I may have been about 14/15 in the passenger seat of my grandfathers car driving on an outer-city Brisbane (Aus) road, and I distinctively remember in the distance seeing some weird electrical jellyfish floating in the sky.
As I got closer to it, it looked more like a bubble or ball, it was a see through blue and in the middle it had redness to it and it was bobbing slightly up and down moving at a humans walking pace. It was near the power-line and moving slowly away from it.
I could never work out what it was until someone told me of that there was a moron friend of his going around talking about some ball lightning he had witnessed, it's a shame they cannot be recreated.
Karl <skyfire909 a gmail com>
Brisbane, QLD Australia - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 10:30:09 (PDT)
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On November 15, 2011 I had a very unusal experience. It had been
raining and storming most of the morning and then there was some calm in
which I felt it was okay to run into town to do some errands. Upon
returning home and just after turning onto a county road, I was probably
no more than 250' down the road when (simultaneously I believe) a
deafening crash of thunder and a tremendous bolt of lightning hit on the
side of the road approx. 30' from my car. I somehow knew this and
instinctively ducked my head downwards as I kept hold of the steering
wheel because I felt that the car was going to be hit. I then lifted my
head (to continue driving) when in front of me (it appeared out of
nowhere) and was positioned in my line of view right in the middle of the
windshield was an orb about the size of a grapefruit. It was red, like a
tomato with yellow streaks in it. I had no warning, no inkling, nothing
told me this would happen. "It" just appeared and lasted about 3 seconds
at which time it just disappeared. I don't remember how it disappeared it
just maybe faded away or all at once. I came home and told my husband
about it and we felt it must have been "ball lightning." We looked it up
and I've been hooked ever since. There was no sound, no heat, no cold (as
I've read of some other cases)- nothing. One minute nothing and the next
minute it was there right in front of me. After this experience I could
hear the smallest sounds inside and outside my house, for months.
Cindy <cindyhs01 a gmail com>
Ft. Towson, Oklahoma USA - Sunday, April 08, 2012 at 10:06:56 (PDT)
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On Nov. 15, 2011 I had just finished some errands in town and was on my way home. It had been storming all night and into the morning but then some clearing occurred and I felt I could make it to town and back with no problem. After getting done I was on my way home and had just turned onto a county road. I was about 250 yards down the road when out of nowhere a brilliant white crackling lightning strike and a loud boom of thunder happened simultaneously. I must've have known that something was imminent as I instinctively ducked my head but continued driving in the rain. I was fearful that my car was going to be hit. The strike happened about 30' feet from my car along an old fence row and just to the right of a large tree. (My husband and I re-visited the site and took measurements, etc.) As I lifted my head to see the road, in front of me, right smack dab in the middle of my windshield was a grapefruit size orb the color of a tomato and with yellow streaks in it. It looked like a miniature sun. I believe it was actually in the car with me. I could not see through it. It made no sound, there was no smell. It lasted about 3 seconds and then just disappeared. It didn't fade away it just was there one second and then it was gone. After this encounter, I looked it up on the internet and realized I had just had an encounter with ball lightning. For months afterwards, my hearing was so acute that I could hear the smallest sounds. I feel fortunate to have witnessed this and very fortunate that I was not injured.
Cindy <cindyhs01 a gmail com>
Ft. Towson, OK USA - Monday, March 19, 2012 at 17:59:59 (PDT)
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Saturday, 17 March 2012. Earlier this evening, everyone was just chilling at home after a very early morning trip to KL, which lasted till a bit more than after lunch. Mom was in the reading room and had just asked Jessica my 10 year old niece to switch the aircond on. Jessica's mom, my sister was preparing for a presentation she had to give next week and Dad was in the bathroom when they all heard a very loud thunder, which continued to roll across the skies. Seated on the toilet, Dad saw a sudden flash of light through the window- he described it as a ball of fire, but also like from our gas stove... red and yellow but also bluish green and massive that seemed to fly across his line of vision and over our lands, then landing at the top of one of the 3-storey buildings at the entrance of our housing estate with a very loud burst- like that of a bomb going off, he and mom and Jess and my sister said.
Even as I write, they are all still feeling pretty shaken. We are thankful that no one got hurt when our house phone burst into flames with pieces all over our hall as if someone had planted a bomb inside of it. Electricity went out in affected areas- houses in front of ours and our only neighbor on the left, and both our direct neighbours - in front and side have got fried electrical items, from washer to every last light bulb in their houses burst and so on -Dad called his electrician friend who came by and joined the commotion in our house-- amazed at the pieces of phone bits all over our house and we are all glad none of our electrical items got fried, apart from our very old house phone, but thank God, was able to get our electricity back up.
Sis saw a ball of light go pass her and would have hit mom if mom did not act quick enough and move out of its way... although not all four of them saw the lightning ball, dad and many of our neighbors saw the fireball outside. .. still talking about. By the way, no rain at all- even a bit humid so thunder and lightning were dry.
Jacq <enguist a gmail com>
Seremban, NS Malaysia - Saturday, March 17, 2012 at 08:27:32 (PDT)
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Two years ago this April I had an event occur that I am still trying to understand. I haven't shared this
with many people but thought that you might be able to help me understand and then explain what exactly
occurred and what I witnessed. First of all I want to let you know that I'm not a nut. I'm a 30 year
veteran police officer having retired at the rank of captain in 2008.
Just before I retired I purchased
a cabin on a small private lake in northwest Oklahoma. The lake is about 17 acres. My cabin is about
100 feet from the lake and sits on top of a small hill overseeing the entire lake. Other houses are on
the lake as well. My living room has two large full length plate glass windows and from my recliner I
can see the entire lake.
It was around the last week of March or the first week of April 2010. I was
up late, reading. The time was around 1AM. As I was reading, I started noticing lightening in the
distance to the southwest. As I continued to read I noticed that the lightening was getting closer.
I decided to put my book down and go sit on the dock and watch the storm come in. I've always liked
watching storms and thought that the amount of lightening this particular storm had might provide
quite a show. I wasn't disappointed. As a kid I used to watch the lightening and then count 1001, 1002,
1003...and so on until I heard the thunder and could guess the distance the lightening was away. As I
watched this storm I started counting with each lightening strike. 10 miles out. Then 8 miles out. 5
miles out. Then 3 miles. Then a mile.
As I sat there it started raining. Not alot at first. The boat
dock sets under a huge cottonwood tree and I started getting a little concerned that lightening might
strike the tree putting me in a compromising position but the storm was right on top of me and the
show it was providing was fantastic.
As I continued to watch I suddenly noticed across the lake a
bright white sphere about the size of a large grapefruit or softball. The sphere had no tail and was
traveling what I estimated to be about 25 to 30 mph. When I first observed it, it was to my right on
the other side of the lake, about tree top high (30 ft est.) It traveled directly over a house that
is located on the other side of the lake and then curved over the lake and descended as it headed towards
my direction, but approx. 80 to 100 feet to the right of my location. As it got over the lake I would
estimate that it had descended about 10 to 15 ft above water level still traveling approx. 25 to 30 mph.
Then suddenly the bright white sphere descended in a 45 degree angle and went underwater about 10 ft.
I failed to mention that the lake is a clear water lake with a sandy bottom so the bright white sphere
could be seen glowing under the water as it continued to travel at the same estimated speed. I could
see that the sphere lit up an area about 12 ft in diameter under the water.
As it continued traveling
in my direction, but to my right, it suddenly shot out of the water about 50 ft from the neighbors boat
dock in a 45 degree angle and shot back the same direction from which it came but instead of curving
back over the house, it continued traveling in a straight trajectory directly over the lake. After it
came out of the water it ascended to a height that I would estimate to be 30 ft, still traveling at an
estimated speed of 25 to 30 mph.
On the other side of the lake, about 300 yards away, is a row of trees.
As the sphere traveled over the trees it seemed to rise just enough to clear the tree tops. As it got
close to the trees I could see that it light up the trees as it continued over the top of them then went
out of sight.
As I sat there in amazement it started pouring. The lightening was so close and so loud I
just sat there trying to make sense of what I just had just witnessed. After making it back to the cabin
I called my wife, telling her what I had just seen. She just told me to go to sleep.
The next day I
started doing some online research and came up with only two possible explanations; one being demonic
in nature (not good) or ball lightening. Since April is just around the corner I started thinking about
this event and thought that someone might be able to shed some light (no pun intended) on this mysterious
but amazing event.
Randy West <rdw181 a hotmail com>
Ames, OK USA - Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 20:32:57 (PDT)
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I was watching tv and during a commercial I was looking out the window, and I saw a ball shaped ball of
light floating around about a meter above ground. While I was watching it dove into the ground and created
a bright light and made a sound comparable to a firework going off next to you.
Gregg Kinch
fairfield beach, oh USA - Friday, March 02, 2012 at 15:10:43 (PST)
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About 1990 my wife and 2 sons aged 10 and 8 were on our enclosed verandah which had large plate glass windows. A normal type of storm was in progress. A sudden calm came followed by an extremely close flash of lightning with a huge bang with no intervening time. We saw bits of black material floating down past the window. Scared by the thunder we went inside. There was no interruption to our power but our digital clock had stopped, frozen with crazy signs. About an hour later my brother rang me and asked if I was ok? I replied, Yes, why do you ask? He said that he and his daughter had been passing by us on a busy road behind our house. He said both of them had seen a big tree there covered in, not one, but several bright balls of many colours. He likened it to a lit up Christmas tree. This was at the same time the bolt had struck our house. The line to our house was scorched where it entered and some tiles were broken. These were fixed by the utility company next day. Some bits of tiles had been the pieces we had seen 'floating' down.
Neville Manser <nandjmanser a hotmail com>
Brisbane, QLD Australia - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 22:27:43 (PST)
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I witnessed a "fire ball" during a lightning storm when I was 14 years old at a 4-H camp around Greensboro, NC. It happened back in 1989, but I remember it like it was yesterday....
There was a terrible lightning storm. Most of the other kids and couselors were gathered near a large stone hearth in the cafeteria building. It had electric with screened windows but the electric had been knocked out. I always enjoyed a good lightning storm so I was standing close to a window overlooking a long expanse of tall pines down a valley to the lake. Then a saw a 3' diameter yellow/orange ball of light appear about 15' outside the building. I could feel the electricity in the air. The hair stood up on my arm, i smelled something but i didnt know what at the time (probably sulfur) and then came the extrememly loud crack. I fell to the floor from the explosion, my ears were ringing when i got up and it was over. Wierd, cause i think i was the only one that saw it.
Sure it was "ball lightning". I love NC lightning storms.
Tony Williams <awilliams811 a msn com>
Glen Burnie, MD USA - Monday, February 27, 2012 at 09:59:12 (PST)
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I have been curious about the incident I will describe since it occurred in the 70's. I have not talked about it since and would like to know if any others have had such an experience: "I was at home in Lake Mohawk NJ on this rainy overcast day with my 3 sons playing in their room upstairs. I set up my ironing board in the kitchen and was about to iron my husband's shirt when 'something' made me look up. A yellowish colored tranparent 'thing' about the size and shape of a football came right through the glass in my kitchen window...it seemed to float yet moved quickly up to me. I held both my arms out of it's way as it came up to my body, turning itself seemingly inside out and moved upstairs...it took me a second to respond and I ran after it. It was then I heard two of my balls yelling. I got to the doorway of their room in time to see the 'gasious ball' float out through the glass. That's it! I remember calling my husband at work only to have him say it may have been what 'they call ball lightning' but I have since found out that ball lightning can be damaging and doesn't act like what I experienced. Have there been others who have had this happend to them? Have they identified what it was or have a reasonable explanation to share?
Thank You
Angie
angie
USA - Friday, February 17, 2012 at 06:10:09 (PST)
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Many years ago when I was in 6th grade (1966) I was witness to something that I could not explain. I was at the Ft. Myers, Va. swimming pool with my older brother eating lunch. We were seated outdoors at a table and I was keeping a close eye on a thunderstorm moving in our direction. All of a sudden I watched this glowing ball being shot from one cloud to another. It traveled very slowly as compared to lightning and was easily visible for about 5-10 seconds. It was followed by several others that acted just about the same. I had mentioned it to people over the years and was told it was "ball lightning". Curiosity got the best of me today so I started looking online to learn about it...thus my visit here. It really does happen...I saw it myself!
Steve Wilson <Mydusteve a verizon dotnet>
Glen Burnie, Md. USA - Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 17:26:19 (PST)
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I was sitting at my computer; it was daytime and the only light in my living room was from the monitor. (My computer is in front of an aluminum frame window, which is usually closed or barely cracked open). I got up and walked over about 6' to the CD player to put some music on, pressed "play", and about 10 to 30 seconds later, I heard a static hiss and hum; kind of like old FM radio static.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a bluish-white ball/sphere of light about 10" in diameter. It was hovering in the air, behind where the top of my head would be if I were still seated at the computer; chest high if I were standing. Then - before my eyes - it "exploded", big-bang-like, which lit up my entire living room like sheet lightning. All this happened within a second! It was shocking, amazing, and scary. By the time I had turned my head to frontally see the ball of light, it exploded right after. I wondered if I had "imagined" it but know I did not!
The explosion/discharge made no noise but I "felt" a sensation that a whole lot of energy was discharged, and was happy that it didn't discharge on me because I didn't know if I would have been burned badly or not, and didn't want to find out.
What was this? I have looked up and read about ball lightning, which is what my neighbor thinks it was, but not sure this fits the descriptors. We weren't having any lightning that I know of and we rarely have thundershowers here.
The odd thing is that it was a wet, rainy day - not cold and dry weather that you would expect to cause a large static buildup. The air, even in the apartment, was relatively humid - we have mold problems here because of the humidity. I would like to know if anyone else has had experience with this kind of phenomenon.
I called my electric company and the guy said it might have been a "static dust ball." (true, I could be a better housekeeper, duster! lol) He said usually the explosions from those make a loud noise, and although he has seen them, was unsure what exactly this was. I asked him if the power company had experienced any spikes or anomalies and hes said no. I'd really like to know what this is, and will probably never know and be mystified for the rest of my life.
salim howard
USA - Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 22:08:45 (PST)
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Hi,
around 1998 in Kyogle NSW my boyfriend and i were at a family farm. The house was situated on top of a hill. We were sitting outside when a storm stared. A huge lightening strike hit a tree close to the house. We rushed inside. He standing one side of the door and me the other side, just inside the house. Then a soccer ball size orange and yellow ball of lightning floated into the house through the front door. It slowly moved (as if in slow motion) in a straight line to the back door. Our eyes were fixated on the ball, our eyes watched it bounce on the tile floor and out the back sliding door which happened to be opened.
We stood there for a second not saying a word to each other, just dumbstruck. I walked over to where it had bounced and no mark was left.
