SOPPE-LE-BAS (68) 20.07.2013

On Saturday 20 July 2013 at 01:30, a witness in Soppe-le-Bas saw groups of dark red balls of light moving silently through the sky and took photographs. GEIPAN considers reddish-orange lights traveling in single file on a weekend night strongly suggestive of sky lanterns. Their estimated east-to-west movement is difficult to compare with the very light, variable and therefore uncertain local wind. Weather records gave northerly wind at Colmar but southerly wind at Basel; the source suggests this variability could explain the change of direction. The witness, previously unaware of such lanterns, researched them and accepted that they could explain the sighting. Despite uncertainty about local wind, GEIPAN classifies the case as B: probable sky lanterns.