No explanation for East Coast lights

WAKEFIELD, Va., March 30 (UPI) -- Weather authorities said they have no explanation for mysterious flashes of light reported in the sky above eastern Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.

A spokesman for the National Weather Service's regional office in Wakefield, Va., said officials haven't seen evidence of any naturally occurring phenomenon that would explain the lights reported Sunday night by residents in the three states, the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch reported Monday.

"Nothing meteorological that we can see," the spokesman said.

Law enforcement offices across the region said they received numerous reports of bright lights and, in some locations, a noise like an explosion at about 9:45 p.m. Sunday.

Police in Suffolk, Va., said they were investigating "reports of great balls of fire landing on the ground."