Mystery “ball of light” followed by a “loud grumble of thunder” over Montgomery, Wales, 20 Jan 2021

Shaun Berwyn posted that he was walking around Lymore, Montgomery, at about 8pm on 20 January 2021 when “it seemed as if someone turned a light on”.

“We looked up to see a huge white ball move over us and disappear!” he posted on a town Facebook page. “Around one minute later there was a brief deep, loud grumble of thunder, then nothing. It freaked out my 14-year-old daughter!”

He dismissed lightning as the “huge white ball of light seemed to slowly disappear into the distance. It was traveling North West”.

Within minutes of posting, dozens of people confirmed seeing or hearing something unusual at the same time from Welshpool, Forden, Trewern, Llansantffraid and Churchstoke.

One commented that they “felt the bang in Guilsfield and thought there had been an explosion”, while another said that “a big explosion sound in Llanfyllin shook the timbers in the house about 8pm. Pheasants woke up screaming”.

We have contacted the Ministry of Defence to ask whether there were any fighter jets that may have caused a sonic boom at around that time, and one physicist told us that it could possibly have been a fireball meteor.

While some jokingly speculated that we could be in for an alien invasion, given the year we have just had, it would be unwise to rule anything out!

The British Geological Survey have no records of any seismic events in the area at that time.

Mystery Sonic Booms over Coventry, UK - RAF fighters not involved, 9 Jan 2021

The mystery surrounding a loud explosion high in the skies above Coventry rumbles on, with the primary suspects distancing themselves from the incident.

Residents from across the city, and the wider Warwickshire area, reported hearing a loud bang on Saturday night (January 9), leaving many mystified.

The plot thickened when doorstep camera footage showed the noise was accompanied by a bright flash of light in the sky - appearing to be an explosion of sorts.

 

Initially, it seemed likely that the cause of the noise was a sonic boom - the noise that accompanies a jet plane breaking the speed of sound.

However, today (Monday, January 11), the Royal Air Force (RAF) has revealed there was no fast jet activity on Saturday night.

As a result, an RAF spokesperson has said that whatever the cause of the mystery, it was not RAF related. He said: "Our operations team can confirm that there was no RAF fast Jet activity on Saturday thus, whatever was heard in your area it was not related to the RAF."

Footage of the explosion also showed moving dots of light in the sky at around the same time - and while these could have been commercial aircraft, these would not have caused a sonic boom. 

 

Other theories as to the cause of the mystery include weather phenomena or even space debris passing overhead - though neither has been confirmed at this time.

The video was captured by a doorstep camera courtesy of Coventry residents Richard and Jo-Anne Barrick.

It is believed that the incident took place shortly before 10pm.