Stunning flash lights up Russian sky

It's heat lightning. A well known phenomenon.

I know what heat lightning is and what i saw wasnt it. Heat lightning is a weak. What i saw was a split second flash that light up like daylight and i was walking so i would have heard any noise.
Im sure it was a natural phenomenon and since it was winter i think it probably had something to do with the snow providing a reflective surface to focus and diffuse the light, but even then this was way too bright for heat lightning.
 
Suggestion, Meteorite.
A possibility, but the Russian meteorite made a noise.
Especially when the shock wave smashed through peoples' windows,
and sent them to hospital.

Heat Lightning can be quite bright.
It depends on the brightness of the original lightning.
(obviously!)
Example of dramatic heat lightning:

Does the part of Russia where the strange light happened,
have intense thunderstorms?
If not, then perhaps it is not heat lightning.
 
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Heat Lightning can be quite bright.
It depends on the brightness of the original lightning.
(obviously!)

Living in cleveland ohio near lake erie i have seen heat lightning since i was a kid. What i saw, at least was not heat lighting, or if it was, was the brightest heat lightning i ever saw, literally as bright as day, and occured in isolation of any other electrical activity in the atmosphere on those nights, and was completely silent.
 
yeah could be heat lighting, but thing is that thing did not flash in and out, it was more like an "explosion" light source.
 
From what I've heard, I'm tending more toward the meteorite explanation,
and growing doubtful regarding heat lightning.
"Bright as day" is not, I think, heat lightning.
If a meteorite exploded over the horizon, it might have an effect like heat lightning,
silent and illuminating.
Its brightness would depend on the size of the explosion.
 
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From what I've heard, I'm tending more toward the meteorite explanation,
and growing doubtful regarding heat lightning.
"Bright as day" is not, I think, heat lightning.
If a meteorite exploded over the horizon, it might have an effect like heat lightning,
silent and illuminating.
Its brightness would depend on the size of the explosion.
You're the man, Captain, but I think you're dead wrong on this one. While heat lightning is rather dim, it can light up the night. 'Lightning' lightning can be brighter than daylight however briefly. This is Cleveland, OH, we're talking about, the industrial heartland of America. There is no 'over the horizon'. 'Over Cleveland's horizon is Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Indianapolis, and hundreds of good sized town in the most densely populated part of the States. If a meteor fell, people would know about it. Your 'over the horizon' suggests to me some vast unpeopled wilderness. Even Lake Erie on Cleveland's northern outskirt isn't that vast.
 
Here is another video of this mysterious flash. From one of the viewpoints, it looks like it originated on the ground. Possibly an explosion of some kind?

 
The video in the OP was from Russia, not Ohio.
Oh, okay, but I was referring to fogpipe who lives in Cleveland and says he has seen such things.

Also, I once saw a real meteor. Even though the sun wasn't down yet, I don't see how it would have lit up the whole sky brighter than day. For a meteor to that it would have to be truly huge, and people would surely find traces if they had an isdea where it landed.
 
I think a depends a great deal on topology. A number of years ago I was driving across a large part of flatland in Oklahoma when I saw a similar flash of light that filled the entire sky. Since I was driving I didn't see the actual "bolt" and I've always suspected it was a flash of cloud-to-cloud lightening instead of cloud-to-ground. It was also late summer and quite warm so I had the windows down and never heard a thing.

Given that experience, I believe this "event" has been greatly overrated.
 
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