Mysterious black ring appears in the Kansas sky: What is this new phenomenon?

Time of India

09-05-2025

The sky is more than a backdrop to our everyday lives; it is a source of fascination for children to spot birds, airplanes, and clouds.
But sometimes, this beautiful blue canvas becomes a stage to witness bizarre things like unidentified flying objects, unusual sky phenomena that have long created curiosity, uncertainty, and wonder.
These rare moments often go viral, causing people to pause, look up in the sky, and question it.
With smartphones always in hand, witnesses often manage to shoot videos or photos of these strange happenings instantly, flooding social media with theories. While science can usually offer a grounded explanation, there's always a sliver of mystery that remains.
Recently, a similar incident in Bonner Springs, Kansas, has amazed people with something very strange in the sky.
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On Monday afternoon, while Kansas resident Frankie Camren was out, he caught sight of a mysterious black ring suspended in the sky. While riding his bike along a county road, Camren noticed an unexplainable dark circle floating overhead and immediately pulled over.
"I just pulled over," Camren told FOX Weather. "I'm almost 50 years old. I ain't ever seen nothing like that."
In a video he captured and shared online, the ring appears jet black with smoke swirling around its center.
As seen in the clip, Camren can be heard asking, 'Can somebody tell me what the (expletive) is this?' and assuring viewers, 'And I'm not using no app … it appears that little black stuff has fallen down the center of it.'
Though at first he considered a possible explosion, he ruled out fireworks or mortars, as there were no loud noises in the area.
Another voice in the video, a woman nearby, speculated it might even be a flock of birds.
When the footage was reviewed later, it provided a likely explanation that the ring was probably caused by an explosion, perhaps at an industrial site or a pyrotechnic event. Similar to a mushroom cloud, such rings form when rapidly rising hot air traps smoke and pushes it outward in a circular shape.
Interestingly, Camren noted that others in nearby Tonganoxie reported seeing smaller rings just a day earlier.
After posting the video on Facebook, it quickly went viral.
'My phone just kind of blew up,' Camren said.
This wasn't the only recent sighting of its kind. On March 29, a nearly identical black ring was spotted in Seattle. FOX 13 Seattle reported that the National Weather Service ruled out any weather-related cause, linking the ring instead to a motocross event at Lumen Field.