Wisconsin, If You See A Flashing Porch Light, Act Immediately

There's a specific house feature you need to watch for.

Porch lights can carry multiple meanings, like awareness of different causes or support for different months. If you're going through neighborhoods on any road trips this year or headed to any family gatherings, you will need to be familiar with one of them as you're driving around town.

What A Flashing Porch Light Means

Storables says if you see a flashing porch light, it can carry a few meanings. It can signify a neighborhood watch to hopefully deter burglars, or it can be a safety precaution, or if the neighborhood is really close, it can let everyone know where the party house is.

But the meaning of a flashing porch light is mostly in an emergency situation. It's a signal for help.

A flashing porch light is meant to be a distress signal, for anything from a fire to a medical emergency. You may see it if someone in the house is unable to call for help themselves. By turning the porch light on and off, it alerts neighbors and bystanders to hopefully call for help to the residence.

You will likely see it in neighborhoods where houses are spaced far apart and it's obviously most effective at night.

It isn't a bad idea to get together with your neighbors and establish how you will define a flashing porch light and, if you want to get fancy with it like some neighborhoods have done, the pattern of the flashing and what it means.

If you see one in a neighborhood you're not familiar with, you should check with the neighbors to see if that's a common occurrence or known reason. If they don't know anything about it, it wouldn't be a bad idea to call 911.