Four Orange Lights over Greensburg, PA
July 28, 2012-evening
Greensburg-Westmoreland County, PA
Numerous reports were received from various people who observed four orange lights over the city of Greensburg Saturday evening. Reports came in from various locations of the city including the northern sections and Ludwick area. Some reports indicated that the lights were in pairs and seemed at times to be almost stationary. Other people described the lights as bright orange that just suddenly vanished within about 2 minutes. No sound was reported with these lights.
I am quite certain that these lights were observations of what are known as Sky lanterns or Chinese lanterns. In past weeks and months there have been numerous other such reports from many towns across the state and around the Pittsburgh area. These devices are very popular specially around holidays such as the 4th of July. As I have mentioned before, with the drought conditions in some areas, these devices can be a fire hazard.
Not all of the observations of bright spheres that have been reported may be so easily explained. If you have seen something unusual in the sky please get in touch with me.