Last 2 nights @ around 2:30am we saw strange lights in the eastern sky. Any ideas what they were?

Question

It appeared to be lightning, but was in a very specific area and seemed to be following a specific rhythm that was repeating over and over again. This lasted about 20 to 30 minutes. Also, we heard no thunder, yet it was bright enough that if it were lightning, the thunder should have been following almost immediately. This was occurring in central Minnesota. Appeared to be in southeastern Morrison county. There was some cloud cover and the lights seemed to be stationery. Just seem to suddenly start around 2:30 or so and just as suddenly, after about 30 minutes it quit.

Answer 1

Well most likely it was your eyes and other peoples eyes too

~~~Thanks~~~

Answer 2

Well, I would say it's heat lightning, but heat lightning is a misleading term. Usually that type of lightning is usually from remnants of storms that developed due to daytime heating and humidity. We see it all the time in Florida. It's either that or an aurora borealis ("Northern Lights").

Answer 3

northern lights.

aurora borealis is the only thing i can think of

what were the colors if any you saw

auroras are beautiful and you are really lucky if you saw one

Answer 4

We have a tower of some sort (cell phone or something) near where I live, and sometimes when it's foggy or cloudy that happens while it's flashing.  It's like the clouds and fog carry the light further or something.  Not sure if this makes any sense or not...

Answer 5

umm heat lightning stays in the clouds and happen in the middle of the summer at all hours  of the day and night.. it might have been that..

Answer 6

my friend you were seeing heat lighting. it could have been sheet lightning from a far distance. I live in tampa bay, the lightning capital of the world and I see that all the time here. the lightning you saw was from a single storm cell. since there was cloud cover, the lightning went from the upper levels of the cumulounimbous (storm) cloud and streaked out. sheet lightning can light up the sky for over a full second, instead of quick flashes. sheet lightning can also travel a far distance outside of the storm cloud and make it's way to the ground. if you saw ground strikes and no thunder (which I doubt you did), it was too far away.

Answer 7

It could have been lighting off in the distance.  At night lightning is visible hundreds of miles away.  It could have been a distant thunder storm that you could not hear the thunder because of the distance away from you.  This is sometimes is a misconception as many refer to it as heat lightning.  There is no such thing as heat lightning.  

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/lightnin...