A New Explanation for One of the Strangest Occurrences in Nature—Ball Lightning

Nautilus ^ | 1 Aug, 2017 | CHRIS DRUDGE

[Swordmaker]

Electric Universe Ball Lightning — PING!

If you want on or off the Electric Universe Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Vendome]

[Vendome]

If his balls were lightened, maybe but, this is about lightning and great balls...;-)

[BlackbirdSST]

Hmmm? Could these things be the source of ‘spontaneous human combustion’? Looking at the various FReeper accounts, they come in all sizes and intensities. Something to ponder.

[Texas Songwriter]

I have not seen such a thing. I did see something in 1999 which I had never seen. I suspect it is not that uncommon but it was unique to me. I was driving from Dubois Wyoming to the Wind River one afternoon. Not a cloud in the sky. It was late May. All of sudden there was a loud clap of thunder and a large bolt of lightning off to my left side. Like Forrest Gump said....”Out of a blue, clear sky.” ....not a clear blue sky. I live in Texas about 100 miles from the coast and we only get lightning from large thunderheads.

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

There is a place near where I live where “ghost lights” like those in the article can be seen floating along the ridge, below the ridge and down into the gorge. Visitors and tourist often come to see the lights and there have been many scientific studies done, including by National Geographic. It’s called the Brown Mountain Lights. My son took video and photos of the frequent times he has seen the lights. http://www.brownmountainlights.com

[mairdie]

I visited a couple in Phoenix who took me into their living room and pointed out where ball lightning had come out of the wall that was shared with the garage and exited out the opposite wall. It had appeared between them as they were walking toward one another. A story you can dine out on for decades.

[RJS1950]

Saw it twice as a kid, once as an adult, and saw St Elmos Fire all over the old SAC Airborne at about 30000 ft.

Scared me as a kid but it is neat to see.

[Moltke]

Ball lightning? Is this a Viagra ad?

[subterfuge]

That’s exactly what I saw at New Smyrna Beach in FL, around dusk in about 1967. We were kids in ankle deep water. It was a simultaneous flash and explosion, right on top of us. I’ll never forget it.

[jdsteel]

I also saw it twice. Once as a young child with it floating slowly across the living room...silently. Once again as a teen when on a fishing trip in Canada I saw it floating through the trees. I am so happy to read other peoples reports of this phenomenon!!!

[Axenolith]

A pilot I new as a teen saw ball lightning like that, and it left small holes melted in the skin of the aircraft fore and aft. He said most of the older disappearances over the Bermuda Triangle was probably something like this occurring when there was a bunch of gasoline vapors in the craft.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

seems this thread is in need of some SD: Katy Lied

“Chain Lightning” live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFR9a4HUyrc

“Dr. Wu”, album-cut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqQqhqbrXhI

[Slyfox]

I was standing in my kitchen when I saw a ball lightening move from my breakfast room through the kitchen and into my office. Later, when I tried to use my phone in my office I noticed that it had been fried and I had to replace it.

[The_Media_never_lie]

I am helping our daughter move in early sept. Hope you get rested soon.

[HeadOn]

Pretty sure that’s different stuff. St. Elmo’s forms from static charges built up on the surface of something. In days gone by it was masts of ships. Nowadays, mostly reported outside cockpits on airplanes...

[PA Engineer]

Thanks for the ping. Interesting article and journal.

[Swordmaker]

My mother told the story about when she was around ten years old (this would have been in 1925), in school with mixed grades in Poseyville, Indiana, one afternoon a buzzing sound interrupted the class when they were doing silent reading. The members of the class looked up from their books toward a bright light at the window and saw a ball of lightning about 5" to 6" in diameter come through the window pane, leaving a perfect circle of no glass where it came through. It floated into the room, dropped to the floor, rolled on the floor burning the oak floor boards. It rolled across in front of the teacher's desk, then made a perfect 90º turn and rolled down between the aisles of desks, right by my mother's desk, and then out into the hall, where it ran into an iron radiator and exploded, destroying the radiator.

My mother said she smelled a strong odor of Ozone and burned oak when the ball passed within a couple of feet from her. It rolled very slowly, maybe a pace of a moderate walk.

In the 1950s she took me on a tour of the school in Poseyville and we went into the classroom. The burned path of that ball lightning was still faintly visible on the floor. . . You could see it was straight as an arrow and the 90º turn was exactly that, perfectly 90ºs. There was a larger charred area at the end of the hall near the wall. No radiator though. . . they'd replaced the old boiler heating system with something more modern, but you could see the holes where the plumbing had been for a radiator.

[SisterK]

Many moons ago during a violent thunderstorm, had a ball of lightening 7” diameter show up in the house, move about thirty feet in a straight line, hugging the crown molding, then it was gone.
That and the pick up truck antennae getting hit by lightening are the two closest lightening encounters. When it hit the truck antennae (which vaporized), it was like a Fourth of July fireworks show (all in white).

[SisterK]

I have always heard about the Brown Mountain Lights but never had opportunity to visit. Does your son think that it is gas?