Cool Smoke Ring Caught Floating Over Denver Saturday Evening
DENVER (CBS4) - Dozens of people saw something odd in the sky over Denver around sunset on Saturday and took to social media with great wonder about the mysterious cloud-like feature, including myself. It resembled a smoke ring and appeared to float by with subtle changes to the shape over time.
OKAY ... here's an odd one for you. This was caught on our city cam looking due west around 740 pm. We also had a viewer in LoDo film it. His video was more of a perfect circle. I am baffled at how to explain this one. LOL! CRAZY! And creepy. #COwx #4wx pic.twitter.com/DOZKD1ghwK
— Chris Spears (@ChrisCBS4) April 14, 2019
All kinds of explanations were offered up ranging from aliens to a failing transformer to a flock of birds or insects. One of my favorite comments came from Ashley Carter on Facebook, saying whatever it is I wouldn't want to be under it!
CBS4 viewer Tom Daggett sent us the video below. He caught the strange sight around 7:40 p.m. Saturday from his deck in lower downtown. He said it lasted about five minutes.
After putting out a plea on social media for other witnesses and to find out if anyone had an explanation I had several immediate replies, including one from Rachel Kolkow. She was attending the Supercross event at Mile High and said it was a smoke ring from a cannon shot off during the event.
She snapped the following picture of the smoke ring as it floated high above the stadium. She said it lasted for several minutes.
The longer the smoke ring floated in the air the more twisted the shape became due to changes in wind speed and direction above the ground.
Our CBS4 roof cam in the Outdoor Weather Lab was pointed west to capture the sunset when the remnants of the smoke ring suddenly appeared. Master control operator Ben Pliska grabbed his phone and snapped the following video of the interesting sight.