On 13/03/12 11:22, Joe Egginton wrote:
Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:52:50 -0000, a l l y wrote:

I've seen this phenomenon often enough to be pretty certain they're a
type of lightning. I now live in rural Cumbria, and was driving home
late last night across a small moorland area when I thought I saw
some wildfire in the distance.

Other (boring) possiblities:

Lamping or even just headlights from distant traffic. Lamping is more
likely to give a "flash" than traffic as the light is swung rapidly.

Flashover on HV power distribution, you do say it's wet.


Maybe a fanciful idea. Could it be the build up of methane from bogs in
a light / calm air, which spontaneously combusts in a highly static air?


Aka Jack-o'-Lantern or Will-o'-the-Wisp?

--
Graham Davis, Bracknell, Berks. E-mail: change boy to man
LibreOffice: http://www.documentfoundation.org/
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"Joe Egginton" wrote in message
...
Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:52:50 -0000, a l l y wrote:

I've seen this phenomenon often enough to be pretty certain they're a
type of lightning. I now live in rural Cumbria, and was driving home
late last night across a small moorland area when I thought I saw some
wildfire in the distance.

Other (boring) possiblities:

Lamping or even just headlights from distant traffic. Lamping is more
likely to give a "flash" than traffic as the light is swung rapidly.

Flashover on HV power distribution, you do say it's wet.

--
Cheers Dave.
Nr Garrigill, Cumbria. 421m ASL.





Maybe a fanciful idea. Could it be the build up of methane from bogs in a
light / calm air, which spontaneously combusts in a highly static air?

Not that fanciful - I'm sure I've heard of such a thing happening.

ally

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ill.co.uk...
On Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:52:50 -0000, a l l y wrote:

I've seen this phenomenon often enough to be pretty certain they're a
type of lightning. I now live in rural Cumbria, and was driving home
late last night across a small moorland area when I thought I saw some
wildfire in the distance.

Other (boring) possiblities:

Lamping or even just headlights from distant traffic. Lamping is more
likely to give a "flash" than traffic as the light is swung rapidly.

Flashover on HV power distribution, you do say it's wet.

Hi Dave! Yeah, last night I wasn't quite sure if I was seeing "genuine"
wildfire, or if it could be something to do with distant headlamps, but the
second flash seemed to come from the direction of the Solway, and just
looked all wrong for headlamps. I'm pretty sure the stuff I've seen in the
past, though, in Scotland, was the genuine article, whatever that may be,
rather than a human-created phenomenon.

The way we always tended to recognise it was by the way someone would
suddenly shout, "What the hell was that?"
:-)

ally

"Togless" wrote in message
...
"a l l y" wrote:

Anyone recognise what I'm talking about here? We always called it
"wildfire," as I was growing up in Scotland, but I can't find any
references online using that name, and I'd like to know the correct word.

When you're driving across the moors late at night, and it's really dark
and there's heavy cloud clover, you suddenly see a flash in the distance.
No sound of thunder. No rain. Just a flash. It's a pretty small flash,
though bright and quite intense, which could mean it's far away. Drive a
few miles and there's another flash. And more, at intermittent intervals.
That's what we call wildfire.

I was always aware it was some sort of lightning-related phenomenon, and
this evening I found myself thinking about it, so I went online to search
for info, but couldn't find anything. I don't know the proper name for
this, so I can't look it up. Any ideas?

When there is low cloud, trains can cause bright flashes which can be seen
for miles as electricity arcs from the live rail. That can easily be
mistaken for lightning, and it fits your description of a small but
intense flash which happens intermittently (as the train travels along the
track). Is there an electrified railway line in the area that could be
responsible?
Nice idea, but no. Around here there's a very limited service, local,
non-electrified, railway line, that only runs during the day. In my previous
life in Scotland there wasn't a railway line anywhere in the vicinity of the
moors in question.

ally

"MCC" wrote in message
. ..
a l l y wrote:

Anyone recognise what I'm talking about here? We always called it
"wildfire," as I was growing up in Scotland, but I can't find any
references
online using that name, and I'd like to know the correct word.

When you're driving across the moors late at night, and it's really dark
and
there's heavy cloud clover, you suddenly see a flash in the distance. No
sound of thunder. No rain. Just a flash. It's a pretty small flash,
though
bright and quite intense, which could mean it's far away. Drive a few
miles
and there's another flash. And more, at intermittent intervals. That's
what
we call wildfire.

