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. It resembled a smoke ring and appeared to float by with subtle changes to the shape over time.
All kinds of explanations were offered up ranging from aliens to a failing transformer to a flock of birds or insects.
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
The mysterious sight was visible around 7:40 p.m. Saturday in lower downtown Denver and lasted about five minutes.
Rachel Kolkow said the weird black circle in the air was a smoke ring from a cannon shot off during the Supercross event at Mile High and sent CBS_Denver_Local a picture of the strange phenomenon as it floated high above the stadium.
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.
The CBS4 roof cam in the Outdoor Weather Lab was pointed west to capture the sunset when the remnants of the smoke ring suddenly appeared.
This GIF from Burning Man 2008 shows how a smoke ring can be created:
Well, whatever this black ring is, I wouldn’t want to be under it!
