Sighting in Le Cannet, July 24, 2024

Early in the morning, the witness was travelling on the A8 motorway towards Nice. Their spouse was driving and their children were in the back seat. Near Antibes, looking through the driver's side window, the witness noticed an elongated, red-orange phenomenon to the left, towards the northwest, which seemed to reflect sunlight. It emerged from a white mass of cloud, dropped quickly and vertically, then vanished behind a rock formation. Holding a graduated ruler at arm's length, the witness estimated its apparent length at about 4 cm. The sighting lasted 5 to 7 seconds.

Nobody else in the car saw it: the spouse was focused on the road and the children were asleep. GEIPAN rated the case's consistency as medium, because there was only one witness, no photo or video, and the viewing conditions were not ideal.

The investigation favoured the hypothesis of an isolated cloud, lower than the others, coloured by the rising Sun, which was then about 7° above the horizon during the "golden hour". The elongated shape and the colour fit, and GEIPAN's weather expert found the explanation credible: the other, white clouds were therefore higher up. The downward movement may have come from the rising terrain to the left of the motorway, which gave the impression of a descent. The phenomenon's probably low apparent altitude favours this illusion, and explains why the rock formation hid it and the witness never saw it again. The case was classified B: probable sighting of an isolated cloud coloured by the rising Sun.