Sphere over Mississauga, ON · Canada

The report, as filed

I was driving to work and was stuck in slow traffic on the 401. It was still dark as it was winter in canada and the sun doesn’t rise so early, but due to the airport being off to my left there was ambient light that lit up the low and dense cloud cover above the airport. I was driving when suddenly this bright spot of light caught my eye above the airport just below the base of the blanket of clouds in the sky. It got just up into where I could see some cloud mist between me and it, though it wasn't anywhere near "in" the clouds yet. Then BAM the brightest flash and it was gone. I recall residual light bounce through the clouds kept the spot illuminated enough after the flash that I could see there was no debris or anything falling. I verbally yelled out expletive's when I saw the flash because it was insanely bright and surprising. I was in heavy traffic so maybe thousands would have seen it along with me. That was it. I was shocked and thought about the event throughout the rest of that day at work. The light the 'orb' emitted was bright white. All I can say was it was kind of light how a lightbulb burns out, where it flashes bright and then its dead.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #178254). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.