I was always aware it was some sort of lightning-related phenomenon, and
this evening I found myself thinking about it, so I went online to search
for info, but couldn't find anything. I don't know the proper name for
this,
so I can't look it up. Any ideas?

Thanks!

ally

In Orkney we called that phenomenon a "weather blink".
--
Now that's a good term for it. I like.

ally

"Jim" wrote in message
...
On 2012-03-13, a l l y wrote:
Anyone recognise what I'm talking about here? We always called it
"wildfire," as I was growing up in Scotland, but I can't find any
references
online using that name, and I'd like to know the correct word.

Anything similar to heat lightning?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_lightning

That does sound quite similar ... apart from the heat. (Heat? In Cumbria? In
the Highlands?) I'm trying to remember whether it's always seen in the far
distance, as though the main storm might be concealed by the curvature of
the earth, but I'm not sure now. I haven't seen much of it for years. We
used to drive up into the Scottish highlands a lot, late at night, across
wide moorland, and you'd see these flashes from time to time. I think there
was often that sort of "electric" feel to the atmosphere, similar to how it
feels when a thunderstorm's approaching, which made us always believe it was
the same sort of thing.

ally

In article ,
says...
I was always aware it was some sort of lightning-related phenomenon, and
this evening I found myself thinking about it, so I went online to search
for info, but couldn't find anything. I don't know the proper name for this,
so I can't look it up. Any ideas?


You see this more often the higher you are (or at least, I do). I came
across this phenomenon last Autumn whilst driving down the Eastern side
of the Grampians. When I got home, I checked the lightning sites which
showed some intense activity over the North Sea, about 85-125 miles away
from the observation points but in exactly the right direction.

Next time you see it, if you get home in time, check the Lightning sites
to see where the nearest activity is. I've only managed to do that the
once, and having seen that the storms were over water on that occasion
got me to thinking that previous observations were always in the
direction of water, either to the East or the North. I just assumed that
the light was reflecting off the water and back on to the cloud base
which was observable just above my horizon but I didn't give it much
thought.

Were your observations to the West or South West by any chance?

--
Alan LeHun

a l l y wrote:
"Joe Egginton" wrote in message
...
Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:52:50 -0000, a l l y wrote:

I've seen this phenomenon often enough to be pretty certain they're
a type of lightning. I now live in rural Cumbria, and was driving
home late last night across a small moorland area when I thought I
saw some wildfire in the distance.

Other (boring) possiblities:

Lamping or even just headlights from distant traffic. Lamping is more
likely to give a "flash" than traffic as the light is swung rapidly.

Flashover on HV power distribution, you do say it's wet.

--
Cheers Dave.
Nr Garrigill, Cumbria. 421m ASL.





Maybe a fanciful idea. Could it be the build up of methane from bogs
in a light / calm air, which spontaneously combusts in a highly static
air?

Not that fanciful - I'm sure I've heard of such a thing happening.

ally


As the mountains of Scotland are made of crystallised minerals, could
the lights be made by piezoelectricity from the strains of a fault line,
possibly igniting a hydrocarbon on the moors?

It could also explain lights in the sky before an earthquake.

Joe Egginton
Wolverhampton.

In article ,
a l l y writes:
Hi Dave! Yeah, last night I wasn't quite sure if I was seeing
"genuine" wildfire, or if it could be something to do with distant
headlamps, but the second flash seemed to come from the
direction of the Solway, and just looked all wrong for headlamps.

Could it have been the beam of a lighthouse, reflected off very low
cloud?
--
John Hall
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism
by those who have not got it."
George Bernard Shaw

"John Hall" wrote in message
...
In article ,
a l l y writes:
Hi Dave! Yeah, last night I wasn't quite sure if I was seeing
"genuine" wildfire, or if it could be something to do with distant
headlamps, but the second flash seemed to come from the
direction of the Solway, and just looked all wrong for headlamps.

Could it have been the beam of a lighthouse, reflected off very low
cloud?
--
I don't think there are any active lighthouses on that stretch of coastline.
I've lived here since 1996 with a clear view across the water, and I've
never seen one.

ally