AVION (62) 24.09.2012

On 24 September 2012 at about 00:45 in Avion (62), a witness saw white flashes bursting behind a large white cloud in the sky to the south and east. He filmed for 8 minutes with a pen-shaped spy camera. No sound was heard. When reviewing the video, he was surprised by luminous balls he had not seen directly. His wife also observed the phenomenon, but only 1 account was collected. Lightning-strike records show strong overnight thunderstorm activity in Nord-Pas-de-Calais; see Météociel. The witness confirmed that a thunderstorm reached him after 02:00. GEIPAN attributes the flashes behind the clouds to that activity. The small pen-camera video does not show the flashes, only stationary points of light. GEIPAN explains that this type of camera has poor low-light sensitivity, so distant lightning behind clouds may have been too faint to register. The recorded points are very probably fixed lights, such as streetlights, that the witness did not notice with the naked eye. With no viewfinder on such a camera, he could not compare the recorded field with his direct view. GEIPAN classifies the case as A: observation of distant lightning before a thunderstorm. The lights recorded in the video appear to be urban lighting.