I think at that point we were in shock. Never in my life have i ever seen anything like it and never ever do i want to.
The ball of lightening was orange and yellow, the colours were moving around fast, i cannot explain it only to say it looked like a brain...! I still cannot believe it to this day.
After the storm we went back out to the front and sat down. It was really odd because we seemed to have lost a few hours. Maybe it was just shock. When people who seemed to be interested in this stuff tell me how lucky i am to have seen one, but i tell them i could have lived without it thanks.
I have never documented this before and thought i should, so i'm doing this now.
Thanks for the opportunity
Suzette.
Suzette <zetty1961 a yahoo com.au>
Sydney, NSW AUSTRALIA - Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 19:33:15 (PST)
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Well it was just after nine at night and the snow storm had just ended, I went outside for a smoke and to shovel some snow. As I was finishing up my cigarette I saw a bright flash which I assumed to be lightning, however, when I did not hear the thunder which should have followed I naturally looked up. What I saw in the night sky over SLC, UT was twelve or more orange lights in the sky. I did not see them all at once but rather over a period of about twenty minutes. They were generally, coming from the Northwest traveling what appeared to be Southeast at a moderate altitude, they were higher than what a helicopter would normally fly but lower than the overcast clouds remaining from the snow storm. Not all of them traveled in the same direction some went due west, south and north, with a couple even switching directions. One which flew (for a lack of a better term) right over my head seemed to just fade but I could still see its shadowy outline as if the sphere containing the bright orange light simply ran out of fuel, and was running on empty and dark. I also witnessed two strange things falling from the sky. They were grayish ashy in color and they almost seemed transparent, they were slowly drifting to the ground like a garbage bag would drift in the wind. After witnessing this and thinking about it further it almost seems like the two drifting falling things were maybe the ash of whatever it was that the balls were, but I don?t know. If these balls were indeed "ball lightning" then I consider myself lucky to have seen them and lucky to be alive to tell it since it seems to me like a lot of these balls end in explosions. I immediately posted something on Facebook and I found out my good friend Chelsea also saw them, and she said that she even saw some blue ones. It was very strange and I felt compelled to write about it and share it with the world. There aren?t a lot of eyewitness reports to confirm or deny the existence of this strange phenomenon, so I thought I would share my story. If anyone out there would like some more info or could point me in the direction of how I would go about officially reporting my account please send me a message on my Facebook: www.facebook com/rpvallejo
Ruben Vallejo <rpvallejo88 a gmail com>
SLC, UT USA - Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 21:44:04 (PST)
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I have plowed snow for the county that I live in since 1997. In the winter of 2001 I saw a very large glowing blue ball of light in a timber about 300 yards from the road. The sky was clear with the exception of just a very few low clouds. The blue ball of light seemed to stay in one place. As I continued to plow snow, the inside of my 1994 freightliner cab lit up like daylight. I looked out my side mirror and a blue ball of light the size of a small car was following my truck. I could not see out my windshield due to the bright light reflecting off my mirrors. I admit I was suddenly afraid and just wanted to get away from the light. The light disappeared and reappeared in different locations for a period of about 10 minutes as I was driving. I looked out over the countyside as the light was shining and I could see for miles. The light seemed to disappear for good when I saw it again in one of the clouds above. The cloud was bright blue then the light was gone. I told co-workers about it and the guy that plowed the route next to mine said he saw the sky light up blue at the same time I did. He said it was coming from my location at the time and he was over eight miles away. Still makes the hair stand up on my neck when I recall it.
John <jlovey a southslope dotnet>
Oxford, Iowa USA - Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 18:05:32 (PST)
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Well it was a stormy night on the 23/7/11. Me and my dad were driving home in a thunderstorm and llightning was flaashing across the sky (sheet lightning) but then we head a loud bang and as we were at the lights we both looked out the window
There, hanging on its own in the sky (we think it was directly above the power station but it was dark so yeah)
was a big bright blue ball of lightning.Then it went with another loud bang
Piper <piperhedgershouse a hotmail com>
NZ - Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 15:53:38 (PST)
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in a motel in florida I awakeing to find a 2 to 3 foot glowing ball sitting above the bed next to mine. I sat up edged closer and watched it and saw that it was torus shaped with pointed at both ends snake like shapes going up the sides of the torus at 45 degree angle going over the top of torus and going down the inside of torus at a 45 still so that if one was on inside and one was on outside at same time they would have formed an x however they were spaced greater that that, took about three seconds for it to cross the outside of torus. I reached to turn on the light and as I did it sort of popped and was gone.
allen knapstad <xallvenxknapv a frontier com -x's&v's>
USA - Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 05:20:03 (PST)
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While sitting on my couch around 7pm I see a small streak of lightening right outside of my window. As I turned my attention to this I then see the light turn into a round softball sized orb that shot across the outside of the window and then just vanished. It was a normal night with no rain... Not sure what it was but am glad I actually got to experience this!
Kathy Watts <leakat4 a yahoo com>
South Pasadena, C USA - Thursday, December 08, 2011 at 10:21:44 (PST)
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I was driving today (Dec. 7, 2011) late afternoon around 2:45 westbound on Rt. 46 in Parsippany, NJ when suddenly a bright yellowish orange ball of light appeared in my windshield! It happened so quickly that I had no time to react to it. I drove through it because I had no choice. I felt this intense heat-like energy and heard a loud humming noise like electricity. I felt this intense energy go through my body. I was scared to death and thought "What the F*&% was that?!" It was all over within a split second. I looked at the other drivers all around me and nothing seemed amiss. Nobody was looking at me to see if I was OK. It appeared as if nobody else had experienced this phenomenon. Or noticed it happen to me. So weird. I was totally fine afterward just shaken up. I was wondering what had happened. I came back to work and started googling "balls of energy" and came across "ball lightening" and thought perhaps this is what I experienced. I don't know, this is the first I've heard of ball lightening and haven't read any of the other experiences yet but thought that I had to share this. I started to wonder if it was possible that I had imagined it???? But it was soooo real and I'm a very stable person!
Lori Suhoski
Chester, NJ USA - Wednesday, December 07, 2011 at 13:05:20 (PST)
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Hai
My name is Pradeep and I am living in India. This was an incident that happened a few months ago at night. I went to my uncle?s home along with my wife and it was evening. By the time we got out, it was nearly 7.30pm and it was dark. We chatted with uncle for a while when my wife noticed something in the tree and soon our attention was focused on it. It was a spark of light that was blinking at irregular intervals and it was moving here and there. From its movement I assumed that it was flying like a firefly. Fireflies blink a greenish/yellowish light but this one is different. The light is just like an evening star at horizon. We flashed torch light on it, but we didn?t see a thing. It can?t be an animal?s eye because animal?s eyes glow in greenish color when a distant light strikes them. After a while it stopped blinking and never seen again. I don?t know whether it was ball lighting but I am interested to know more about this...
Pradeep
Pradeep R <pradeepananda a gmail com>
Trivandrum, Kerala India - Wednesday, December 07, 2011 at 02:28:26 (PST)
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My husband and I had a very strange experience last night.(12/1/11) My husband was sitting across the kitchen using his laptop while I was putting dishes in the dishwasher. All of a sudden there was an electric ball of light between me and the lower cabinet door that appeared. It made a very loud POP noise and was gone. My husband saw it from where he was sitting (about 15 feet away). We checked all the light bulbs in the kitchen, the dishwasher, stove, everything electrical and all worked fine. There was no smell of smoke and I did not feel any electric current even though it was only a few inches from me. The ball of light was about 3? in diameter. There were no storms in the area or even warning of storm. It was a clear night. What the heck was it? Could it have been some kind of static electricity? It was just hanging in the air.
Rita
ME USA - Friday, December 02, 2011 at 06:21:40 (PST)
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Ball lightening sighting: 11-18-11 at 10:50 pm. After seeing flashes and hearing popping, I went to my bedroom window and observed several golf ball sized white balls appear one at a time and then explode, each with a loud nearly simultaneous pop; these phenomena all occurred within about 15 seconds. Each ball was of slightly different size and only visible for a fraction of a second before exploding several feet above the snow covered ground. The accompanying pop occurred in a fraction of a second after the flash of each ball. This occurred on a night that had snow flurries through a thin cloud cover. This happened on the southwest section of my 20 acres, in an area devoid of people, animals or any electrical lines. The next morning I walked through 3" of old snow to inspect the area: there were no human tracks (other than mine) in the area of the phenomena. There was no observed evidence that next morning that the ball lightening phenomena had occurred. In my 69 years, this is the only time I have observed "ball lightening" of any kind.
Richard Wilson <rjw a bendbroadband com>
Bend , OR USA - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 08:51:53 (PST)
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Stepped out on our deck tonight and a couple hundred feet up, about a dozen glowing lights appeared to be swinging from our oak trees. It's too cold for fire flies, and too warm to be icicles. What the heck could it be? We thought maybe bats eyes glowing, but we turned out all the porch lights, and they were still bright and fluctuating, so it doesn't seem likely to be eyes. Any ideas? They've been twinkling on and off for the past half hour.
Susanna <susannajonjunk"at"comcast dotnet>
New Hope, PA USA - Friday, November 11, 2011 at 18:25:50 (PST)
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On July 8th this year, a ball of lightning was seen to explode outside my park home. It resulted in my losing 6 electrical items, the digibox for the television, the Hub for my Internet connection & also the USB port was damaged so the computer had to be replaced, the central heating boiler, the oven & grill, and the smoke alarm which is mains operated. I have never heard such a loud explosion. I am still not fully operational.
Mrs A Morton <amorton26 a btinternet com!7338>
Lincoln, United Kingdom - Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 06:24:52 (PDT)
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Ball Lightning
About 20 years ago I was in my mother's house when a severe thunderstorm came, lightning directly overhead. My mother was seated on a chair in the living room and I was standing in the hallway talking to her. There was a lightning strike like an explosion and out of the corner of my eye, coming out of the bathroom rolled a ball of lightning the size of a basketball, yellowish white in color. It rolled into the hallway and then just disappeared. The whole thing lasted just 3 to 5 seconds, and there were no burns or damage to the bathroom or hallway rugs and walls. And there was no window in this bathroom. I just assumed it had followed the water pipes into the house. And I had never heard the term "ball lightning" until years later.
My mother's line of sight was obscured by the wall, but she saw the look on my face and asked what I had just seen and I told her. She found it hard to believe, especially with no damage to the house. I was like "Mom, honest, a ball of lightning just rolled out of the bathroom." She said she believed me from the look on my face. I'm glad I found this site which gives confirmation to my experience.
Jen
Pompano Beach, FL USA - Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 17:45:56 (PDT)
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In the midst of a strong lightning storm I experienced what I believe to be ball lightning inside my home. This was the first autumn thunderstorm of the season, with a cold front pushing against the unusually late warm front that we have enjoyed.
While bathing my son, and with heavy rain, lighting and thunder serenading us in the upstairs bedroom, I hand glanced behind me, out of the bathroom and across the hall to our master bedroom... at that moment, an extremely bright flash of lightning was followed almost instantly by an explosion-style thunderclap, clearly very close to our house.
At that same instant, a very bright, bluish white object appeared inside our bedroom, near one of the double glazed window, about four feet off the floor. The object flared, brightly, for a very short period, and then suddenly disappeared with a very loud SNAP, sounding exactly like an electrical device shorting out. The object was small, no larger than 1 cm, and was approximately three meters from me. The object was absolutely inside the house, and although it coincided with the larger lighting and thunder almost precisely, looked and sounded different than the outside phenomena.
We noticed a faint ozone smell, but noticed no damage or evidence of electrical damage anywhere in the house afterward.
Brian Codd <giant_REMOVePinheadATyahoo com>
Iowa City, IA USA - Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 17:06:23 (PDT)
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i was working a night shift on the railway august 2011, it was a clear night and there had been no thunder storms at this time.i happened to look up at the sky and saw a round football sized white light float about 30ft above me moving across the sky like a shooting star but much slower and no tail from it. i turned round to my work mate and said did you see that, thankgoodness he did!
phil brown
coventry, u.k - Tuesday, October 04, 2011 at 05:34:10 (PDT)
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This occured in Waareham Mass, in 1989.
I had parrked my pick up truk in a rural pine grove area overlooking a a cranberry bog famr.
A very quiet area I frequented to relax, a beautiful setting and view.
A light apeared over the tree line, I assume it was an aircraft flying low, it then appeared to be desending to treetop level aprox 400 meters from me. I paniced in the beleif it was an aircraft out of controll and was to crash, I founds cover of a fallen tree and watched. It was moving slowly, a ball, perhaps 6 m in diameter, the light a diamond brillinat light was eminatiting, I got on my feet and loooked directly into it as it hoovered about 2 feet from ground level, about 10 meters from where I was standing The light, though brillaint did not hurt my eyes, the entire area was cover in white to include my clothing, my fear had left completely as I stood before it for several minutes, fascinated and at ease. It then began to move slowly, turned to the left and , increaed altitude and and speed untill it dispaeraed over the horizion.
Desite any feedback, it was to me a spiritual egima. I use drugs or alchohol and was never deeply involved in UFO's, though I do not discredit their existance.
I have no reason to lie, and frankly this is the first time I have mentioned this publically.
CHRITSOPHER JONES <daddi53cj a yahoo com>
WAREHAM , MA USA - Friday, September 23, 2011 at 18:45:24 (PDT)
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Ball Lightning
When I was living in Germany in 1981 I witnessed what I can only describe as ball lightning.
I was 10 years old and was sitting by the window in the afternoon looking out at the sky because it had gone that green colour that you see sometimes before a storm. Up to this point there had been no thunder or lightning or rain.
Opposite my window there was a 3 or 4 storey block of flats about 20 meters away with a car park to the right of it.
About 15 meters above the car park I saw a bright white flash about as bright as a firework and heard a bang about as load a gunshot. From this flash appeared a fuzzy white sparking ball of light about as big as a basket ball.
It was already moving as it appeared, travelling from right to left and towards me at about 45 degrees and slowly falling. It moved in a straight line if viewed from above but bounced slowly along its course as if on piece of string like a puppet. After 2 bounces it hit the right side of the flats at 45 degree angle making another loud bang and disappeared through the brick wall into someones flat. I could see a light inside the building then suddenly the ball silently came out through a closed and net curtained window on the front of flat. It then sped up as it got smaller and fizzled out shortly before it would have hit the ground.
The sighting lasted for 5 to 10 seconds and the ball traveled about 25 meters.
Although the ball appeared to be unaffected by gravity the sparks emanating from it arced and fell towards the ground.
From where I was sitting the ball appeared to have done no damage to the wall or to the window or, more amazingly, the very flammable net curtains.
I have always felt privileged to have seen such a rare spectacle and thought I would share my account.
