2011-11-20 - Snohomish, WA

bright lights, then three angular objects disappear or are enveloped into glowing column

My daughter and I were almost to our home five miles east of the town of Snohomish, WA. It was Sunday, evening between 8:05 and 8:10pm on November 20th, 2011. My daughter, (age 33) who was driving, said, “What was that! Did you see that?” She immediately stopped the car and we both looked to our left. We were in a heavily wooded area. What we saw were many, many bright lights. The lights were so bright they looked like burning magnesium. The lights were beyond the trees. My daughter describes them as more blue than I do. We were puzzled because they most appeared like fireworks but did not act like fireworks, in that they were not falling and fading out. What my daughter saw initially she describes as maybe a comet with a tail exploding. I did not see the initial “comet.” In reference to the many bright, white lights, I said, it is strange what would someone be celebrating on a Sunday evening in Snohomish. I erroneously thought we were looking due west towar! ds the town of Snohomish. We watched the lights for about 30 seconds and I said, “Let’s go up on the ridge to see if there are more lights.” So, instead of heading right at the intersection, towards our home, we headed left. (Given that we were in a heavily wooded area, there is no way to have seen a comet with a tail streak across the sky.) About 1 ½ miles from where we saw the lights first we stopped. I realized the lights had been almost due north--not west. There were no more lights but there was a glowing gray/green column. The sky was fairly clear and the sky dark. We stopped the car and turned off the car lights to look at the glowing column. The glow was not such that it would jump out at you if you were scanning the sky but yet was very visible. The column was between 40 and 50 degrees on the horizon. We watched for maybe 30-60 seconds, and I said, “I’m tired, let’s go home.” My daughter had picked me up from the airport as I had been out-of-town for five days.

Just as my daughter started up the car and turned on the car lights, three bright white angular objects appeared and disappeared into the column or the column enveloped them. I said, “Oh, there are three more.” My daughter did not see this as her head was turned left to do a U-turn to head back home. Two of the angular objects were about as large as a VW bug, one was a little larger. I have no idea why I chose the VW bug as something to compare the size. I cannot describe the shapes---only that they were angular. I cannot say if they were triangular—just angular. They did not line-up but were somewhat in a vertical line. I had the feeling we were very close to whatever this was.

It struck me just how weird this all was when we neared our driveway I called my husband and said to him, “There has been an event in the sky, come and meet us at the end of the driveway.” He did, we drove across the street and up the hill. He saw the glowing column, but no lights. There was also a second, but much dimmer glowing column to the left of the first one. We watched it for maybe 5 minutes and then went home.