Three Very Bright Flashes of Light from the North?

[FolkGuitar]

Seemed to be in the direction of Doi Saket. Anyone have an idea what this was? Bright, very white light.

They were ground-level lights, covering about 10 degrees of my line of sight, and appeared to be several hundred of feet high.

I would have called them explosions, but I heard no sound, nor where there any follow-ups flares.

Edited July 18, 2015 by FolkGuitar

[pgrahmm]

ET go home?.....Or Pattaya.....

[elgordo38]

Is Chiang Mai noted for UFO sightings? Maybe its a new form of rain making.

[FolkGuitar]

Is Chiang Mai noted for UFO sightings? Maybe its a new form of rain making.

I'm pretty sure it was more earth-bound rather than extra-terrestrial. What ever it was that we saw was coming from the ground rather than something in the sky.

At sea level the horizon appears to be about 3 miles away to a 6ft person. We are on the 15th floor which give us almost a 17 mile horizon distance, and these flashes seemed to be at the edge of our visible horizon at ground level. That's a VERY rough estimate, but I doubt it was much closer. But it was bright enough to reflect off of the edges of my aluminum screens, which is what caught my eye on the first flash as it was so remarkably bright! Then a few seconds later a second flash, this one I saw clearly, followed again 3-4 seconds later by the third flash which I also watched directly as it happened. It reminded me of a photographic flash in its intensity. Had there been one right outside my window I would have thought that first.

Edited July 18, 2015 by FolkGuitar

[LarryBird]

It was me. In your dream.

[NancyL]

What time did these flashes occur?

If it's around 8:30 pm on a Saturday night, my next question would be -- was it in the direction of a shopping mall, resort or commercial center? Perhaps it was a celebration of a new business opening or something.

Edited July 18, 2015 by NancyL

[FolkGuitar]

What time did these flashes occur?

If it's around 8:30 pm on a Saturday night, my next question would be -- was it in the direction of a shopping mall, resort or commercial center? Perhaps it was a celebration of a new business opening or something.

It was at 8:45 Saturday in the direction of the Central Festival Mall, but the size of the flashes made them look as if they were many 20 wider than the space taken by the mall. I often see the billboard lights from Central Festival Mall, and have seen the (for lack of a better term) the anti-aircraft lights used for opening celebrations many times scanning the skies from different parts of the city. These flashes were very different. These were three single distinct bursts of light, larger and brighter than anything I've ever seen before.

[LarryBird]

Folk, your Thai is at a really high level, right? Can't you get on the Thai sites, or social media and figure this out?

[T_Dog]

Maybe they were testing out this machine!

http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2015/07/17/floating-hermit-unveils-rain-sucker-solve-drought-crisis

[FolkGuitar]

Maybe they were testing out this machine!

http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2015/07/17/floating-hermit-unveils-rain-sucker-solve-drought-crisis

LOL! Could be. At this point the only thing I'm ruling out is large fireflies!

[rijb]

Some people call them lightning bugs.

Edited July 19, 2015 by rijb

[FolkGuitar]

Some people call them lightning bugs.

They would have to be the lightning bugs that ate Cleveland to flash at the size and intensity we saw.

[bamboozled]

Well right about at that time, just before 9 pm, the lights went out in my neighborhood which is between Rajabhat and Kham Tieng market. I saw one flash but didn't hear any thunder following. Figured a transformer or something blew with the rain which had just started. Electric came on again after about 45 minutes.

[impulse]

At sea level the horizon appears to be about 3 miles away to a 6ft person. We are on the 15th floor which give us almost a 17 mile horizon distance, and these flashes seemed to be at the edge of our visible horizon at ground level.

At 17 miles, you'll see the flash about 85 seconds before you'll hear anything. That's because of the difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound. (It's a great way to figure out how close that lightning really hit- 5 seconds per mile)

I'd have given up and gone back into the A/C long before the sound would have arrived- if it was audible at all at that distance.

Edited July 19, 2015 by impulse

[FolkGuitar]

Well right about at that time, just before 9 pm, the lights went out in my neighborhood which is between Rajabhat and Kham Tieng market. I saw one flash but didn't hear any thunder following. Figured a transformer or something blew with the rain which had just started. Electric came on again after about 45 minutes.

It did have the right 'color' for an electrical flash. I've seen power boxes blow up before with that same intensity.

But it was the sheer size of these flashes that really got us wondering. They covered too large an area of the horizon, and reached too high... unless .... perhaps it was on one of the larger power line pylons on one of the hill in that direction. Hmmmmm..... something to consider.

At sea level the horizon appears to be about 3 miles away to a 6ft person. We are on the 15th floor which give us almost a 17 mile horizon distance, and these flashes seemed to be at the edge of our visible horizon at ground level.

At 17 miles, you'll see the flash about 85 seconds before you'll hear anything. That's because of the difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound. (It's a great way to figure out how close that lightning really hit- 5 seconds per mile)

I'd have given up and gone back into the A/C long before the sound would have arrived- if it was audible at all at that distance.