Craig Griffiths <craigyg a gmail com>
Oswestry, Shropshire uk - Friday, September 23, 2011 at 01:37:55 (PDT)
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in the 1980'S (cant remember the exact date)around dallas,tx i was a young kid and me and my cusion where on the back balcony of a two story apt. complex playing tic-tac-toe.the wheter was clear right before sunset. whe heard a load noise looked up and what looked to be a fire ball came falling from the sky to the end of the alley,did a staight 90 turn shot right past us on the balcony (with no heat emerginng from the object)and kept going about 15 seconds later all power was out in the community.the news said a car had hit a transformer.im sorry but when u see somthing falling to the ground u expect it to hit the ground this fire ball(about 15 foot wide) had no heat,and never hit the ground it just flew staight down and litteraly 90'ed staight past us and staight down the alley with out hitting anything.i have serched for info on thisfor years and have not been able to get any ansewers, if any one can help please e-mail me.ty
henry creech <hcreech0187 a yahoo com!!!!>
USA - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 16:00:42 (PDT)
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In the early 1960s in Pontiac, Michigan there was a rainstorm on a summer day. My sister and I were playing on our covered front porch. All of sudden we saw a bright ball of lightening headed right toward us.As we both ran for the door to go inside it passed right by us and went between the neighbors house and ours. We were scared to death. My mother was in the kitchen in the back of the house and she saw the ball pass by the window. She ran to check on us. We all witnessed the same thing! The neighbor came over later and she had also seen it.It has been 50 years but I will never forget that experience and I KNOW there truely is ball lightening.
Sandra Workman <sandeeworkman a ymail com>
Flint, Detour Village, MIchigan USA - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 19:31:29 (PDT)
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august 13 2010
an electric magnetinc field entered a room in my house-during a thunder storm i was caught in this field-if i had been in a jet engine the sound would not have been louder
i saw strange sights of fire like explosions
it stopped and then started a gain the same sound and sights
when it stopped i ran out of the room
calling my neighbor-asking if she had heard the noise
she said no but that her son saw lightening falling behind my house that was like lightening that was on fire
the following day i get into my car-my air bag light is on and so is the cruise control
my car was totaled due to the abs systemm taken out
they would replace one thing and then another would go out
i has to have a large oak tree removed as it was dead
my car was parked under that tree on the day this all took place
from that day until today
i have experienced strange feeling in the bottoms of my feet
madeline cornett <mbcornett a sc.rr com>
myrtle beach, sc USA - Friday, September 16, 2011 at 08:12:58 (PDT)
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Troon, Scotland summer 1963. Sitting at the beach front watching a storm out at sea. There was lightning. A bright orange ball appeared in front of me like a small sun looked the size of a basketball. It flew to my right and dissapeared. These things do exist.
Steve Blaney
- Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 13:11:23 (PDT)
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Saw Ball Lightening for the second time in my life. Today we were experiencing a long calm rain and I was driving back from picking up Pizzas. I head a low pop, like a weather balloon popping and a bright flash near the front left tire. In that split second, I noticed my steering was fine, the electronics in the car were still working, steering worked, brakes worked, and I looked in my rear view mirror and caught a glance of blue sparks (like a microwave cooking foil), heard the sizzle of what you would expect from a transformer blowing, but then it dissipated and did not see any wires or transformers cooking. The blast had been isolated to the center of the road, and knew it was ball lightening I had luckily missed being a victim of.
The first time I had seen ball lightening it lasted many seconds. - at least 30, I was a kid with my parents at Rick's house (one of their friends, up in Hazel Green, AL). We were all outside talking about to head home when we noticed a strange light in the sky that was moving around in different directions (reason I know it was not a meteor). It moved around and we would have sworn it was a UFO but knew after it was ball lightening. Surprisingly it lasted long enough for even me to see it moving about. Suddenly the light came down and blew up the main transformer station. They were out of power for at least a week. It was really spooky afterwards because we drove past the transformer station that night and there were several vehicles that pulled up very quickly to the area. At that time we did not know what had caused it, but I believe it was the ball lightening phenomena.
Larry Thomas <Bheleu a Gmail com>
Huntsville, AL USA - Monday, September 05, 2011 at 20:36:21 (PDT)
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Last night my 5 month old woke up screaming and screaming as if he was hurt. It was close to midnight. My husband held him, calmed him down and he went back to sleep. We put him in his room. I tried to go back to bed but I had the strangest feeling. As I lie in bed (with my bedroom door open to the kitchen) I saw a blue ball slowly cross the kitchen wall. It went right past my door! It was about the size of a volley ball, bright blue, and a little white in the center. Or it could have been a while ball with blue around it. I don't know. I got up right away and woke my husband who didn't pay any attention to me. I looked in the kitchen and didn't see anything. Right then is when I ran and grabbed my baby. Needless to say he slept with us the rest of the night. I still am trying to figure out what this way. A hallway (without windows) leads to my kitchen, so the light couldn't have come from inside. I had to do some findings and it is so strange to me how so many people claim to have seen the same thing!
Jessica
Chicago, IL USA - Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 08:44:15 (PDT)
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As a child growing up in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania (a small town west of Philadelphia) Our area was always getting hit by lightning. Trees, always. You could see the char when they got hit. Whenever there was a Thunderstorm you could "smell" the ozone or sulfur. I was amazed and would always watch the storms as they came. One time in particular I will never forget was when a bolt stuck our front yard and produced a "ball" about 3 feet in diameter.. Much like a pyrotechnic pinwheel. It whizzed and crackled as it bounced along the ground for a few feet. I remember the very strong odor afterwards.
I'm a believer of ball lightning yes!
Sam Rowe <Extremesam a aol com>
Glenolden, Pa USA - Monday, August 22, 2011 at 23:39:28 (PDT)
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In 1987 I had invited my neighbor over for tea in Weybridge, Surrey, England, when ball lightning entered the living room where we were sitting. It seemed to come through the ceiling and travelled along the top of a french armoire crackling and spitting before finally dissapating. We sat there, literally thunderstruck! No harm done to anyone or anything.
C. Gram <ob1mariomi a aol com>
USA - Monday, August 22, 2011 at 12:10:23 (PDT)
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My mother passed away on April 30, 2010. As she layed dying my sister and I asked her to give us a sign that she was ok on the other side. The evening of July 8, 2010 around 12:30am I couldn't sleep so I layed down in my family room recliner. The rest of my household was asleep. As I layed there trying to get to sleep I took notice of a ball of brilliant white light slowly moving across the ceiling coming in my direction yet never leaving the ceiling. As it landed in the skylight closest to where I was reclined it stayed in that skylight. I decided to turn the light on at that point and then turned it off but the orb of white light disappeared and I never saw it again. I believe that was my mother letting me know she was ok.
Kathleen
USA - Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 21:04:27 (PDT)
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Yup, it happened to me around 1:00AM on May 29, 2011. Let's just say, I was sitting in a police car when all on a sudden this bright round ball shape of light appears in front of me the size of a basketball. It was perfectly round, bright silver and only inches from my face outside the front window. It seemed to be looking right at me in mid air for a few minutes as if it wanted to communicate with me. At first I didn't know what to think of it, then before I could try to study it, I noticed it was moving towards me from outside the window inside the car with me in a matter of seconds. Before I knew it, I watched it come into the car, right at my face, and exploded (it felt as if I became one with it), I passed out, when I came to, all I could do is remember this bright light exploding in me. I felt like I was lit up like a light bulb. Funny thing... I don't think the police knew what had happend to me. I think I was out of it for at least an hour (I can't remember how long). Yup, it happened to me...
Venita <venita a projecta23 com>
dallas, tx USA - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 20:45:41 (PDT)
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My grandma told me of this when I was a little boy. She never drank and I never heard her tell any other tales or stories so when she told me about this occurrence I paid attention.
On a small farm in North Dakota my Grandma was sitting in a fairly new house in the kitchen chatting with two other people. There was a fairly violent rain storm outside with a lot of lightening. She looked over at the kitchen sink and there was a ball of bluish light hovering just below the tap of the faucet. It was maybe four inches across and silently hung there. Everyone looked over at it and after a minute it moved about ten feet to the basement stairs. Back then she said the railing was metal. After slowly moving to the railing it attached itself to the rail and zoomed downstairs and disappeared into the floor. It was completely silent as it did all this making no noise. Everyone was astonished. She said that everyone said that the house wasn't properly grounded and they later attached a lightening rod to the house and rewired the ground wire. I remembered her telling me about this so vividly and I was surprised to see similar occurrences posted by other people.
Joseph Holweger <Phatzsz101 a gmail com>
Grand forks, ND USA - Friday, August 12, 2011 at 10:59:39 (PDT)
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This event happen 18 years ago, I can't forget it. This is the only thing that fits. all i ask is why me, im very lucky someone was with me that night in the S.F.V.! OK, HERE IT GOES. I was sitting on my couch in my living room watching t,v, my girlfriend was doing a crossword at a desk right behind the couch . IT was 12:30 am the clock was on the t.v. .She told me that she had to be home by 2:00am, or she was grounded for a month. the sling glass door was closed, vert blinds closed, also a blanket over the blinds. This round glowing sphere came floating in front of the t.v. It was the color of voilet, and as big as a rubber workout ball.it went right by me bounce off the wall and came back and hit me. I put my right hand up to block it . For some reason i was really pissed off at this and I JUMP UP looked out the sling glass window . Saw nothing so i slowly sat back down. turned to my girl and she said [kevin i saw it attack you} then we looked at the time and it read 3:00am. IT WAS 1235 AT THE MOST. MY LIFE HAS CHANGED DUE TO THIS.
philip kevin <kevingraf1111 a yahoo com>
PANORAMA CITY, CA USA - Friday, August 05, 2011 at 17:10:38 (PDT)
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This report differs from most ball lightning reports. I still consider it to be related to the
normal reports of ball lightning but since I can't be sure, any suggestions of what I experienced are welcome.
I was young, perhaps 8 or 10 years old. I remember my dad saying that what we were looking at was
something you may only see once in your lifetime. I remember the afternoon very well. There was
a large super-cell thunderstorm approaching our town from the east. The sun was shining on the
large white clouds making it very bright. Lightning was erupting every 10 or 15 seconds and the
thunder was getting louder. I don't remember who saw it first but we started watching a very
bright spot inside the cloud. It would get brighter and brighter and then, it would dim at the
very instant that a lightning streak would occur. It seemed that the lightning was building up
in this "ball" and when it reached a certain level, it would discharge with a lightning strike.
We watched it for about 10 minutes as it slowly moved inside the cloud, eventually disappearing
as it seemed to move further toward the inner part of the cloud. Everyone I have explained this
to doesn't believe me but I'll never forget it.
Keith Hammons <keithhammons at yahoo dot com>
LA USA - Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 06:57:50 (PDT)
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I was cooking once. And mid kitchen away from power outlets there was a circular spark. The spark looked dangerous. It happened about twice. The first time it was ignored the second time I had witness. The bartender came back saying it was electric wiring. Common knowledge showed that it would be impossible for a spark to form out of thin air. He checked and could not find anything wrong with any of the wires, so I just cooked the rest of the night. Also it was in the middle away from anything electric. Before I left that place I sparked once more. The first sparks were blue and the last time it was red. The red spark sparked above my head. I left the place soon after.
Arturo a rodriguez <Arodriguez59us a yahoo com>
Memphis, Tn USA - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 11:45:18 (PDT)
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July 4th 2011,5PM. My husband and I were watching T.V in a cabin we are renting , There was a pretty good thunder and lightning storm going on outside all of a sudden above us in the peak of our family room ceiling we heard a pop and a sizzle and at the same time saw a ball of light it was there for a few seconds we both heard and saw it and then it was gone!! At the same time the power had blinked out and on just that fast it did'nt affect any appliances except an older vcr/dvd player which won't work now. There was no odor,burn marks nothing!! We checked outside the cabin, in the attic nothing, nothing had tripped any of the breakers, no sign anything had ever happend...what was it?????
connie forbis <jakey572009 a yahoo com>
duchesne, utah USA - Tuesday, July 05, 2011 at 15:15:30 (PDT)
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About 10PM EST, I stepped outside and noticed what seemed to be a green
shooting star. As most shooting stars go, it zoomed across the sky and
faded. Where it had disappeared though, it suddenly reappeared,
stationary, and brightly glowing - about on par with some of the brighter
stars in the sky, ones you could see even with a full moon.
Within about 2 seconds, it started moving around erratically, changing
direction and speed very suddenly, about every second. The brightness was
fluctuating as it moved, but was generally very bright. After no more than
10 seconds of moving around, it picked up speed and moved straight south
out of sight in a matter of a couple of seconds.
The weather was overcast with some open spots, so some stars were visible.
flashes of light, typical of lightning storms, could be seen from where I
suspect the object came from. Distance of the object above ground was more
than 8 meters - about 25 feet - it was obviously above the trees. I don't
know the actual size, neither the distance, but I would guess the size was
anything from 0.5 meters and up. It was probably under 2,000 meters
elevation, assuming the clouds were that low.
The object made no apparent sounds. The lightning storms were also very
far off, so I also could not hear them.
Ell <1337 "itisell AT yahew DOT Co/\/\"lolnospammersallowed>
USA - Friday, June 17, 2011 at 20:59:09 (PDT)
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I have looked everywhere on the web and in libraries etc., and have
never been able to find anything about this in any shape or form
whatsoever. I have been told that it was 'ball-lightning' BUT I have
actually seen ball-lightning both in the UK and the USA, where I lived for
several years since the following occurrences and I can categorically say
that it was NOT ball-lightning, or ball lightning as described by most
observers, which I saw on both the occasions in question; in any case,
there was no stormy weather about and, in fact, the weather was calm on
both occasions.
In November 1972 at about 4pm. I went into a back bedroom of my home,
looked through the west facing window and noticed that it was a calm clear
late afternoon with the sun setting low in the sky. I turned away from
the window towards my right and suddenly noticed about to two feet above
and about two feet in front of me, a slowly revolving, brilliant sphere -
it seemed to be a gold orb, about the size of a large grapefruit; as it
revolved it seemed to give off scintillating flashes from coloured jewels
which appeared to be embedded in it. I must re-iterate here that the
object appeared to be absolutely SOLID and appeared to actually be a
metallic object.
It was utterly silent and I just stood and looked at it as it was so
astonishing and utterly beautiful; I was totally unafraid and had a
distinct knowledge that whatever it was it would not hurt me, it seemed
TOTALLY BENIGN - I just wondered what it was.
As I stood watching it, after about two or three minutes, it just
'went' - that is the only thing I can say - one second it was there, the
next it was gone!
Exactly the same thing occurred in July 1978 but in a different
house, as we had moved by that time; it was about 7.50pm., a calm, fairly
cloudy evening - I was looking through the north-east facing window of our
living room and again noticed the object to my right about two feet above
and two feet away from me. The same events occurred.
