UPDATE: While it’s still unclear who set off the explosion that created a black ring over the Williamsburg area, 10 On Your Side now has a better idea of what it might have been.

The black ring was likely made by a powerful pyrotechnic effect called Dragon’s Breath, created about two decades ago by Paul Biersach in Madison, Wisconsin. Biersach contacted 10 On Your Side on August 22 and shared videos of what the explosion and resulting black ring look like.

He says the pyrotechnic community has had a good laugh over people hypothesizing about the ring’s origins.

Here’s a video of Dragon’s Breath from YouTube.

Previous coverage below.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (WAVY) — A mysterious black ring that appeared in the sky over Hampton Roads has many questioning what caused it. Several WAVY TV 10 viewers reached out with images and video of the ominous looking ring floating in the sky.

WAVY started receiving messages shortly after 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 13. We were suspicious at first. When you see the images, it almost looks like someone drew the circle on them. But after we heard from a couple more people, we decided to do some more digging and try to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Ron Stepp, who sent in video, said he was working in the vicinity of Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg when it appeared overhead. He described it a huge smoke ring and said it disappeared after about 10 minutes. Another WAVY viewer was in the area of Old Mooretown Road when he saw the ring. He stopped to snap some photos of it.

WAVY viewer Peggy Olszyk sent in a photo that she took around 11 a.m. Tuesday in Williamsburg, and another viewer sent a photo of the ring taken on Interstate 64 westbound in the area of the Fort Eustis exit.

Renee Fisher snapped a pair of photos (seen below) of the black ring in the sky in the Waller Mill area of Williamsburg.

During our search for answers, we discovered news articles and social media posts describing similar sightings in other regions. Those reports said a fire or some type of explosion likely created the ring.

WAVY reached out to the James City County Fire Department to ask if there were any reports around the time the Williamsburg circle was reported. The fire chief hadn’t heard of any.

We also asked if Dominion Energy if there was a blown transformer that could have caused this. We received a response from spokesperson Tim Eberly. He said he touched base with their operations center and the supervisor who oversees the Williamsburg/James City County area and both relayed there were no incidents this week involving equipment that could have caused a black ring of smoke.

So, we went to our in-house experts: the Super Doppler 10 Weather Team. Meteorologist Ricky Mathews said he had seen these form from pyrotechnics before — basically stemming from concentrated fire rising. He theorized it could also be a special effect for a film. Meanwhile, Meteorologist Steve Fundaro’s first explanation was… aliens! Seriously, though, he said it could be a smoke ring from a plume of smoke from an industrial process or explosion.

10 On Your Side also reached out to nearby Busch Gardens, since one theory is pyrotechnics and since there have been other national reports about similar sightings in the vicinity of theme parks. We’re waiting on a reply.

If you have any knowledge of the actual source or have pictures or video to add to our coverage, please let us know via the form at this link.