Swirling Black Ring Terrifies Kansas Town: ‘I Ain’t Ever Seen Nothing Like That’

BONNER SPRINGS, Kan. — The skies above a small Kansas town became the backdrop for an astonishing and mysterious phenomenon when a swirling black ring appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

The bizarre sighting was captured on video by Bonner Springs resident Frankie Camren on Monday afternoon. Camren had been riding his motorcycle when he spotted the unusual formation hovering in the air along a nearby county road.

“I just pulled over,” Camren told FOX Weather. “I’m almost 50 years old. I ain’t ever seen nothing like that.”

In the video he recorded, the ring appears intensely dark at the center, with smoke visibly swirling around it. Camren can be heard reacting with astonishment:
“Can somebody tell me what the (expletive) is this? And I’m not using no app … it appears that little black stuff has fallen down the center of it.”

Camren ruled out fireworks or mortars as possible causes, noting there were no loud noises that would suggest an explosion, even though he was just blocks away on his Harley-Davidson. Another observer in the video speculated whether it could be a flock of birds when seen from a distance.

The footage was later reviewed by the FOX Forecast Center. Meteorologists there suggested the phenomenon was likely a rare smoke ring formed by an explosion. They explained it could be similar to the structure of a mushroom cloud, where hot, rapidly rising air traps smoke in a ring as it rises faster than the surrounding atmosphere.

Interestingly, Camren mentioned that residents in nearby Tonganoxie had reported seeing similar, though smaller, black rings just the day before.

After posting the video on his Facebook page, it quickly went viral.
“My phone just kind of blew up,” he said, describing the flurry of attention as local media began sharing the clip.

A similar incident occurred earlier this year, on March 29 in Seattle. Residents there reported a comparable black ring in the sky. According to FOX 13 Seattle, the National Weather Service confirmed the ring wasn’t related to any weather event. One FOX Weather meteorologist, attending a Seattle Mariners game, witnessed the ring forming from a motocross event across the street at Lumen Field.

While eerie, such rings have often been linked to pyrotechnic events or industrial emissions — though in Camren’s case, no definitive source has yet been identified.