On both occasions, I suffered no ill effects whatsoever; I have just
been left with a longing to know what it was and why it was there. I
suppose my feelings on both occasions was one of, what I can only describe
as
awe.
I feel that I must add here that I am psychic and have been since a very
small child, but not realising that I was until I was in my teens, having
thought that everyone saw departed people, etc., etc.
I hope some-one has heard of this before and can perhaps shed some
light on it. Thanks, anyway
Judy Lugg <judylugg a hotmail com>
Wolverhampton, WM United Kingdom - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 09:58:02 (PDT)
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As the storm in indiana on june the 12th,2011 around 1:55 am, i was on
the computer, and all of a sudden I saw a ball of yellowish light fly past
my window, it even had a pitch to it, a very high pitch. My dog was awoken
by it. No thunder, just a high pitch, and then it dissapeared, just like
that.
matt szolek <mattsvv a gmail comindianapolis>
Indiana, IN USA - Friday, June 10, 2011 at 22:59:50 (PDT)
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Ball Lightning, 1958.
Report of an old (1958) but very clear, and I think important, ball lightning observation by Barrie Beeching. Important because the ball lightning has clearly gone through the glass panes of two closed windows and also through a brick wall, and we also seem to have a quantifiable ionisation recombination tail.
I was sitting in the Gate Inn in Kent having a drink and light lunch,
when I started to leaf through the Parish Magazine. Right on the first and second pages there was this very clear account, by one of the parish magazine editors, of a ball lightning event when he was at school. Barrie is now a professional accountant. With his permission I went to his house and asked further questions that occurred to me based on what I know about plasma physics. (I am now a materials physicist, specialising in NMR and neutron scattering techniques.)
Barrie Beeching's report follows, with answers to my questioning inserted in [brackets].
.......................................................................................
IT CAME THROUGH THE CLASSROOM WINDOW:
WELL, AT LEAST I WAS CONVINCED IT DID!
As a youngster, I attended Wingham Primary school [in the county of Kent, UK]
and retain vivid impressions of one event that has stayed
with me to this day. I'm not aware that I've even mentioned
it to anyone before now. Occurrences are rare, and there is
much Internet discussion as to whether such phenomena
even exist, however I now believe that as a seven-year-old in
1958, I witnessed a case of ball lightning. As far as I know,
none of my fellow pupils saw anything. It was a very dull
morning, and I think it had been raining, certainly a storm
was in progress. Miss Williamson, our class teacher, was
starting the school day with prayers in the classroom. A clap
of thunder rang out. The thunder startled me and made me
open my eyes and glance up. I noticed all the other children
near me were still in an attitude of prayer with their eyes
closed, and my initial thought was of guilt that I had
allowed myself to be distracted when they clearly hadn't.
[Within 5 to 10 seconds maximum.]
My peripheral vision was alerted by something on my right,
a slight movement. I turned my head towards it and saw a
round disk moving slowly in our general direction [travelling northwards, at about walking speed].
It was of a yellowy white hue, not brilliant in intensity but bright
[about like an opalescent 100 Watt bulb, not dazzling, and not sparking];
smallish, maybe six inches or so in diameter and with a
modest tail trailing it.
[The tail length ... was of the order of three feet or so.] From my vantage point standing at
my desk, it was slowly travelling right to left across the
school hall, the building adjacent to our classroom. It came
straight through the glass panes of a hall window and across
a small piece of land between the buildings. It was some six
or seven feet above the ground and entered our classroom
window without damaging it. It slowly traversed the
classroom in a straight line [at a slight angle to the walls], horizontal to the ground and
exited through the brick wall on my left hand side [about 1 yard away from the door - Barrie does not remember any electric sockets or switches on this region of wall]: a south
to north trajectory. As I watched its progress above the
bowed heads of my classmates, I felt a great apprehension
come over me and was scarcely able to accept what I was
seeing. Even at such an age, I couldn't acknowledge that
something could pass through both the glass of the windows
and the brick wall without causing any apparent damage to
either.
[Barrie commented that he had been very surprised at the time that the windows were not shattered.]
This seemed so illogical to me that I even
contemplated whether it was a little further away, just
beyond our classroom, and I had viewed its passage through
the windows at the far end of the classroom, even though I
knew it had passed through the room some six feet from me.
The prayers came to an end; background chatter resumed
and the lessons for the day began. Only occasionally did my
mind return back to that morning, and that event; general
life went on and the matter was for the most part forgotten.
It was only about a decade ago that, channel-hopping, I
serendipitously watched part of a television documentary
programme on ball lightning. A passenger on an aeroplane
was espousing graphically and eloquently what he had seen
occur on a flight he was on when the fuselage of the plane
was struck by lightning during a storm. He referred to a
hovering ball of light slowly moving up the aisle of the
aircraft that then passed out through the fuselage without
harm, and I knew that what he was explaining was much as
I had witnessed nearly half a century earlier. Until that day
I had seriously doubted the event, and indeed some Internet
sites still consider that it is illusory or occurs within ones
head. I had never heard of ball lightning as a seven-year-old
so had no preconceptions of its actions. Web sites do refer to
ball lightning passing through material without harming it'
and also quote other examples where there are spectacular
explosive or fatal repercussions. The Internet considers ball
lightning a very rare phenomena indeed and that only one
in twenty people claim to have witnessed it. Am I alone in
our locality, or are there any others out there that believe
they may have also seen ball lightning?
Barrie Beeching
.......................................................................................
End of Barrie's report.
So here we have a very clear description of a ball lightning that seems to have been created by or at the same time as a close lightning strike.
As I say, the clarity of the description of it going through the glass panes of two closed windows and a wall is very important.
Now the old Wingham School has been pulled down about 15 years ago ago, and re-built, so we have no chance of studying the glass panes themselves. However the traversing of the panes eliminates a number of models of ball lightning - those based on a kernel of ions or unusual matter (unless the unusual matter is sub-atomic and uncharged, and can pass through the atoms of the glass without unduly disturbing them).
This observation would appear to be fairly strong evidence that at least one fairly typical type of ball lightning probably has its spherical shape and glowing appearance due to a resonant electro-magnetic standing-wave, as this might well be able to traverse an insulating window pane, and a (dry) brick wall, without being dissipated. It is just a pity, as I say, that we do not have the glass panes to examine with modern techniques.
If one assumes that the glowing tail is an ionised plasma recombination event :
Wikipedia gives a typical walking speed as about 5 km.hr-1, which is about 1.4 m.s-1.
If one assume that half the plasma has recombined at a distance of about 0.5m, then I calculate the mean-life-time as about 1/3 s.
Another point to note is the levelness of the trajectory, in comparison with many artificial forms of "ball lightning", which either tend to rise - and fail to pass through glass (if composed of heated plasma), or fall to the floor.
This is very clearly also a very silent occurrence, as the ball lightning was not noticed by the other pupils even when it passed a few feet over their heads.
Dr. Beau Webber
2011-05-12
Dr. Beau Webber <J.B.W.Webber_at_kent.ac.uk>
Canterbury, Kent UK - Friday, May 13, 2011 at 07:03:01 (PDT)
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i have trail cameras which have taken pictures from 1 area only of strange lights over a hundred pic in a year from very close range i put some on flickr if you put in the name thylacine pads and look thru my photos you will see some .if you need to see others i will send.im looking for rare animals not lights , so you could say the lights are a bonus.or not.and i have seen ball lightning before.i dont think my lights are that.
ray harvey <rayharvey271 at hotmaildot com.au>
brisbane, qld australia - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 02:45:43 (PDT)
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It had been raining all morning and there were a series of thunderstorms that had been coming through. I think it was part of that massive storm system that came up though the south with so many deadly tornadoes. I was sitting in my kitchen when I heard a very loud explosion (not anything like thunder). I instinctively looked up and at that time and saw a lightning rod come down where there was a lightning ball hovering over the ground in my yard. It was about the size of a basketball, clear with what I want to say perhaps a blueish hue. It was there for only a couple of seconds and that was it. Later I went outside to see if the grass had been burned or disturbed but there was no trace of anything. I did not lose any electric to my house but since then have been plagued by several electrical appliances not working. I keep wondering if that much electric has wrecked havic with my older appliances. It would be interesting to know more about this, what caused this, where did all that energy go to. It was really fascinating to have seen something like this. April 28 2011.
Celeste <kiskatom at yahoodot com>
Catskill, NY USA - Friday, May 06, 2011 at 15:58:43 (PDT)
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Around 15yrs ago I was a young teenager living on a small property on the outskirt of Junee in NSW Australia.
One night I'd woken up and my bedroom was lit up as if it was day light shining through my yellow curtains. Fully awake & frightened I got up to investigate. Through the curtain I could see something big round & brightly glowing outside. Before I had a chance to pull the curtains open a massive explosion shook our windows & house. Immediately it began pouring down with rain. My parents woke up & asked what had happened, I explained what I saw but they either didn't believe me or just found going back to bed more interesting. I'd never heard of anything like it before but put it down as a ball of lightning.
I have a memory smelling something afterward even though the windows were shut but I can't be sure if it was sulpher or me.
Heath Scadden <scadden123 at hotmaildot com>
Junee, NSW Australia - Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 23:30:57 (PDT)
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Ball Lightning
I observed ball lightning on a commercial flight several years ago. The plane was passing through a thunderstorm and there was a concurrent bright flash and bang as if the plane had been struck by lightning. A few seconds later, a glowing sphere a bit larger than a softball (7-8 inch diameter)passed into the cabin through the fuselage in the row in front of me. It moved into the center aisle of the plane and then drifted down the aisle toward the front of the plane, where it disappeared. It only lasted about 5-8 seconds. It never bumped into anything. Strangely, none of the other passengers seemed to notice it, including a flight attendant who was seated in a jumpseat at the front of the cabin facing toward the rear. I looked around expecting to see others in awe, but it seemed that nobody had seen it. I recall thinking that maybe the flight attendant didn't react because this was a common phenomena that no longer surprised her, but after searching the Internet and discovering that what I observed was "ball lightning," I am convinced she just didn't see it.
John Hammell <hammell.john at gmaildot com>
USA - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 11:46:50 (PDT)
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I experienced ball lightning back around 1982-84, it was a late summer/early autumn thunderstorm, i was around 15 years old. It was a far more volatile storm than what we was used to, and as a result there was a few members of the family wathing the lightning display. A bolt of lighting struck the ground across the road from us and shortly after, a glowing ball came up from the ground to around 3 and half feet high abd started traveling across the road, me and my mum was stood at the front door as this thing headed towards us, we moved from the open door backing into the house, it actually came in through front door passing betweens us and straight down the hallway, through the open kitchen door and out the houses back door where my brother was who reported as going straight up and vanishing out of site. (and yes all 3 doors it passed through were all open and irtually in a straight line)I've always been curious about this event and have always been certain that i actually witnessed something quite special... anyway, thats how it happened, i actually think this is one thing that gained my interest in science. How would i really describe what i saw?? Well it was about the size of a soccer ball, it appeared bluish and i noticed it passed me (no more than 2 feet away) it crackled and sparked as if it was a ball of static electricity. You that sound when u pull your jumper off, and the sparks u see if done in the dark. well thats the best way i can describe it, except a little more intense sparking and sound.
Andrew Welsh <orracull at hotmaildot com>
hull, UK - Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 17:28:26 (PST)
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A few decades ago, when I was a young boy about age 7 or 8, I had this happen one stormy day, which has made me very curious about ball lightning phenomena ever since:
I was left alone in the house and given the chore by my Mom to vaccuum the living room, etc. while she was out. I recall that I had heard thunder going off a number of times while I was pulling the old Hoover floor canister roller model around -- which I always hated using, as the bare metal tube often tended to give me shocks as it was poorly grounded. Then I heard a small PoP! and looked over to see that a pale blue ball had emerged from the wall socket that the vaccuum was plugged into. It was a perfect sphere about 4 inches round, quite silent, sort of stuck to the wall socket for several seconds, and then it detached itself and began to slowly roll down the Vaccuum wire that was still live, with the vaccuum still turned on. I stopped moving, transfixed by the sight of the blue ball gradually tracing the path of the wire cord, it rode along on the very top of the cord (and not touching the ground), followed all the cords' turns and coilings along the rug, and as it slowly began to climb up to where the cord entered the vaccuum, I suddenly got scared of getting a shock and dropped the metal tube handle just before it reached the vaccuum body. The ball silently entered the vaccuum and instantly the vaccuum motor blew up with a pretty big bang and dense black smoke came out of the vaccuum cleaner, which was Toast! (I got a bit of a scolding for "breaking the vacuum" by my parents that night, and they had to go out and buy a new one...)
...Then just two years ago, during a backcountry hike with an old friend near the Coquihalla Summit area in B.C., we had landed via helicopter at a small circular tarn near timberline close to the ridge top, setting up our camp and fire for our first night. Night came on and a big storm quickly rose up and there was a number of regular lightning strikes going off in our vivinity in the darkness. Then Something caused me to turn and look exactly at the spot just across the alpine tarn to watch a brilliant white Ball suddenly, silently come into being in the air, maybe only about 20-30 feet above the treetops. It grew to a fairly large size, at least several metres wide over the space of about 1-2 seconds, and then it imploded with the loudest sharp report we both will ever hear: My friend and I stood stock still in silent wonder, listening as the single cannon Shot raced off in increadibly loud majestic sharp echoes in 360 degrees, all around the neighboring valleys and mountain ridges for close to half a minute's reverberations. It was an amazing event; I don't expect I will ever hear such a sound again -- the extreme sharpness of the BANG! and the way you could follow the sound wave's pealing outwards for miles from the central Point Charge of ignition is something we both will never forget. (I'm just glad it decided to appear across our little lake, instead of over my head on our side!) A very wet night followed, with many more lightning strikes all around our alpine camp, but it sure kicked off the first night of our fine backpacking trip in Singularity style!
Curtis Walker
108 Mile Ranch, BC Canada - Friday, February 25, 2011 at 18:51:32 (PST)
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My mom experienced two instances, separated by 5 days, of what appears to have been ball lightning. The first occurred during a winter thunderstorm at about 9 pm and consisted of several softball sized glowing orange-red balls that floated in the room for 15-20 sec and then vanished silently. The second instance consisted of a single brightly glowing red ball about 10 cm in diameter that first appeared near the ceiling, floated downward and then vanished after about 10 sec. This also happened in the evening but in good weather. The TV was on in both instances. She has been unnerved by these phenomenon, but there was no damage to person or things in either instance. We are very curious to know if we should call an electrician to investigate the grounding of her electrical service, since most reports of ball lightning are one-offs.
