The event actually began with another strange event at 4pm that day. i was heading north on i-83 at 4pm (4:03) and noticed what can only be described as a 'gash-like wound' in the clouds. i make a study for a hobby of mine of clouds and it was highly unusual. there was a steady cloud cover of altocumulus clouds but in the center, running perfectly north to south was an exceptionally large elliptical gash in the clouds. it tapered at the points. the edges were frayed, much as skin would be, showing disruption. the center wound portion had a clear series of lines as if the sky had be pulled in that way by a pendulum of sorts. the closest thing i could find online about the cloud type was a 'fallstreak' cloud. i'd estimate the gash to be approximately 15 miles long. i have a compass in my car and it practically overlapped north. i mention this because nearly exactly 2 hours later i was going south on the same interstate, approximately 10 miles north of where i'd initially spotted said cloud. at this point, it was dark out and i noticed four lights, moving in formation very slowly across the interstate. i should mention we live near an airport. air traffic is very common in this area and i know what airplane lights look like, how they fly, etc. these lights had no flashing lights, no red markers like usual. they didn't seem to fly so much as glide. initially i thought they were helicopters as they moved slowly, but their formation remained perfectly aligned as they traversed over me. i passed directly under them as i fumbled to get my phone to do video while i was driving. i regrettably did not capture video as i passed under them too quickly and was too startled to think. i should have pulled over. it was over very quickly and i couldn't see them again after a few minutes. after i had passed, i was looking in my rearview and noticed off to my east a standard helicopter with normal lighting hovering about 200-400 feet over the treeline near reeser's summit. i assume it was observing the event. the formation these lights had was odd as well, they were moving in a pattern that i can describe as sort of a crescent. i enclosed a badly done ms paint illustration to show you. these lights had a color value that was unusual as well. a lighting reference i have for my hobby (which is game development) i know these lights were very low kelvin (around 2600-2800) and resembled medium wattage tungsten bulbs or sodium lamps. they were surrounded by a haze or mist and in the center i could barely make out a square-shaped blue-white light. my son also witnessed some of this. i should mention i am a highly skeptical person. i've seen hundreds of weird things that i can usually explain away via rational thinking. in this case though, i have no explanation. if they were aircraft: they were perfectly synchronized, were circular, had no normal lighting system for an aircraft, flew very slowly for aircraft, and appeared seemingly from nowhere. their color was so low of a kelvin it reminded me of a candle flame, as did the way they illuminated the mist around them. these are not things i can ascribe to any aircraft, firework, or man-made object such as a drone. the fact there were four moving in formation over an area that had the described 'gash' in the sky mere hours earlier seems hardly coincidental as well.