Those strange cloud-like formations people saw in the Burlington area sky Tuesday morning were the contrails of maneuvering F-35s, WCAX weatherman Joe Carroll said today.
Several sky-watching social media pages were peppered with photos of the early morning phenomenon. While appearing like contrails, they had a non-linear, seemingly erratic shape.
Prompted by several Facebook friends, Vermont Daily Chronicle does what reporters do when they don’t know what’s going on in the sky: they call the weatherman. Carroll responded promptly.
“I also took an image of the sky Tuesday morning,” Carroll said in a Wednesday morning email. “It was contrails of the F35’s from Vermont Air National Guard doing training. They usually take off around 9:30 am. Due to the cold weather the vapors were more visible. It looks like they were doing some unusual moves!”
Social media commenters who saw the formations aren’t so sure. “I watched 4 Jets take off today hours after this happened and not one of them left a trail as they flew outta sight, they never do. Now take in the fact that these f-35s are loud, very loud, and you can hear them beyond as far as you can see them. The planes spraying were not loud and not moving at those speeds, also I’ve never once seen them training that low because you’d hear them.”