Dana Ling
VT USA - Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 12:28:31 (PST)
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Staten Island NY, 1980ish
I was about 12. I remember what seemed like a streak of white light come through our kitchen window on a straight path, past my dad's chest stopping him in his tracks, past my nose, and out the adjacent window. It was moving extremely fast and i felt the electrical sensation pass my face. It had a trail of light behind it, totaling about 2-3 feet in length from beginning to end, and was about the size of a cantaloupe. It did not burn or damage anything. It was broad daylight. I don't recall it being rainy. It has been 30 years that my dad and i have been wondering what it was. Now I am fairly sure that it was ball lightning, after hearing so many like stories. I can't wait to share this with my dad after all these years of wondering.
Carleen Hill
ny USA - Monday, February 07, 2011 at 20:09:38 (PST)
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Back about 1948 myself and my family were sitting around the table eating. It was during a thunder storm.We heard a loud thunder clap and the telephone rang once. An orange gas-like ball about the size of a grape fruit came out of the phone reciever and sailed right across the table between us went right to the kitchen sink on the other side of the room.This happened another one other time also. I later found that the telephone ground to a water pipe was not connected.
charles w. ward <none>
hopkinton, ma USA - Thursday, February 03, 2011 at 17:44:24 (PST)
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This is my father?s account of his sighting of what I think must have
been ball lightning, on Friday evening July 16, 2010, in Sandy Springs,
GA. (I wrote this on 7/23/10.) My Dad, 82, was temporarily living in an
assisted living facility but soon after this moved back to his own home.
On this evening the metro had strong thunderstorms moving through. Dad had
had lain down to go to sleep when he realized he needed to visit the
bathroom once more before dropping off. After doing so, he was standing
next to the bed when there was a tremendous thunderclap. Then something
caught his eye outside his north-facing window. Sitting there just a
couple of feet above the ground was a ?red ball of fire,? stationary,
about (as we measured the next day when he told me about this) 25 feet
from his windowpane. His position was 8-10 feet from the window, so he
was just 35 feet ?from death,? as he put it. It was about 3-1/2 feet in
diameter. He looked at it for about 3-4 seconds, before looking to the
side to note the time on a nearby digital clock. When he turned his head
back it was gone. Interestingly, the next day, staff at the facility
pointed out to me that sometime during that evening, lightning had totally
destroyed a very large, prominent tree about 200 feet south of my Dad?s
room. Could that bolt have created the ball?
Ralph Howard <rhjr at attdot net>
Chamblee (Atlanta), GA USA - Monday, January 10, 2011 at 17:45:40 (PST)
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Coming home from Sydney to Orange on Monday afternoon the 3rd of
January we were travelling through Mt Lambie during a thunderstorm. The
vehicle ahead was about 400 metres away and above the vehicle appeared a
reddish blue orb that hung above the vehicle before disappearing with or
at the same time as a loud crack of lightning. The orb was as big as the
car and strangely I think it was bluish purple but my 18 year old daughter
swears it was red/orange.
Thank you.
Mark Logan <thelogans2710(at)yahoodot com.au>
Orange, NSW Australia - Tuesday, January 04, 2011 at 02:28:54 (PST)
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some years ago my parents friend living opposite them saw ball lightening strike our bungalow, He was stood watching a thunderstorm when a white ball the size of a football bounced off the road onto our house roof. It melted the phone line which stuck copper specks to the front window broke two tiles and blew the burglar alarm panel.
I was living elswhere my parents were on holiday so I received a call from arthur our friend to tell me that there was damage to my parents home, Being a builder I attended with ladders and tiles. I was amazed to find two broken tiles actually in place, I cleaned them away to find the tile lath underneath, it was spread out from its one and half inch wide to three quarter inch thick original size to what looked like a fan, the lath had to be cut to renew, I slid it under the tiles don't know why I did that but it will still be there the phone line meltdown stopped just in the house but the burglar alarm had to be renewed complete.
Hope this is of some interest to you,
G, Allison <gordonallison at hotmaildot co dotuk>
USA - Sunday, January 02, 2011 at 05:39:44 (PST)
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I was 11 years old at the time and my brother was 8 years old. It was
large thunderstorm with heavy rain and frequent flashes of lightning and
clapping of thunder. I was in my brother's room and it was dark. We were
attempting to scare each other with urban legends and stories when a very
bright flash of lightning went off. Seconds after a ball of bright light
passed through the bedroom window. It had a pale yellow color surrounding
a white center and as it slowly passed through the window it had a light
blue like wispy tail that followed it. It came through the window in what
I can only describe as a "fluid motion" and maybe gracefully floating up
and down. It was about 6-8 inches in diameter then it turned around and
flew back out. We were so scared we ran out the room and cried to our
parents so we could sleep with them.
Angie Elise
USA - Saturday, December 25, 2010 at 20:34:58 (PST)
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Ball Lightning. In the 70s, I was sleeping in the living room of a friend that lived in Denver, CO. She was in her bedroom with he partner. All of a sudden, a ball of lightning flew through the ceiling into the living room and exploded right next to my head. It made a zinging sound as it came through the ceiling and lit up the entire living room area like daylight. My friend yelled out, "What was that!" I was pretty unnerved to say the least, and had no idea what it was. I had never heard of ball lightning before. There were no burn marks or damage to the ceiling. I left the next day to travel and immediately became severely ill. We had to stop at a hospital in Custer, WY. I was completely out of it and feverish. They did not know what I had. I spent the next week sleeping in the van while my friend drove us around. It was about a week before I began to come out of it. I always felt that the ball of lightning had something to do with this illness. I can still see this whole incident play out in my mind like it was yesterday.
Christy
USA - Saturday, December 18, 2010 at 22:53:02 (PST)
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On Ball Lightning
When I was 11 or 12 riding with my Father we had quite a unusual experience. It was a average summer day when a bright white glowing ball about the size of a basketball drifted across the windshield. I think we were stopped or going very slow as we could casually watch it. Coming from my Dad's side it slowly "bounced' across the windshield of our Rambler and then I don't remember if it disappeared or just ran off the hood out of my sight. It was the first time my Dad didn't have a answer for me. Now I can finally look up what other's have seen.
Tom Ridgley <myluckyday at liscodot com>
Fairfield, IA USA - Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 21:17:22 (PST)
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In approximately 1960, I remember my mother telling us that when she was driving home from work the night before, a ball of lightning rolled across the road right in front of her car. She said it made every hair on her body stand straight up for a while. She said that the lightning had first struck a tree prior to it turning into a ball and rolling. This would be in rural williams county Ohio on route #2, county road f-50. That's all I can remember from the incident. I wish I would have asked more questions but I didn't and it's too late now because she is deceased.
anne hyatt knott
sylvania, oh USA - Tuesday, November 02, 2010 at 13:52:59 (PDT)
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I was in 5th grade at the time,age 11 and my brother, age 7 were making a snowfort outside with a heavy thunder snowstorm. It was in the afternoon, and the thunder and lighting hadn't started yet. Yet it was snowing very heavily.
Well, all the sudden this blueish orb about the size of a basketball, maybe a bit smaller with a slight tail came down on our fort. The tail was pointing towards the sky but only extened about 3 feet into the air. It some how landed right by the snow fort and exploded infront of my brother and me. My brother reports just seeing a bright flash and he was on the otherside of the fort, while I was
on the side where the lightning has struck. It hit the middle of the fort, it seemed to be going into it almost. All the sudden there was a bright blueish-white flash and no heat, and I can't recall any unusual smell. My brother and me were both blinded with a blueish-white flash in our eyes which slowly faded away after a minute had passed.
When we got in the house, I asked my mother if she had seen the bright blue flash and she reported that she had seen the flash from when it exploded as it shined in through the window in her bedroom.
My brother later went outside to check the fort and reported seeing that parts of it had been destroyed or melted.
Christopher Wald
w USA - Sunday, October 24, 2010 at 19:45:00 (PDT)
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Early June of '88 or '89, driving my car down to the Boca Grande lighthouse..mid afternon...2pm? The trip would take typically 30 minutes, during which time my dog, Amber, always slept and didn't wake up until we crossed the bridge a few minutes before arriving there. This day, half way there, she sat up in the back seat. It was unusual for her. The sky was darkening..I even noticed that some homes had put lights on. The sky became dark and 'eerie'. For some reason I noticed that this busy street had no cars on it..dot coming or going. At this time, I noticed a bright blue..."neon-like" ball, about the size of a basketball coming down the road. It seemed like it was about 30 feet in the air. I realized Amber was staring at it. Since there were no other cars on the road. I slowed down and came to a complete stop...we both just stared at this 'thing'...truly I thought I was hallucinating...then I thought UFO...Crazy for me? Yup... but not crazy for Amber. Where I stopped there was a street lamp about 15 feet in front of me. We watched this 'thing' kind of do a soft 'bounce' up and down..2-3 feet up then 2-3 feet down. coming closer and closer to us. I thought about putting the car in reverse and getting away as fast as possible, but i became paralyzed in fear and wonderment as to what to do. It looked as though it was heading straight for us...when it came within 15 feet of the car...it EXPLODED the street lamp blew up and a thousand shards of that bright blue glass flew all around us. It was over. I opened my car door and looked down at the glass outside my car. all the shards appeared to be normal looking glass...clear. I wanted to reach down and pick a piece up, but out of fear..thinking it might be 'hot' I left. The sky continued to darken and withing a few moments that road became filled with cars as one of the fiercest typical summer lightning storms filled the sky...hard rain and heavy lightning strikes. I wondered about that day...why were there no other cars to witness this event with me?? what was it?? Never mentioned it to anyone except the friend that I was meeting down at the lighthouse. About a year later, I came into the faculty lounge where I taught. I heard the science teacher finish a sentence as I came in..all I heard was 'yeah, they call it ball lightning'. Immediately, I had a label for what happened to me the year before. I told her to "stop...don't say another word...just listen to something that I expereinced about a year ago. After explaining to her what I saw, she 'confirmed' it was ball lightning. She told me she was jealous as it is very rare to witness the event. No kiddin' ...I will never forget it. BTW, Immediately following the street lamp explosion...amber quickly fell back to sleep and didn't wake up until she smelt the Gulf of Mexico.
Judith
Judith <Bookbubbe at aoldot com>
Pt. Charlotte, FL USA - Saturday, October 09, 2010 at 02:30:52 (PDT)
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Hi Guys,
This Incident Happened to me when I was 19 years old in the year 2009.
I was watching cricket match between India and Australia in tv at 7 pm in my home. At that time I heard a feather swapping noise coming out of my window. As I looked at my window, I saw a moth trying itself to escape from a lizard. When it just escaped from a lizard, another lizard came and grabbed the moth in its mouth. The moth swapped its feathers in utter fast but was not able to escape. When the moth stopped its feather swapping, the lizard swallowed it.
The paranormal fact is that when the lizard swalloed the moth, a small blue lighted spherical ball came out from its mouth.
The things I can't able to understand are
*What was the blue lighted spherical ball?
*The blue light glowed from inside the ball and it was not a reflected light.
*It floated in the air and came into my house from outside the window. The ball was clearly visible even in the room's light.
*It was not a solid or liquid ball, as it passed through the mosquito net attached in my window. (The ball was in the size of a peanut).
*It came into my home and approached towards the middle of the running fan and gets disappeared.
Could anyone explain what the spherical ball may be?
Bala <racer.bala at yahoodot com>
Chennai, TamilNadu India - Saturday, October 09, 2010 at 02:03:09 (PDT)
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I was SO scared when I saw ball lightening. I was about 15 years old, so around 1994 or so. I was in my room home alone when my cat started meowing at the window. I opened the curtains and outside far off in the sky was a almost perfect circle glowing orange. It was hovering then dropped, then stopped and dropped and stopped, maybe 4 times like this till it dropped fast and it looked like it exploded on the ground behind some trees. I was beyond scared!! I could not move!! When I finally got the phone to call my mom I was crying and she thought I was on drugs. Thank goodness I called my grandmother who told me she saw something like that and it was ball lighting. I actually NEVER want to see it again!!
STEPHANIE
Sugarhill, ga USA - Wednesday, October 06, 2010 at 09:43:23 (PDT)
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I was outside with my friend late one night back in 2000 when I suddenly saw a bright light. When I looked up I saw a perfectly spherical glowing blue orb rise a about 15 feet into the air. I looked down to my friend who had his back turned to the light and he was looking all about for the source because it was an unlit portion of the road. By the time I looked back up it had vanished.
Ezrad Lionel <novatvstdios at gmaildot com>
Gros Islet, NA St.Lucia - Monday, October 04, 2010 at 19:53:27 (PDT)
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Ive witnessed a ball of lightning before,
in 2006 my daughter was enjoying an icecream during a storm, she stood a few feet from the doorway licking her cone when suddenly a bluish ball came right thorough the doorway and burst right above her shoulder, singing her hair melting the ice cream to nothing, burnt the cone and left her shoulder paralyzed for 2 weeks.
Michelle Beckford <sheba2cute at hotmaildot com>
USA - Sunday, October 03, 2010 at 16:05:25 (PDT)
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This phenomena was witnessed near Melbourne, Florida in the summer of 1969, when I was thirteen. A strange light in the sky to the west of town caught my attention, and I pointed it out to my dad. He excitedly ushered us all into the car? with stories of ?ball lightning? and what a great opportunity it was to see something like this close up. When we reached the neighborhood where the lightning was occurring, it was a madhouse. The balls of lightning seemed to be bouncing from one location to another, lighting fires with every strike. It was crazy, because many of the people were evacuating? loading their cars and rounding up pets. It was exciting, but the strikes were continuing with a unpredictability that my dad decided was too dangerous to stick around to watch. I?m not sure how long the strikes lasted, but it seemed like at least an hour. If anyone else remembers this, it would be great to compare stories. removethis-kimlet at excitedot com-removethis
Kimmie H.
USA - Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 04:08:07 (PDT)
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My name is Michael 32 years old, I took my dogs outside tonight and saw ball lightning, I was waiting by the gate to our wooden fence, it was thundering and lightning flashing but no rain yet nothing unusual then it started flashing super bright and holding and there it was right in front of me, it was very weird and scary, it looked like a circle/ ball of bright light floating a couple inches above the grass only about 20 feet away, I was shocked as to what I was looking at, never seen anything like it before in person, I must have stared at it for about 5 seconds, it was there like someone turned on a ball of light, my dog Sammy (a border collie mix)hy was acting scared.I don't know if Sammy saw it but he definetly sensed it.there was no bolt of lightning, just the ball of light that seem to come from nowhere, it disapated after about 5 seconds, I was truely scared,my dog was acting weird, we ran in the house fast, leaving my other dog (a bla black lab) in the backyard, I know lightning does not act like that but I saw it very clearly, it might have gone into the ground as it disappeared it seemed like, my dog Sammy was acting very nervous, and that made me more concerned, I said a few choice words and asked my dog what was that? He was trying to tell me something wasn't right so we had to go inside immediately, I had to go back a couple minutes later to get my lab (Jenny) she wanted back inside too, very excited, I was still scared, I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed a few minutes before getting my lab, I did not feel safe because it was so low to the ground, we have tall trees, always thought lightning would hit a tree instead of coming all the way down to the ground, that was not normal at all how could it do that? I will go outside in the daylight to see if it made a mark in my yard, if so I'm taking a lot of pictures, I can't explain it, kinda hovered there glowing, I believe I saw ball lightning, it is very real, I'm still shocked that I saw this weird ball of light just 20 feet away from where I was standing, I'M not scared of storms but that was too much, How can this occur is what I want to know, we have a maple tree in the back corner of the yard that has been hit by a bolt of lighting, I can take pictures of it, u can still see scars/marks from it, but a ball of lightning somehow floating there so close to the ground, it has to be the most weird thing I have ever seen in my life, I don't want to see it again so close to where I'm standing!!!
