NIMES (30) 17.12.2016

Around 20:45 on Saturday 17 December 2016, 3 people in a Nîmes car park saw about 30 lights, described as white with 1 orange, moving silently through a hazy night sky. The French summary instead phrases the count as about 30 white points and 1 orange point; the precise total is therefore unclear. They made a video, but only 1 account was collected. The witness did not want the video published. GEIPAN considered this very probably a sky-lantern release: the video appearance fitted. Infoclimat's Nîmes wind record showed a north-to-south wind, matching the UAPs' movement. The camera faced roughly east and showed them moving left to right. The witness objected that their paths differed and some caught up with others. GEIPAN noted that the video nevertheless showed them consistently following one another left to right, and that urban surroundings could create local wind irregularities with some air currents faster than others. It also showed fainter stationary points, probably stars. Météociel recorded only 1/8 cloud cover that evening, allowing stars at low elevation to be visible, particularly Procyon, Betelgeuse and Rigel in the east. Moving lights passing fainter or less distinct stationary points were probably lanterns crossing in front of stars. The witness also reported plumes or halos when the camera zoomed in. GEIPAN attributed these entirely to optical or video artefacts, without significance for the phenomenon itself. It noted that weekend evenings are especially conducive to celebrations involving lantern releases. GEIPAN classified the case B: probable observation of sky lanterns.