Project Blue Book case file: Levelland, November 2-3, 1957 (81 pages)

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

Concerning the Acts Tying the Basin for explaining the Lawswell Case Sightings .

1. No two sightings were made at the same time , therefore the single explanation must be sought for all of them .

2. It appears that ordinary lightning close at hand, may serve well to explain most of the sightings. The low cloud clearing known to have existed during several of the sightings might have led to brilliant reflections from some of the cloud formations. This might account for some of the rare "object" appearance, St. Elmd's fire (burst discharge appearance) might have been seen in a case or two, but not necessarily "ball" lightning (an spite of occasional reference to ball lightning in separately reputable publications, it is not felt that ball lightning is sufficiently respectable scientifically to be brought into use in explaining some of these sightings, particularly where ordinary lightning appears to eliminate furnish an adequate basis for application). It should be remembered that lightning in not so common out there as it is in most cases, 3. It is not unlikely that the ignition of an old car could be put out of order by water (down or splashed onto it). A faulty voltage regulator could account for the discharge of a battery.

4 . Specifie replies to the question of ( 4 ) whose ere :

6. Exceedingly unlikely. There is a very low probability that oil vapor in the rain could be ignited. However, a flare from a natural gas " burn-off attack" in a possibility this flare would be yellowing though because of soot The latter, and this should be recognized by people accustomed to seeing these gases burning.