After a spring storm in daylight hours, my family and I were out in the yard when I noticed all these tiny twinkling bits of white light filling the sky. There were hundreds and each flashed for just a fraction of a second. Three other family members could see them. Two others could not. I’m ancient and I’ve never seen this before in my life. I feel sure that they are weather related. (There had been a tornado somewhere within fifty miles – and a vivid double rainbow.) What kind of atmospheric conditions would cause this?
Since you didn’t mention it, I’ll assume nothing landed on you. I would have guessed debris from the tornado, and the reason that it flashed was becuase it was something irregularly shaped and reflective, so it flashed for the split second that the angles where right to reflect directly into your eye, the rest of the time it was so small you didn’t see it (or maybe you didn’t, the OP wasn’t quite clear on that point). Perhaps it was snow/ice that melted (and even evaporated) before it got to the ground.
Thanks, Joey…
They were as tiny as stars and completely disappeared after flashing. (Perhaps “popping” is a better word to describe how they looked. ) Nothing fell on us. I had thought about the possibility of debris, but it was distributed throughout the sky. Also, they were all the same size.
WAG:
Ice crystals from the tornado - those puppies are (sometimes) tall enough that their tops are in freezingly cold air, and moisture drawn up would crystalize.
Why they would flash, I can’t guess, but the fact that some saw the phenom, and some didn’t suggests the angle of reflection/refraction which made them visible was so tight that the angle might hold only breifly.
(luckily, it has been 20+ years since I’ve been near a tornado, so I don’t remember the pressure differentiials involved. Those differentials might also explain your phenom.)
just a little info…the song lucy in the sky was inspired by a picture that jons son drew…