People have been baffled across the capital by a strange light show in the night sky yesterday night (Monday, December 30). Comedian and TV presenter Dara Ó Briain took to X, formerly Twitter, to ask the online community if they had seen the lights above London.
The video he shared shows beams of light shooting across the sky at high speeds in a very odd way. Zipping across the sky and through clouds back towards an unknown vanishing point on the horizon over and over again above sleepy houses.
Dara wrote: “London folk! Does anyone what event was creating this light show at 1.23 am(!) last night? For directions, the lights were heading in a line toward the centre of town from Chiswick/Hammersmith. Or was it a Close Encounter?”
Over 700 people commented on the comedian’s post. Meanwhile, another post with a similar video was posted on community page Life in Kilburn trying to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Perhaps one of the most sensible explanations came from a commenter on Dara’s post who said: “I don’t really know London. But could it be some kind of rehearsal for the midnight fireworks. The lights section anyway?”
Dara replied, saying this was the most sensible suggestion he had read. Others made a decidedly less conventional take. An account called They Are Here wrote: “Well these lights have been seen all over the world and really my only answer is aliens pal . Even the one pentagon can’t say what’s going on in the USA with their “drone” Sightings that are still ongoing!”
But others report seeing similar lights a couple of weeks beforehand, saying, “Someone must know what’s creating them.” Another Tweeter attempted an explanation: “Car headlights being reflected back from a temperature inversion layer that’s quite low. There must be some freeway nearby to get that reflection so sharply. My first thought, I do not know where you are situated as I live in Australia. But the phenomena is well documented.”
Others believed that these were lights from clubs like the Ministry of Sound, or the Earls Court Exhibition Centre.
One doubted the validity of the video, saying “It’s clearly sped up footage of aircraft landing.” Which Dara quickly debunked by replying: “It’s running at normal speed. Plus, Heathrow is the opposite direction.”
There as yet is no definitive answer and people are still arguing in the comment section among several posts about the lights.
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