As if this planet doesn’t have enough problems already, we now have to contend with those damn aliens:
In Washington on Sunday night (registration required – but the "bugmenot" method works):
For a few seconds Sunday night, the dark, cloudless north state sky lit up. Not like a lightning strike. And not like a shooting star.
Like three seconds of daylight, said Dennis Weissenfluh, 41, of Washougal, Wash. He was southbound on Interstate 5 a few miles north of Weed when the mysterious light appeared.
It lit everything up from horizon to horizon as far as I could see," Weissenfluh said Monday.
Traffic on the citizens band radio picked up with drivers all wondering what they saw, he said.
"(It was) one of those unexplainable kind of things," Weissenfluh said.
Karin Hastings, 74, of Mountain Gate was walking her dog when a bright glow lit up everything around her.
"It was very unusual, and it was so amazing to have this light surround me," Hastings said.
She turned toward the northwest. A huge, oval-shaped object, gold in color, dropped out of the sky with what appeared to be smoke trailing behind, she said.
"It disappeared very quickly," Hastings said.
Sandy Lynch, 67, who lives off Placer Road near Centerville, said she was talking on the phone when she saw a sparkling object through her window.
It was brighter and whiter than the moon with a distinct trail that glowed orange.
"It was beautiful," Lynch said. "It kind of scared me, though."
All of these witnesses reported seeing the intense, glowing light between 7:10 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Dana Coleman was anxious to know what was behind the "extraordinary bright light" seen last night in Richmond and as far away as Goochland and Dinwiddie counties.
"It was really, really strange," Coleman said, minutes after the sighting.
Coleman lives near Libbie and Grove avenues. She and three friends were chatting outside about 9:25 p.m. when "the whole backyard suddenly illuminated."
She said the bright blue light moved south with an orange and white streak. It then exploded and disappeared, she said.
"We weren’t afraid," Coleman said. "We were more in awe."