We were standing at the window waiting for the sound, hoping that would give us a clue. We stood there for 2-3 minutes, scanning with a pair of 10x50 binoculars, thinking we'd at least see smoke if not flames. We saw nothing. We heard nothing. Of course... I'm pretty damn deaf these days but my wife can hear a chocolate bar being unwrapped from three blocks away and she didn't hear anything either. We keep the windows open 24/7 (except if the wind is blowing the rain inside,) in most of the rooms, only using A/C in the bedroom at night, so had there been any sound at all my wife would have heard it.

[cloudhopper]

20 km is about the maximum distance a loud sound can propagate before it falls below the ambient noise level. This would be a delay of about 1 minute between light and sound.

[northernjohn]

Maybe they were testing out this machine!

http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2015/07/17/floating-hermit-unveils-rain-sucker-solve-drought-crisis

To bad no one understands Thai here. It would be interesting to hear what happened there.

[kaptainrob]

Most likely explanation is HT lines shorting, eg >

[FolkGuitar]

Most likely explanation is HT lines shorting, eg >

Good thought, but not even close in size or shape. The area that was lit up was MUCH larger. From my vantage point (and I'm guessing here,) about 15 miles away, It appeared to light up 200-300 meters in width. This is why I'm so surprised that lots of other folks didn't see it! They were huge! Although I missed the first one and only saw it's reflection on my window screen trim, we clearly watched the next two flashes. It was more akin to an explosion than an electrical spark. Quite hemispherical in its shape. More like what is seen here at 48 seconds...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=28&v=bMcnKj_vl_8

Edited July 19, 2015 by FolkGuitar

[rijb]

Some people call them lightning bugs.

They would have to be the lightning bugs that ate Cleveland to flash at the size and intensity we saw.

The question might be more of 'how much' instead of 'how big' ...

FIREFLY WHITE LIGHTNING MOONSHINE

[dotpoom]

Is Chiang Mai noted for UFO sightings? Maybe its a new form of rain making.

Or the latest attempt by TAT to attract tourists.

[Kerryd]

There are various kinds of lightning in addition to the regular "bolt from the heavens" kind. In some places they have "sheet lightning" where it appears the bolts are travelling horizontally through the clouds. Those tend to light up the clouds quite nicely.

There is also a type called "heat lightning".

• Heat Lightning: 'Heat lightning' is simply ordinary lightning from faraway thunderstorms below the horizon. On a clear night, lightning flashes from a distant storm can be seen hundreds of miles away. Heat lightning got its name because it is often seen on hot summer nights, a time when thunderstorms are common. 'Heat lightning' often is early warning sign that storms are approaching, because the storm producing the lightning you're seeing could be moving your way.

We used to get a lot of that in Afghanistan, especially in the Kabul region. In the beginning people thought it was artillery battles going on in the mountains (as it did resemble the flashes produced by such explosions). The odd part was - no sound. Not of thunder or off explosions. Later we found out about "heat lightning". (Turns out there is thunder, it's just so far away the sound dissipates before reaching you.)

Sheet lightning is pretty common in the Prairies, possibly something to do with lack of anything on the ground to attract the electricity. Used to be awesome driving across the wide, flat prairies and see a line of dark clouds on the horizon being lit up by lightning flashes.

But I suspect what you saw was aliens. Probably their retro rockets firing as they landed. Have you experienced any periods of unconsciousness recently ? Wake up with a sore bum ? Have sudden urges to watch X-Files re-runs ? Classic signs of alien abduction and.........experimentation.

(Or perhaps just another normal Saturday night out on the town ! Who knows ? )

[worgeordie]

So as no one else seems to have seen this phenomenon,it may

just turn into another Chiang Mai mystery.but as it was raining at

that time in the direction you describe,something could have shorted

out,causing another,then another to do the same,just about every time

it rains you can hear the crap Chinese transformers exploding up at

Raumchok market.

regards worgeordie

[SOTIRIOS]

...if only they were really coming....... to save us......

[soalbundy]

Three Thai's having an idea.

[Fullstop]

Build a bomb shelter ... stock it with Mama Noodles ... wear a tinfoil hat.

[shaurene]

Like hotels when they get full a number of them set off fireworks and rockets maybe similar but this one may have used a powerful rockets making a big flash. Or could be a new business opening celebration.

[FolkGuitar]

Please... if you're going to contribute to this thread with other than jokes, at least have the courtesy of reading what was written previously...

The three flashes came from the same spot on the horizon. The three of them originated at ground level and produce a hemispherical flash that appeared to be at least 200-300 meters in diameter. Each flash lasted at least 1-2 seconds and was bright enough to reflect off of my aluminum window screens although at least 15 miles away.

So far either the large firefly idea or the exploding electrical works are leading the pack. My money is on the exploding electrical works.

[northernphil]

Off topic I know but this topic reminded me. The night before last at about 12.30 I said to the wife " What is that noise ,it sounds like a plane ? " She said it was . Just like the sound a regular plane makes flying overhead, but, I didn't think commercial planes flew at night from our nearest airport Chiang Rai. If they do fly at night I have never heard one before. Serious question , do commercial panes fly at night or was the cloud base so low for the first time in 8 years of living here we heard a plane ? We live north of CEI so any plane would of been going to Myanmar.

[matman]

Now if the light had been in the East and not the North, this would have allowed TV members to speculate on if it was the second coming or not !!