Mystery Object Lights Sky

source - Vancouver Province July 15, 1952

 

 It was a night for things mysterious in the sky.

First was a meteor-like object which flashed and snaked across the heavens.  Second was a sudden 40 mph gale.

Hundreds of people in all parts of the lower mainland area reported "a bright flash and a long wiggly vapor trail" about 10:30 PM.

To Mrs. L. W. Coleman of Burnaby who is vacationing at Deep Cove, the object was "like a falling star but much brighter."

"There seemed to be a blue explosion followed by a long glowing trail, like the vapor trail from a high flying plane."

To her it appeared high over the North Shore mountains as she, her husband and a friend returned from a boating trip.

For several minutes the trail seemed to rise in a wavy line, grow slightly brighter, then disappear.

Her experience was much the same as others. A radio range operator at Vancouver Airport reported roughly the same thing although the log-book entry in the control tower was timed at about 10:50.

Dozens of other people phoned this newspaper reporting the object.

Second "mystery," explained this morning by the weather office forecasters, was the hot dry wind which sprang from a cloudless sky and bulleted parts of Vancouver with gusts to gale force until 2 AM today. It was almost too realistic for the audience at Theatre Under the Stars in Stanley Park.  First gusts came just as the curtain fell on a dramatic scene depicting the star of Kansas tornado which carries a little girl to the fairyland of Oz.

To the weatherman it marked the passage of a cold front although it was so dry no cloud appeared in the sky.

No damage was reported, although gale force was reached several times.

 


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