Tallin, Baltic Sea: Clouds fighting — 2 April 1716
Two large dark clouds engaged in combat, and many smaller fast clouds. The phenomenon was observed over the Baltic Sea, near Revel (modern Tallinn). The reports come from various official documents and ship logbooks. It was the second day of Easter, at around 9:00 P.M., when a dense or black cloud appeared in the sky. Its base was wide but its top was pointed, and it seemed to travel upwards quickly, “so that in less than three minutes its angle of elevation reached half of a right angle.” As the cloud appeared “there manifested in the WNW direction an enormous shining comet that ascended up to about 12 degrees above the horizon.” At this moment, a second dark cloud rose from the north, approaching the first one: “There formed between these two clouds, from the northeastern side, a bright light in the shape of a column that for a few minutes did not change its position…” One version states that this column of light remained still for around ten minutes. Then the second cloud moved very quickly through the column, “and hit the other cloud that was moving from the east.” The collision produced “great fire and smoke” for about fifteen minutes, “after which it began to gradually fade and ended with the appearance of a multitude of bright arrows reaching an [angular] altitude of 80 degrees above the horizon.”
Source: M. B. Gershtein, “A Thousand Years of Russian UFOs,” RIAP Bulletin (Ukraine) Case: W271