2013-12-31 - Waelo, HI - Light

Flashing and shifting lights in the sky on a very clear night, not heat lightning.

A friend and myself were out enjoying the stars in the heather at the very base of Haleakala close to the ocean, but still high-up. The area is quite remote and partially jungle, right before the road narrows and heads to Hana.

At one point I thought I was having a visual hallucination because the sky closer to the mountain was flashing with a faint almost electrical white light. It was diffuse and appeared to be magnetic/electrical. It was probably over land although it was hard to tell because it was very high up, intermixed with some atmospheric moisture and the curve of the island goes in that direction towards Hana. It flickered and moved, but did not behave like any heat lighting I have seen.

I then realized that my friend had seen it as well and we both became a little bit weirded-out. The lights returned twice and we left.

I would say that it was an unusual aurora, except that I have seen the aurora in Santa Fe and this did not look anything like it except they were both whitish.