Michael Yanik <Myanik2010 at gmaildot com>
cleveland, tn USA - Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 04:50:59 (PDT)
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MY WIFE & I were on Holiday at SELSEY BILL near the Isle of Wight UK a Few Years ago in Late September. The weather was AWFUL Rain & Floods Everywhere. We had been out one day & were sitting in the only inhabited Caravan on the side of the park. There was an electric storm and suddenly a very bright flash of blue lightning. Then 3 balls of white light came into the caravan through the DEAD CENTRE of each of the three Windows. The one fhat entered through the Door Missed my Wife's left ear by 2 inches & they shot up to the one light near the front of the Caravan. They then did a spectacular Dance making Light trails. They then joined together as 1 Light and Shot out through the dead centre of the front window. They appeared to be "FRIGHTENED of the lightning" Wrong Colour or too Bright to charge themselves up With?. I checked the windows & curtains for damage - But there was none. My Wife did not feel the 'Near Miss'. I believe these to be 'BALL LIGHT ENERGY' as we in UK call it 'WILL'O'THE WISP' as this Area has Marshland (It's Near Chichester.) I wrote to a Ghost Reporter locally He said it was BALL LIGHTNING. 60 years ago I Saw a ball of lightning explode when it Hit a Power transformer & blinded me for about 5 Minutes. I do not Believe these were the Same.
Thank you for your attention to this letter, I would really like to know the answer.
ROY SMITH <roy.1936 at livedot com>
CLACTON, ESSEX UK - Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 09:23:46 (PDT)
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In the summer of 2008 mid afternoon I was sitting on my bed watching tv. My overweight cat was sleeping on his back at the foot of the bed. A golf ball sized reddish ball not solid looking flew at a high rate of speed across the bed creasing the fur of the cat waking him. The ball entered and exited through two solid walls. If not for the cats reaction I would have dissmissed it as my eyes playing a trick on me. I've never seen anything like it before or since.
Dan Snyder <dandrumz at livedot com>
puyallup, wa USA - Saturday, September 11, 2010 at 12:17:22 (PDT)
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This evening my husband and I were sitting on our couch watching television. What happened next was something neither of us has seen before. There was a loud pop in mid-air and I could see a round ball of energy--for lack of a better term---that seemed to explode instantaneously. We weren't moving around. We have two dogs, but they were not running---just sitting on our carpeted floor. The ball of energy---which is the best way I can explain it---was a golden yellow and at the very moment it exploded (popped), the middle of the ball of energy was a lighter yellow. We both jumped. The dogs got up and started nosing around---all of us noticed this strange phenomena. One of the dogs went out the dog door and wouldn't come back in. Nothing else unusual going on---no other equipment or anything, just this ball of energy about 2-1/2 feet off the floor about the size of a nickel and about 7 feet straight in front of me as I sat on the couch. Has this ever happened to anyone else? What is this phenomenon? We searched all over the immeidate area and found no traces of anything left from this 'microexplosion.' I also noticed immediately after this 'popping' that the hair on my neck and my arms felt like it was standing on end sort of like it feels when you get 'goosebumps.' This sounds so strange---we think no one will believe us, but it really did happen! Does someone know what this is?
Mary Lou Coady <coadyhouse at hughesdot net.111198746213>
USA - Thursday, September 09, 2010 at 19:13:28 (PDT)
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Ball Lightning Seen:
2010
August 27th
Apprx. 8 PM
Walking up stairs to 2nd floor, Ball lightning, size of balloon, yellowish in color, seen in upper corner of landing. Bare walls, no lights in area. Lasted apprx. 3 seconds. I screamed; 17 year old son came up 30 seconds later and witnessed burning smell and smoke. At first we thought it was an electric fire or something of that nature. Checked all wires, etc. No problems. Husband, PhD physicist, came home later that evening- asked him, he directed us to Ball Lightning... Wikipedia article matches description.
Olha D. <*****mtdiachok at aoldot com******>
Fairfax, VA USA - Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 07:38:13 (PDT)
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Saturday, August 21, 2010, approximately 9:30 p.m., I was sitting on the deck looking at the sky. From behind a large tree came a glowing fireball with a tail (about the size of a soccer ball), moving across the sky - not very high up - at a moderate speed - more on the slow side, actually. It travelled north to south, fairly true, for a long distance and then disappeared. It was absolutely facsinating.
Kathleen Keaton
Wykoff, MN USA - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 09:57:15 (PDT)
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my friend and I were checking out the recent meteor showers in our area and noticed a really bright ball of light flash across the lake along the shore, it happened 3 times and shortly afterward, there was an intense lightning storm in the far distance to the south east. the sky above us was clear and full of stars, we could not hear any thunder from the lightning. Those balls of light were really intense, and there was absolutely no sound with them. weird!!!!!
kris <k57rowbertson0603 at gmaildot com>
wi USA - Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 20:04:13 (PDT)
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When i was 9 years old i was living in a small east texas country town call Pine Forrest with my grandparents. The telephone we had was a party line, meaning that all the folks on the phone company line had an old style crank handle ringer type phone with just an ear peice and mic on the box mounted on the wall. So, when we got three long rings from the operator we knew we had a phone call.
It was storming and raining one day and lightning was playing fun with the ring tones on the party company phone lines. My grandmother thought she heard three long rings which ment we had an incoming phone call. My grandmother proceeded to the hall way to answere the phone. As luck would have it the phone line into our house ran thru two huge old east texas oak trees. My grandmother was stepping into the hallway to answere the phone and i was located on the couch about 8 ft from the phone along with my grandfather who was in his fave rocking chair.
Just then lightning struck one of the huge oak trees in our front yard where the phone line ran between them to the telephone pole. A few seconds after a loud cracking sound from the lightning hitting one of the oak trees my grandmother stopped just about 3 ft from the phone.
Then my grandmother, myself and my grandfather watched three balls of ball lighting float in the air in the hallway for about 3 to 4 seconds then they were gone. There were 3 balls of lightning. Color was of an opal with one ball being the size of a basket ball and two smaller ones the size of a grapefruit.
The two small balls vanished with no sound but the larger ball floated about 4 ft off of the hallway floor then slowly bounced up and down twice in the same spot on the floor before making a loud crack and then it to went away.
Go figure, we all just looked at each other with wide eyes and amazement! My grandmother made the statement, if i had of made one more step and walked into those balls of lightning it probably would had of killed me.
The company party line telephone and wire and phone box all worked after this event but one of the huge oak trees in the front yard where the phone line ran between was split down the middle with chuncks of bark and half the tree hanging over to one side from the lightning strike. It was amazing to all of us what had happened that day. Well thats how the ordeal went. Thanks for reading.
J.E.
Jerry Ellison <gwjerry at yahoodot com>
Odessa, Tx USA - Sunday, August 08, 2010 at 19:16:50 (PDT)
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I have had two lightening ball sightings. Both occurred while living at my parent's house. The first, happened approximately 8 yrs. ago. There was a thunder storm in the area and it was about noon. My Mother and my boyfriend, at the time, were in the kitchen watching the news when all of a sudden we heard a good crack of thunder and seconds later we witnessed a bright ball of light (about the size of a basketball) which appeared to come out of the T.V.. The three of us stood in awe at the sight which seemed to have paralyzed us. The ball hovered for a few seconds and then slowly dissipated doing no damage at all. My second experience was much more frightful. It was an overcast Saturday and my Mother had gone to the 4:00 Mass leaving myself and our dog Hector home alone. I was sitting in the recliner watching T.V. and all of a sudden there was a tremendous clap of thunder. There was no doubt in my mind that it must have hit the ground right outside of the house. There was no other rumbles. A few seconds later, I heard a loud crackling noise coming from the direction of the oven. My first thought was "Mom must have left the oven on". I glanced over to my right and lo and behold, I saw what was doing the crackling. Another ball of lightening about the size of a basketball, just hovering. It scared the dickens out of Hector and myself. We both jumped up and moved into the hallway between the kitchen and the dining room. That ball, as well, just slowly dissipated causing no damage whatsoever. That's my story! It's nice to read these stories of many others who have experienced a lightening ball sighting. I tell the story and people actually laugh at me as though I have fabricated the story which I would never do.
maggie
sutton, ma USA - Saturday, August 07, 2010 at 08:42:50 (PDT)
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last week (July 2010) My husband and I were having dinner during a Thunderstorm,which had alot of lightening. At one point we thought one had hit our house.We both looked out our glass sliders to witness a huge ball about four feet wide with a coment like tail which went threw our lanai, It then went right into our swiming pool and at that point then exploded, it shook our house violently.We then called our local weather man to ask him if he had ever heard of such a thing. He then told us about Ball Lighting,and what a phenomenon it is. He also told us a story of a women who had called him many years ago telling him one had enter her home which bounced of her wall's for several minutes before exploding.She had no damage to her home,the same for us.
Suzanne Malless <suzan>
Naples, FL. USA - Thursday, August 05, 2010 at 12:42:02 (PDT)
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I was a witness to the mysterious atmospheric phenomenon called ball lightning. I was very young when I witnessed it. I was around five or six years old (1983 or 1984). Back in Vermont during a thunderstorm in the middle of the night, I went to the living room, sat on the couch, and looked out the large front window. I was enamored with thunderstorms as a child, and Burlington, Vermont, had plenty of them! I remember seeing three sphere-shaped balls of white light, a little larger than baseballs, ?bouncing? along the sidewalk. Bouncing is probably the wrong description, and they did not rebound quickly. It was more of a floaty bounce. They bounced alternately. They were simply balls with no trails or tails. Then they disappeared. To this day, no one believes me. But apparently, from accounts describe on the internet, I am not the only person to have witnessed this phenomenon.
K. Lynch
USA - Monday, August 02, 2010 at 11:19:15 (PDT)
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IN ABOUT 1980 I WAS SITTING ON THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF A TV.THE NEXT THING I KNEW I WAS LAYING ON THE FLOOR SCREAMING.BECUASE A BALL OF LIGHT PASSED VERY FAST THROUGH MY EYES AND BLINDED ME FOR ABOUT 5 MIN.MY MAWMAW HAD ME IN HER LAP WITH A FLASH LIGHT TRYING TO SEE WHAT WAS WRONG WITH MY EYES.I REGAINED MY SIGHT BUT COULLD NOT SEE FAR OFF SINCE THAT DAY.I HAVE NO CLUE AS TO WHAT IS WAS..NOW I'VE FOUND MYSELF THINKING ABOUT IT.WOULD LOVE TO HEAR OTHER STORIES LIKE MINE,..
TOSHA PEREZ <toshamark at hotmaildot com>
mcalla, al USA - Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 11:20:05 (PDT)
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Summer monsoon season in foothills of Santa Catalina Mts N. of Tucson AZ. I was sitting in my truck to safely watch a tremendous thunderstorm in the driveway of my father's home. Lightning and thunder was flashing and boomingseveral times per minute. Suddenly, with a deafening explosion a lightning bolt struck the edge of the driveway about 20 yards away. Immediately an extremely bright yellowish sparking "globe", about the size of a basketball,appeared from an arm of the bolt, floating about 5 ft.above the ground. I recall a sizzling sound as it floated slowly toward the house to my left. After what was probably three to four seconds it exploded/ vanished with a loud bang like a large firecracker. I was astonished, a little frightened but absolutely grateful that I had the opportunity to witness this rare event, which I had read about before.
john golder <jhond at comcastdot net 77el77>
felton, CA USA - Monday, July 26, 2010 at 00:57:30 (PDT)
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i was about 16 i was walking on a road in the country of georgia staring at the sky when a green golf sized ball of light came down from seemed only about 20 ft in the air it was swiveling and i thought it was going to hit me i ducked my head and to dodge it then it just vanished i didnt tell anyone for years i didnt think anyone would believe me i just now told my wife
erick <ecclesiastes555 at yahoodot com44>
westminster, md. USA - Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 10:24:15 (PDT)
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In about 1963 in the south of France near the Italian border, within sight of the Mediterranean, I was sitting alone in our living room one evening during a storm, my husband not yet having returned home; the house was quite high up, situated on a mountain ridge. It was evening, summertime, and to my astonishment I saw a ball of lightning, about the size of a basketball and quite yellow in color, come zooming in from outside. It shot straight across the room parallel to the wall, perhaps 6 or 8 feet away from me, went through an inner door to the hallway, and exited through the hallway door to the outside. It appeared to roll along at floor level. There was no noise nor odor that I can recall. Its appearance seemed be that of a round, flickering fireball, though flickering in the direction it was taking. The house faces in an easterly direction, and the ball was rolling from south to north. Unfortunately I was too surprised to race outside to see if it had disappeared completely, but it was an incident not to be forgotten even after all these years!
Faith Kauffmann
USA - Monday, July 12, 2010 at 19:12:55 (PDT)
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30mins ago, 22.10GMT, 12.07.2010 - witnessed what I can only assume was ball lightening out at sea.
Walking dog along cliff road, near village of Staithes, North Yorkshire, UK. Looking back East, over Staithes and out to sea I saw what I thought was a Chinese Lantern. 10 seconds go by I think perhaps it's a flare, from a ship on the horizon, it was a fireball. Then I realised that it was lighting a huge ring of sea beneath it - it started near to the horizon, and was heading slowly downwards and West towards me/ Staithes - so I realised it was high up and moving fast (moving slow from my perspective) for a second I thought it was a meteorite heading for Staithes! Standing in awe for 30 seconds I then snap to, and scramble for my camera phone - too late! Freaky stuff. Ball lightning is my best guess!?
