirmed that they weren’t nuts. Hell before they came, I thought of asking someone if they saw the same thing as me. I was all like, am I going blind, or nuts or something?

I was pretty sure it was an explosion, but now I’m not sure. I looked up the local news, and saw absolutely NOTHING about this. (but maybe it’s too early for anything to have been reported about it? my sources are all online, and in the paper, but obviously if this was something that deserved paper space, that will be in the following days)

So chances are, was this just some kind of natural phenomena? Something normal that happens with like…I don’t know, space stuff? Sky business? Were aliens fighting up in the sky? Did God slap an angel in the face or something?

So, what causes white flashes like this in the sky?

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21 Answers

Imadethisupwithnoforethought's avatar

http://spaceweather.com/ indicates that some stuff is going on. You may want to spike these kids brains for zombie potential just to be certain.

Berserker's avatar

So if it was something like that, then the smell I experienced was just some random smell that had nothing to do with this?

Imadethisupwithnoforethought's avatar

@Symbeline I am just providing the official explanation. If you young lady tell me to sharpen my machette, I will start the grinder in the basement.

Berserker's avatar

Lol. maybe some radioactive satellite crashed…let’s not fight over the TV

If it was something like that though, I think it’s really weird how my brain sort of registered everything around me, and then attributed it to said flash. :/

FutureMemory's avatar

Best question of the year so far.

mazingerz88's avatar

I’ll tell you after your alien abduction probing. : )

Berserker's avatar

is that why my ass is so itchy…or I guess maybe I should take some showers every now and then

LuckyGuy's avatar

The Quadrantid meteor shower peaked yesterday. Could it have been a close one?

Shippy's avatar

OK that is weird same thing happened to me over here (Africa) strange storm and blinding white light for a while. Our time lines are different so mine was in the day time.

augustlan's avatar

Haha, “sky business”.

I’m going with the meteor theory. Officially.

ucme's avatar

Maybe a bulb blew in gawd’s crib, he does a lot of night time reading apparently, bible studies I fink!

josie's avatar

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats

You were witnessing the Second Coming

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

Don’t panic, it was just God’s bathroom light blowing out.

Coloma's avatar

I experienced this once too some years ago one night. I was outside on my mountain in the dark when out of nowhere whoosh about a 1 second blinding white light that consumed the sky and surrounding hills. I called all over the next day and nobody could explain it.
Yes, alien hydroseeding. Release the spores. lol

El_Cadejo's avatar

That sounds pretty awesome. I’ve seen a green flash at sunset before but never anything like this. If I had to guess I’d say solar flare as well.

Mariah's avatar

If it was an explosion, you would still see it prior to hearing it if it was fairly far away.

mazingerz88's avatar

Maybe it’s God taking a picture with a flash. : )

YARNLADY's avatar

I have read reports over the years that this type of thing is probably a meteor exploding in the atmosphere.

spykenij's avatar

@Symbeline – Where were you located when this happened?

Berserker's avatar

In Québec, in a town 45 minutes away from Montréal.

spykenij's avatar

Hmmm…I’ll check with a friend who lives over there to see if he saw anything or heard anything.

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