UFOs, a red glow or the aurora borealis (From Hereford Times)

UFOs, a red glow or the aurora borealis

8:00am Saturday 6th June 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

RECENT sightings of bright lights and possible UFOs in the Herefordshire sky may not be a present-day phenomenon.

Hereford Times reader Hazel Price-Greenow, of Michaelchurch Escley, has sent us a copy of the paper from January 1938 detailing how mystery lights prompted some county residents to fear the “end of the world”.

The article describes a red glow appearing over western Herefordshire, which many mistook for air-raid defence practice or the re-opening of blast furnaces in Blaenavon.

It reads: “As the spectacle persisted, glowing colours became more widespread and, as information came that it had been seen from widely different parts of the country, the visitation was accepted as that rare visitant to these latitudes – the Aurora Borealis.”

Mr FJ Parsons, of Ross Observatory, told the paper: “At 6pm the northern sky was illuminated by a white light.

“Later in the evening, the sky became a shimmering curtain of red and every now and then, narrow shafts of light like searchlights could be seen.”

This was thought to be the first time the Aurora Borealis (northern lights) had been seen that clearly in the county since around 1918, with its presence described as “the most brilliant example in living memory”.

The light spectacular was said to have caused telephone and wireless disturbance.

■ Over the past 12 months, many county residents have reported seeing unusually bright lights in the sky.

Last July, Yarkhill resident Grant Privett said the lights were nothing to do with extraterrestrial activity but a type of cloud that glows at night thanks to “reflections from small dust particles mixing with ice particles more than 50 miles up in the atmosphere”.