David Mann <dididavidmann at aoldot com>
UK - Monday, July 12, 2010 at 14:40:25 (PDT)
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On tuesday 29th june 2010 at 12.10am aprox, my husband and myself think we both witnessed 'ball lightning'. it was a warm night with no wind and we were sat in the back garden, my husband was first to see it and told me to look to my left. we watched a ball,(the size of a grapefruit), of brilliant blue white light travel in a horizontal direction above the roofs of our neighbours house and then our house. It made no sound then just disapered! I must admit it did scare me as ive never seen anything like it. We ruled out a meteor as it had no tail nor sound and it travelled in a horizontal straight line, i havnt seen a meteor do this!
amanda bromley
USA - Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 16:20:39 (PDT)
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last year around mid october my friend and I were taking a drive in the country as we stopped at a stop sign then proceeded to turn right I saw on my left about 50 feet away across the ditch a small ball of bright silvery whitish light hovering about 3 feet off the ground, it was around the size of a basketball and smaller balls of the same description were appearing about a foot away from it and were quickly being absorbed by it,itoved towards us covering around 40 feet or so in what seemed like a second, as it reached the side of the road across from us it shot straight up in the air around 20 feet or so and broke into several small pieces that disapeared instantly,
A few hours later I realized that I had seen ball lightning and am happy to be able to recount this,
Joel DeFoort <Winstonate at hotmaildot comcom>
Winnipeg, mb Canada - Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 21:03:40 (PDT)
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A few years ago I was sitting at my computer in my living room. A thunderstorm had passed over the area about thirty minutes before. I felt a kind of static electricity sensation on the back of my neck and my arms (the hairs stood up) so I looked around and in the dining room to my left I saw a small, bright, yellowish-white ball of light move in a steady and slow arc from the ceiling to a point underneath the dining room table. Once it descended below the table it disappeared. There was no sound and no variation in the intensity of the light given off by this phenomenon, nor was there any sound when it suddenly disappeared. There was a slight electrical scent in the air afterward. I remember being very excited and telling other people about it--I assumed it was a form of ball lightning although at least one friend suggested it was a "spirit orb" or something--and I've never seen anything like it since (though I'm still watching).
Lance <ktulun at gmaildot com>
Titusville, FL USA - Wednesday, June 02, 2010 at 19:26:13 (PDT)
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I'm wondering if anybody has seen something like this before, me and my girlfriend were driving down a dark road late one evening in the moutains near taos, new mexico, their was one car ahead of us otherwise the road was totally deserted and very dark, when I saw the lights, 3 or 4 of them, they seemed to be moving and hovering around the car ahead of us which was going at a pretty good rate of speed. they seemed like fireflies but fireflies dont move like that at that rate of speed. I asked my girlfriend if she could see them and and wasnt able to for some reason, I'm closed minded when it comes to unexlained phenomenon, but I'm 100 percent positive I seen this! I think that I have heard of these lights before but just can't remember where! If you heard or experienced this before please let me know by my email, it would be greatly appreciated!
carl rayfield <carlrayfield at gmaildot com>
rodeo, ca USA - Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 23:09:24 (PDT)
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This happened on Thursday 13th May 2010, last week. We at present are having lots of thunderstorms along with very bad weather. I usually leave for office around 10.30am, however that day the rain was such a deluge that I couldn't step out of my house. After informing my Manager that I would get late, I was lying in my bed reading. The windows were behind my head and they were shut tight for the rain, The only other openings were a set of slits for air above the windows.The door which was in front & to my left was shut. The fluorescent light was on since it was a little dark.
At around 10.50am I heard the crashes of thunder getting louder & nearer. However since I had no high voltage elecronics connected I went on reading. The light from the light kept flashing on my book behind me. I was holding the book fairly opposite my face to read more easily.
Suudenly I saw a very bright white light in front of me shining around the edges of the book.
Astonished since the windows were behind me, I lowered my book, to see a very bright, ball of white light about the size of a tennis ball floating in front of me near the opposite wall around eye level.The ball had little branches of light coming out of it like lightning & the edges were red. It also made a slight hissing noise. It was so bright that I closed my eyes for fear of being blinded. Even as I closed it I heard a huge thundercrash which almost seemed to be inside the room & almost deafened my ears.When I opened my eyes once the thunder peal was over, the ball of light was gone. And I also realised that my room light had gone out along with the electricity.
Later my parents found the trip switch had been triggered & that my room fluorescent light seemed to be the one that had triggered it since my room fluorescent bulb never worked afterwards and seemed to have gone out due to some extremely high voltage.
The only explanation I can give is ball lightning. Since the phenomenon seemed to have floated through the glass of my windows as far as I can tell.
Shivashankari Sivananthan <shiva-shankari at hotmail,com##>
Colombo, SRILANKA - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 22:03:06 (PDT)
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In 1986 I saw a blueish green swirling mass enter through my picture window as I was sitting on the couch watching television. It was about six to eight inches in diameter. It traveled slowly from the picture window to the end table at the end of the couch, just a few feet from where I was sitting.
This happened in just a few seconds. The distance it traveled while in my view was about 12 to 15 feet. There was no sound from the object nor was there any damage from it. It passed within three feet of me. Ya kinda scratch your head and think to yourself, what the hell was that and then later you find out others have seen the same thing.
James
Carmel, NY USA - Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 18:22:38 (PDT)
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Several years ago, sometime in the mid-90's, my mom was driving my sister and I to the private school we both attended early in the morning. It was probably somewhere around 5:45 in the morning, since my mom had to be at work at 6. It was storming; nothing bad, but it was lightning pretty good. I looked out the window in time to see two bolts of lightning shoot through the air, not far above the ground; they ran parallel both to each other and the ground. As soon as they disappeared, a huge ball of lightning shot straight through the gap between the two previous bolts, and the thunder it created was LOUD. I didn't know what it was at the time, but a few years later, after reading a book on lightning, I finally figured out that I'd seen ball lightning up-close and personal.
Dixie Wolfe <silver_speak_7 at hotmaildot com>
Jenks, OK USA - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 18:53:18 (PDT)
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It was many years ago about 8 to 10. I was in the kitchen of my house in the dining area. I was standing there looking out the back sliding glass door, when an orangeish ball a little larger than a basketball came right through my sliding glass door and then popped right in front of me about two to three feet from me. It made a loud sound when it popped and my husband came in from the living room to see what happened. It was so surreal that I just stood there for several minutes wondering if I really saw it.
Vicki <carringvlc at hotmaildot com>
Sierra Vista, AZ USA - Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 23:40:28 (PDT)
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Back in 1994 my wife and I lived in Telford,Shropshire, it was a damp overcast afternoon around 1700 and just getting dark.
I walked out onto the balcony and witnessed a bright blue opaque ball with a bright orange/red centre travel straight down from the sky, proceeded along our balcony wall and vanished down towards the road below.
At this point I called my wife to come and see this very strange object, my heart was pounding and I could not believe my eyes. We looked over the wall and found the sphere hovering about 2ft above the road, it suddenly shot up and with speed travelled down the side of the building and seemed to disapere under the walkway. We both ran to the back of the house but what ever it was had vanished.
On reflection we both now agree that the sphere was simply absorbed into the wall of the building and that it did not travel under the walkway.
I know these strange items exist and I wish we had a camera to hand at the time, I am willing to take any test to convince sceptics as I know what we witnessed.
Alan Williams <alan at reeswill.plusdot com>
UK - Saturday, April 10, 2010 at 14:37:23 (PDT)
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I was in an apartment on the 19th floor of an apartment buildings on an island called brikell key , a few hundred feet from downtown Miami. One night sitting in a dark room ,taking a break from studying for a test. I was looking at the misty rain from the sliding glass door that looked out the balcony. From behind me a blueish light shined very dimly and when I turned back to see what it was... I had a small blue glowing sphere, a bubble of light, next to my face. Maybe two feet. It had a perfect clean whistle. Then the ball quickly shrank in size and in unison the whistle went very high in pitch and then made a tiny popping sound. I have never been so terrified in my life. I didn?t now what to think. confused would have been an improvement. Till the internet came around...I thought I had seen a poltergeist or an alien. Eventhough I now know its ball lighting I still haven't found an explination for what I heard that night...Anyone?
Felix <miamifelix at aimdot com>
Miami, FL USA - Thursday, April 08, 2010 at 16:39:22 (PDT)
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When I was 6 or 7 (now 59)I was staying overnight at my grandparents house. Thunderstorm out side so I was watching the rain through their closed bedroom window. Out of nowhere, a ball of yellow-orange flame about the size of at volleyball bounced twice (from left to right) across the front porch bannister, then moved 90 degrees to the right and zoomed across the porch (about 8 ft wide) and burst against my window at eye level. No noise other than I remember a sizzle and crackle when I first saw it, but no noise when it burst. I remember jumping back but do not remember being frightened, just trying to dodge the thing when it hit that window. There were no marks or burns on the window.
Pat Murray <88123MurrayFeld at aoldot com228556>
Wadesboro, NC USA - Thursday, April 08, 2010 at 15:55:06 (PDT)
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25/03/2010 5.20pm
I was at college which is held in a large old building that used to house old people, the room is rented out to teach a class of 30 on large grounds. A storm suddenly came over and there was heavy rain we started to hear thunder and in the distant saw lightning. We carried on with our work when all of a sudden a very loud bang struck the building as though the building had been hit by lightning. I saw out of the window to my right a large massive orange ball about the height of a building and the same in width that hit the building opposite (an extension of our building). The tutor mentioned it was a massive fire ball and she had seen it travel from the windows behind us. We were all in shock and turned the lights off where there were sparks coming from the outside of the building. We were obviously all sent home, there was a strange smell and a wierd atmosphere. I was unsure of what had happened and looked it up on the internet and from seeing pictures it looks exactly like ball lightening!! I am definatly sure it was.. what else could it have been!! No one was hurt and there were no signs of fire even though it looked as though they were fire balls.!! a very strange experience!!
Sam <Samd125 at hotmaildot com234324>
henley on thames, Uk - Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 12:17:45 (PDT)
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In 1983 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was April or May, and a typical stormy, spring afternoon. Lightning and thunder were so close as to seem,or to be instantaneous. A clap of thunder,
something between a thud and a jolt, and a blue-white, tennis ball size sized, spherical light,popped out of the electrical outlet, about 10" above the floor. It rose to the height of 2',drifted with in 18" of where I was sitting in a metal kitchen chair, appeared to navigate a corner, and vanished with a pop and a whiff of ozone. The strangest thing is that it looked like it was rolling a few feet above the ground. Although there was no structural damage on the outside of the brick house, that outlet was fried.
Minna
Melinda Weiner <weinerswest at yahoodot com *********>
USA - Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 18:22:57 (PDT)
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At around age 12, around 1962, summer time rain that day in Ringwood, NJ in my living room, I heard a sizzling noise behind me. I turned completely around, and had to take one step aside to miss being hit by this yellowish-white grapefruit size object that was traveling at a speed slow enough to be touched if you wanted to, parallel about two feet off the floor. I got to witness BL within inches of my abdomen! In retrospect it was like a 60-100W light bulb. It had no smell, don't know where it entered, but watched it exit the screened opened window without leaving any trace. Most interesting was this, it looked like a cartoon version of the personification of Mr. Lightening, meaning it had many jagged finger-like (larger base tapering to a sharper point) sparks rotating counterclockwise, looking to me like the object was in a seizure, since it was herky-jerky. I remember this as if it was yesterday. My two brothers were in the same room. I would think they saw the same thing that I did, but one saw or heard nothing, the other only heard the sizzling noise, go figure. I wish that a scientist could interview me via telephone, since it doesn't look like many people got this close to BL.
Richard Kopp <abusa2003 at aimdot com>
Oroville, CA USA - Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 20:18:34 (PST)
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Several years ago, I was sitting on the bed in my room, which was next to a large window. It was probably about 3:00 in the morning and I was on the phone with a friend of mine, when suddenly there appeared a ball of light outside my window. The ball appeared to be about the size of a large grapefruit. An even more peculiar thing happened, which made me think I was losing my mind. I had a candle lit on the window sill, and right when the ball appeared, the flame of the candle came up over the edge of the candle holder, and then down the side of the candle holder. The flame looked almost like a snake tongue and had extended several inches. This all happened very fast and I did not know what to make of it until a friend of my stepfather told me about lightening balls. I don't know what the deal was with the candle. I still hesitate to tell people about this because it sounds kinda whacky.
Anne
USA - Tuesday, February 09, 2010 at 23:28:01 (PST)
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My wife just reported an lightning strike, and at the same moment 2 balls of electricity came into the house, one red one orange in color. Two of the boys said one came within inches of them as they were playing on a battery operated gameboy and told me that the screen went haywire. My wife said the orange ball was 1 meter long by a half a meter wide and the red one was 2 foot by 2 foot. The red ball appears to have come from straight out of a stereo speaker according to the 2 boys, the orange ball came through the open back door. Thank god the kids are ok.
Roger Ware <druidic at rocketmaildot com>
Ipswich, QLD Australia - Saturday, February 06, 2010 at 02:33:31 (PST)
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Ball Lighting
One raining evening back in the summer of 1976 I had what I believe was an experience with ball Lighting. There was a Thunder and lighting shower going on. Being a summer night my window was open maybe 8". I was standing at the mirror brushing my long hair when I saw yellow sphere the size a a soft ball float up behind me, next to my shoulder & near my hair. I saw it in the mirror. As quickly as it came, it drifted back towards the window and floated out the window.
I had no idea what I had seen at the time. I did not figure out that it was ball lighting until years later.
GHouse <gah3938 at rochester.rrdot com>
Rochester, NY USA - Monday, December 28, 2009 at 11:31:23 (PST)
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I was standing outside in early March of 2009 talking to my mom on the phone. As I was talking something caught my attention and I looked upward and noticed what at first just seemed to be unusual flashes of light. Within seconds I realized I was seeing "balls" of light zooming very fast overhead. There was no storm, no thunder, and no obvious lightning. I was at first sort of flustered and remarked to my mom that I was seeing weird lights....I ran inside and got my son to come out and we both looked at them...he agreed it was like nothing he had ever seen. I grabbed the camera and tried to take pictures but didn't get anything. I was too shaky and frankly too scared to stand still and try to get the focus I needed to capture the movement. The sky was covered with broken puffy clouds and the lights only appeared in the cloud cover. At first I thought it must be some sort of spotlight until I realized that 1) there was no beam originating from the ground, 2) there were, I believe, 3 different lights coming from different directions all somehow moving independently yet somehow together in some sort of pattern, 3) when one light approached the path of another it "swerved" around it, it didn't go through the light like I would assume a beam would. At times the lights were very tight and close together and then they just sort of burst and spread very far apart - at least spanning a few miles in each direction. The best way I can describe it would be to picture a model of a molecule - like the nuclear symbol and send a ball around each of the planes. That would be the pattern we saw. We watched these for about an hour or more. The sky cleared and I couldn't see them anymore and then about two 2-3 hours later I could see it again in a tiny patch of cloud cover. I looked up every single night after and never saw them again, even in cloud cover. I would assume if this was a beam from the airport (which the closest is more than 10 miles from my house) I would see it on similar nights. 8 months later, in November 2009, I looked out of my office window and saw the same type of thing. This time there was only one light - not nearly as interesting as the first time. Had I not seen the lights the first time I may not have even noticed. It was there for hours and disappeared once again as the clouds went away. One thing I noticed into the "observation" was a flash behind the cloud, it lit the whole cloud up. Then nothing.
