Interesting phenomenon

biuta

Jedi Master
Hello all,

While in the Dominican Republic, in Punta Cana tonight, looking towards the water, East, slightly North East, I noticed a vertical dark line in the sky. It was noticeable with the naked eye, but it also shows on the pictures, taken with two different phones.
My first thought was that it's some kind of a waterspout, but I am not sure, as it didn't seem to move at all, and it looked like it was going under the water and straight up, through the clouds.

Any ideas what this might be?
 

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A house in my neighborhood has a dark vertical line coming out of the old chimney, which reaches into the sky. No, it's not smoke, it can only be seen at night, and it's always there. Only after I point it out to others, do they notice it. I have no idea what it is.

The house was bought by my neighbors/friends for their family business, after the owner died. This previous owner was an elderly woman. I was in the place many times, in the office part and the front, which a son and his family lived...this was the son of the new owners, my neighbors. The only thing I can say about the house was that occasionally, it smelled like cookies that the elderly woman used to bake. I never felt uncomfortable in the place though...nor did I wittness anything odd, other than the cookie smell.
 
Curious, not sure... I have seen cloud formations like that in te past.. where they look exactly like a line... and it turns out to be air plane fumes, but those are usually smoky and lighter.. could that be the case in this instance?
 
Curious, not sure... I have seen cloud formations like that in te past.. where they look exactly like a line... and it turns out to be air plane fumes, but those are usually smoky and lighter.. could that be the case in this instance?
It was definitely not air plane fumes, really not sure what it was
 
That is fascinating. The black line seems to be more focussed as it reaches the water and wider and more diffuse at the top of the picture.
That was visible only in the picture and it could be that that's how it was, or could be something from the processing of the camera, with the naked eye it simply looked like someone drew a line over the sky, straight up, not curving as a rainbow would do for instance.
 
I found an article about a similar occurrence, during day time, and a meteorologist suggests it's the shadow of a contrail. I'm not convinced that is the case...

 
I found an article about a similar occurrence, during day time, and a meteorologist suggests it's the shadow of a contrail. I'm not convinced that is the case...

It's not an impossible to accept explanation, but I understand the hesitation I myself tend to always leave the door open, after I have exhausted any explanation to the extend of my abilities.
 
Hello all,

While in the Dominican Republic, in Punta Cana tonight, looking towards the water, East, slightly North East, I noticed a vertical dark line in the sky. It was noticeable with the naked eye, but it also shows on the pictures, taken with two different phones.
My first thought was that it's some kind of a waterspout, but I am not sure, as it didn't seem to move at all, and it looked like it was going under the water and straight up, through the clouds.

Any ideas what this might be?
I have a suggestion of what it could be.

A shadow.

Let me explain my thought behind. The beach is lit by some strong light sources, otherwise the beach would be that bright. And also notice that in the first photo, right at the low border of the image, there is a defined shadow, too. That gives me an indication that the beach was lit by light source(s) from behind.

Something is hanging in front of the light source casting a shadow towards the beach and sky. But why into the sky, as well ?

Now warm moist oceanic water plus the waves cracking up at the shore, create billions of fine salty water droplets hovering in the air, especially right at the beach area. So, like particles, they become like a vague projection surface - making shadows become projected (visible)

This works for light streaks too: light steaks through falling through holes, cracks, passages or cloud openings et. become more visible in moist and/or particle rich air - a phenomena you sometimes can see, or when they at sea say “the sun is pulling water” when some clouds are present close to the sun / covering the sun.
 
I tend to agree too that it looks like a shadow in the same lines as the ones presented by Xpan. I've seen similar occurrences when there are strong artificial lights at night with a significant amount of fog or moisture.
 
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