Similar question already on here and it’s been closed. Sounds like same experience. About 4am last night, dim lightning flashes, warm color temp, about half second durations. Very localized. Can flash in front yard but not back yard. Clear sky. Stars visible across entire sky. Was looking directly at one flash which was 30-40 feet above ground (just above trees), and probably 100 feet wide. It’s like you’re looking at clear sky, then there’s a flashing cloud of light, then it stops and sky still clear. If there’s any cloudiness or water vapor, it’s homogeneous across sky and thin enough to see stars through. Paranormal portal or what?
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$\begingroup$ Ball lightning, perhaps. $\endgroup$– Jon CusterCommented Jul 12, 2019 at 19:27
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Your description sounds like "heat lightning" -- diffuse flashes of light from far-off thunderstorms. They're so distant that you don't hear their thunder, and if you can see their clouds at all, they're very near the horizon.
Your "warm color temp" observation supports this. Like the light of a sunset, this light travels a long way through the atmosphere, and its blue components tend to get dispersed along the way. What you're left with is reddish or orange-ish light.
As for your distance and size estimate, that was a simple illusion. You saw a flash behind the trees, and didn't have any preconceived notion about its size, so you assumed it was close to the trees and sized proportionately. It almost certainly wasn't, though.
