Some people in eastern Newfoundland reported seeing strange lights in the sky last night. A man working at St Clare's Hospital saw a bright white flash that lit up the skyline above St John's. A woman in Bonavista saw two bright flashes of white and purple. Another woman driving on the Trans Canada Highway near Clarenville saw a flash of light that she described as "like a bomb without the boom." Officials with Environment Canada, the RCMP and even Newfoundland Power were baffled. Clayton Power says he was working in St John's when he saw a flash of light around 9pm. Victoria Squires from Carmanville says she was driving through Lethbridge when something lit up the sky.

A spokesperson with Environment Canada says the Canadian Lightning Detection Network has a detection rate for the Avalon area of 70-90%, but if the phenomena was cloud-to-cloud or in-cloud lightning their detection is only 5%.