Mysterious Blue Flash of Light Seen over Dallas, Texas

A still image from dashcam footage of the flash. (Oliver Mathis)

Residents of Dallas, Texas were startled the evening of June 4th when a brilliant flash of blue light briefly lit the sky.

The flash was caught on dashcam by Oliver Mathis while driving eastbound on Interstate 635.

Some residents reported the lights in their homes flickering at the time of the flash.

A spokesperson for local electric company Oncor told KXAS-TV (NBC5) that their equipment caught a "flickering of electricity" across northeast Dallas County at 10:39 p.m. Tuesday.

The spokesperson added that Oncor’s equipment compensated immediately and no one lost power.

They also said that there were no reports of transformers exploding.

Although thunderstorms had moved through portions of North Texas that afternoon, they had missed the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which likely rules out lightning as a source for the flash.

The flash of light was not reportedly accompanied by a booming sound, but it is still reminiscent of the flashes that are sometimes seen alongside the frequently reported mystery booms.

North Oak Cliff, a borough of Dallas, experienced such a boom on January 10th, 2018. The loud, explosive noise occurred at around 8:34 p.m., and some residents reported experiencing a flash of light prior to the sound.

Reports of mysterious booms—sometimes accompanied by flashes of light and/or minor tremors—have been on the rise worldwide since 2017, continuing throughout 2018 and into this year. The booms have been reported across the United States in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, North and South Carolina, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin; as well as in the countries of Russia, Denmark, England, and Australia.

Meteors and other natural events—such as frost quakes—remain popular explanations for the booms, and bolide meteors were blamed for mystery booms in California, Michigan, and Washington in 2018. However, no blanket explanation covers every occurrence of a mystery boom and many cases go unexplained entirely.

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