2005-02-02 - Hauppauge, NY - Unknown

Five contrails noticed in the sky moving counterclockwise and disappearing/reappearing.

Heading west on rt 347 I stopped at a turn signal to head south on portion rd. While stopped at the light which is unusually long timed I noticed a contrail a short distance moving slowly through the sky. It was of a short length and the object emitting the contrail could not be seen. What made it unusual was that the entire contrail appeared to be moving slowly across the sky and not being left behind and dissapating. I pointed this out to my wife and children and collectively we noticed another 4 contrails of what appeared to be identical lengths spaced out into the distance. The sun was setting in the west at the time but the day was clear and would definitely be considered a daytime event. The closest contrail appeared to totally disappear at least twice but reappeared seconds later. There were some wires crossing the road at the traffic signal and I moved my head up and down to make sure that the "disappearance" was not caused by the visual obstruction of the wires. It was not, the contrail totally disappeared and reappeared at least twice though the heading and travelling distance appeared to remain approximately consistent during the disappearance/ reappearance. In general the contrails appeared to be moving in a generally counterclockwise direction to where Kennedy and LaGuardia airport would lie about 50 miles to the west. Three were heading towards us and two were moving toward the north or right of us. I am not qualified to judge the actual distances but the closest contrail was certainly close enough to us that a plane at the front of the contrail should have been easy to see. Yet as hard as we tried we could not see one. Can anybody tell me if they noticed this daytime display, do the airports "hold" planes in clockwise or counterclockwise directions, is there some type of visual phenomenom that can cause a reflection of some type during the setting of the sun that could cause this? The observers were a typical family of Husband/Wife and four children ranging from 7-17 yrs of age.