L C <mateki-magick_%_ at hotmaildot com>
Pittsburgh, PA USA - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 21:01:24 (PST)
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A few years ago I witnessed what I guess is ball lightning. I saw a strange glowing orb, orange in color and about 6 inches in diameter about 80 yards away from my house. It seemed to grow out of nothing and then suddenly a bolt of lightning shot down and exploded, splitting a tree in half. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. The whole thing only lasted a matter of seconds.
Samuel South-Finkelstein
Ferrum, VA USA - Thursday, December 03, 2009 at 07:54:33 (PST)
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In about 2005, I was on my way to work in a strong thunderstorm in East Texas. It was raining very hard and there were a lot of lightning strikes fairly close by. To my left I saw a blue ball of fire about twice the size of a basketball with a small trailing tail of the same color traveling parallel with me about 30 feet off of the road in the woods. The ball was traveling at about the same speed that I was, probably 30 mph. I was on a two lane highway with a 60mph speed limit, but I had to drive slow because of the strong rain. The ball was about five feet off of the ground. It traveled about 60 to 70 yards before exploding with such force that it shook my car.
I wondered later how it had traveled through the woods for so long without hitting any trees. Upon further examination of the area at a much later time,I discovered that there was a cleared power line right of way about 30 feet from the highway running parallel with the road. The ball did not appear to be high enough to be traveling along the power lines, but in between the lines and the ground.
T Land
USA - Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 06:15:33 (PST)
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We had experienced unusual happenings at our last home which was built in 1872. We presumed that these occurrences were due to the stories that we had been told regarding a lady that had passed away during a house fire. However, we put the strange occurrences to one side and tried not to be so suspicious(!!)
One night, about 9pm-ish we were stood in our kitchen about 1.5 meters apart,just having a chat, when the next minute the unexplainable happened. I was stood opposite martin, with the kitchen window to my right when suddenly (from what i can remember as it happened so quickly) a bright white (fluorescent) ball, about 13cm in diameter,appeared right between us at face level.The ball was approx 10cm infront of my face and almost as quickly as it had appeared, seemed to explode and disappear with a loud cracking sound. There was no smell or any other trace. Just before the ball had appeared (and we are talking milli-seconds) I saw a thin bright line coming from the window (almost like someone had lit the fuse on a dynamite rod or had been moving a sparkler through the air) - I must explain that martin didnt see this he just saw the ball when it appeared between us, as he believes that he was turning his head towards me at the time.
We can only explain the ball of light as being bright white and dense, as if someone had smoked a cigarette and captured it in a ball. The only problem being that after the cracking sound there was no trace of smoke.
We have always presumed that this incident was potentially something paranormal given the fact that electiricty earths to the closest source. We have spoken about this to many people over a number of years and are in disbelief at the statistics quoted that between 1 in 35 and 1 in 150 people have experienced this!!!!!!!
We have spoken to numerous people and never have we heard any other experiences. Even those found on the internet seem to be over the last 100 yrs and as such we feel quite privileged to have witnessed such a phenomena.
Martin & Ruth <littlerammy41 at hotmildot com>
Chester, UK - Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 19:41:14 (PDT)
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Ball Lightning.
I am now 75 years old and have a scientific training and background. I have twice experienced the phenomenon known as ball lightning:
First. Date: Around 1956. Location: Kabete, outside Nairobi, Kenya. Atmospheric conditions: Late evening, dry storms around but not in the immediate vicinity! I was sitting in my first floor flat facing miles of open ground in the direction of Mount Kenya in the far distance. In front of me was an open window and I was busy with some control line model airplanes. There was a kind of 'pop' outside and I looked up to see this glowing ball, of around football size, come slowly through the window, pass me by about 2 metres, go through the open door into my bedroom, out through the open bedroom window and shoot off vertically with another 'pop' noise. I estimate the time between beginning and ending 'pops' was around13 to 15 seconds, though it seemed far longer at the time! Other than leaving behind a smell like that of an electric motor there was nothing to show for this experience. Yes, I was scared; my hair on end and gooseflesh on my arms but this was my biological reaction to the fright.
Second experience. Date: Around 1968. Location: Sardinia Bay, near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Atmospheric conditions: Night - about 8 or 9pm - storms with rain and lightning in the far distance but not in the immediate vicinity! I was collecting 'tropical' marine fishes from rock pools at low spring tide. I could see there was a storm some miles away and so I ended my session and made my way over the rocks to my car parked in a small parking area. As I was wondering whether to pack up for the night, or sit out the storm, there was a lightning flash to the water tower on the hill in front of me and about 2 or 3 miles away. This flash broke into to distinct luminous balls. The one flew over quite fast above and to my left but I didn't follow it's path as my eyes were riveted to the other 'ball' which bounced off the terrain and bushes towards me - not always in a straight line but seemingly ricocheting off the bounce. This 'ball' passed about 200 yards to my right and with a final bounce off some rocks near the water's edge simply vanished - apparently without a noise though my window was closed and there was ambient noise from surf and wind. Distances and size of the 'balls' was difficult to estimate since it was dark but at a rough guess I'd estimate the size of the 'ball' that passed over on my right could have been around 5 to 7 ft diameter.
In both instances the 'balls' appeared to have no substance and were what I would call balls of ionize gas or plasma.
And, no! I don't believe in flying saucers or extra-terrestrials, ghosts and other strange things!
Robin Stobbs <rstobbs-at-telkomsadot net>
South Africa - Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 02:24:36 (PDT)
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This event happened in the fall of 1994. I was fishing the canal between Elephant Butt & Caballo Lakes in southern New Mexico. There was about 10 people there and it had been raining for only a short time. When suddenly there was a lightening strike that hit the ground on the opposite side of the canal. Immediately, there was a ball of energy that appeared. It looked about the size of a beach ball with red outer ring with a transparent blueish glow with smaller balls held within looking like atoms floating inside. This ball was setting small brush on fire as it was bouncing around. It looked like the smaller balls within were moving around within the ball as it bounced around. This whole experience lasted about 10 seconds and than disappeared. I knew what I saw was special but;, I didn't think of reporting it at the time. I brought this up in a discussion with a retired professor from NMSU and he said I should report it and told me how.
Bob Richie
Las Cruces, NM USA - Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 09:15:03 (PDT)
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Tonight Wednesday September 16, 2009 at about 9pm and there is NO storm. I went to check on my son and tell him to go to sleep. His door was open and as I turned the corner to go in to his room immediately I saw a small light blue light that looked like it came from one side of the room bounced across the room to hit the wall then bounced to another wall and before I could open my mouth it faded away. About the size of a golf ball, slightly bigger, definitely could say it was bluish. I was about to ask my son what he threw across the room before it disappeared and figured it was my imagination. Thought maybe a light could have burned the image into my eyes and I was just seeing things but I don't believe that's what happened because I saw it just as I turned the corner to go into his room. Almost looked like when a watch flashes a reflection how it can bounce around. But the nobody with watches around and the blinds were closed. My son says his his saw a blue light but don't know if he's repeating what I said. Never the less he wants to and I'm going to let him sleep in my room tonight. Did not seem bright or orange or during a storm like other "ball lightning" sightings.
Bree Osborne <bpachuer at cfl.rrdot com>
FL USA - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 20:50:10 (PDT)
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I was walking to my dads house from my friend Joel s house, halfway to my destination, as I'm walking along-side a fence the sphere of light came down from the sky and swept across (horizontally) for what seemed to be 2.5 seconds , but for me it must have felt like 5 seconds, i did'nt know how to react to this phenomena, so i ran home and went to the third floor of my dads house
Emanuel Torres <Eamueltorres36 at yahoo12345678900987654321dot com>
Worcester, MA USA - Wednesday, September 02, 2009 at 22:24:54 (PDT)
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It was in 1996 i was about 10 at the time.It had been raining all day and there were very strong winds.I went to bed about 9 or so and couldnt sleep with the noise of the thunder,i was laying looking out my bedroom door onto the landing,then i saw a slow moving ball it was a blue and white colour with a white trail,it moved passed my room very slowing i then rain out behind it to see what it was at the time but it had just disappeared.only when i told my father what i had seen that night he them told me it was a ball of lightning had just passed through our house.....
Emma Wilson <emmaew at hotmaildot co dotuk>
belfast, northern ireland - Sunday, August 30, 2009 at 07:51:00 (PDT)
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Last evening Aug. 16th, 2009, we had a severe thunderstorm coming. Went out to put car in garage. Parked it, started raining, storm on top of me, stepped to doorway of garage. Observed a beachball sized glowing red ball coming out of the sky on a diagonal track, just above a tree in my driveway. It passed by coming downwards along my driveway. Scared the crap out of me. Got back in car. Nearby lightning strikes.
Barb
Barb <bandhsomes at verizondot net>
USA - Monday, August 10, 2009 at 11:41:10 (PDT)
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I was working in the Oilfield on a rig in the Galveston Bay in Texas, when I looked up from the derrick. I saw a ball of fire moving overhead very slow. It was an orangest color, with blue fire around it, and was traveling about 25 miles per hour. It struck me odd that that it was traveling so slow to be a metorite. The size was about the same as a small sedan or voltswagon beetle. I watched it as long as I could and it seemed to disappear in the bay about 30 miles away.
Clarence Goodson <cwg_3574 at yahoodot com>
Laurel, MS USA - Sunday, August 09, 2009 at 10:57:38 (PDT)
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I was upstairs in my bedroom watchin the lightning flash in my window, when it seemed almost continuous. So I looked out my window and saw an orb about a yard in diamiter. It bounced up and downd a few times, then disapeared. It took about 9 seconds.
Trevor
<***Trevb0b7 at gmaildot com++++++>
Almont, MI USA - Sunday, August 09, 2009 at 07:35:57 (PDT)
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I am a 53 year old male living in the burbs of philadelphia,on friday july 31,2009 i was hosing down my patio which had a canvas awning over it, about 20 yards away from the patio i was digging up for storm drains ,which at this time were filled with water from the storm that just passed i was squating down to put the nozzle of the hose on the patio when a 5' x5' sphere of orange blue light was above the water filled storm drain hole,thank god i was on the balls of my feet when a sonic boom i mean a sonic boom which expoded the sphere and sent me flying on my back i beleive i was shocked in my feet ,i was standing on the balls of my feet in flip flops on a wet patio my ears are still ringing and its been 6 days .i think i will be afraid of storms the rest of my life ,if you want conformation my wife and mother in law were there
joseph f.x. fasy <joe at fasyrealtorsdot com>
lafayette hill, pa USA - Thursday, August 06, 2009 at 12:31:37 (PDT)
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On Saturday 1st August 2009, at about 10pm, I witnessed to the east of my garden a large ball of very bright flame like orange / crimson colouring, with apparent very fine hairs/fingers of flame coming from the edges . It moved randomly, and lasted about 60 seconds. It was at a distance, so the size was difficult to judge, but it was at about 30 degrees elevation and apparently high in the sky. There had been no thunder or lightning, but it was a humid day with temperature still at about 20c. After about 15 seconds, I called out my son, who also witnessed the remaining 45 seconds of its existence. It varied in brightness and finally faded to black. There was no sound.
Nick Smith
Woodnewton, Northants, UK - Tuesday, August 04, 2009 at 09:35:14 (PDT)
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On 13th July 1996 in bed ready for sleep when a silver ball of light came flying through the window it bounced onto the bed and onto the floor and exploded no sound just dispersed. Not sure if there was a thunder storm that night too long ago!!! Felt after all these years should mention it!!
Sandy Lynch <sandy at actpubdot co dotuk>
Maidstone, Kent England - Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 06:15:21 (PDT)
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Yesterday, 6th July 2009, at about 4pm my daughter and I were sat in our living room during a fairly violent thunderstorm. There was a flash of lightning, then within a second or two an intensly bright white glow appeared right in front of us both in the middle of the room. It was about 1.5 ft in diameter and surrounded by a white haze. It was there about 2 seconds then just disappeared.
Neither of us noticed any smell or sound, but were both blinded by the brightness of the object. I grabbed my daughter and made our way out of the room. There was then what sounded like a huge explosion, the house was shaking and rumbling and there was a repeated banging noise that sounded like it was coming from the roof. This banging was more like a sort of BOOM....BOOM....BOOM. Then it stopped. Similar to an earthquake but I don't believe it was. I checked and there were no reports of any earthquakes in the UK yesterday.
There was nothing particularly unusual about the weather at the time. It had been hot - about 34 degrees - for about a week, it was a very humid day, it went very dark, there was a torrential rain shower during the storm followed by medium size hail. Fairly average storm conditions, but I've never seen anything like this either inside or outside the house. Not sure if it was ball lightning, or somehow the lightning reflected off something outside and was reflected into the house?
I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who's seen this. I also would be interested to know if it would have hurt us had it touched us.
M <eggshaped2 at gmail . com>
Teesside, UK - Tuesday, July 07, 2009 at 01:57:25 (PDT)
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A few years ago, I was probably 17, I was downstairs in our home using my laptop. Everyone else had gone upstairs to go to bed, and it was totally dark in the room except my laptop. Suddenly I noticed light in my field of vision appear above my laptop screen. I lifted my eyes to see and across the room, near the wall, floated a small ball a bit short of 1/2 an inch. It was moving from left to right. Suddenly it popped rather loudly, especially considering how quiet the house was. I was immediately very creeped out and didn't want to be alone. I told myself not to panic, closed my laptop and tried to walk up the stairs calmly. My mom was still up and I told her. She said she had heard the loud pop. The next morning there was a small mark on the wall right where it had popped. Just gray and wiped away with a swipe. I never could find any place it came in the house. As I recall it was storming at the time. I looked it up and found it must have been ball lightening.
Ashley L <traceyl at REMOVETHISmtnhomedot com>
yellville, ar USA - Friday, July 03, 2009 at 19:58:32 (PDT)
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On July 3, 2009 the thunderstorms were here again. The electricity went out briefly twice in a row. Around 3pm I was walking from my dining room to the front room and I heard a loud noise like thunder and a very loud noise outside the window which caught my attention and when I looked left out the window there was a glowing orange ball smaller than a basket ball and bigger than a baseball. It stayed there longer than lightning would and then it was gone. I thought the bush was on fire but it was not.
Some tell me it was ball lightning. I'm very happy I got to see this mystery!
C. Blanchette
warwick, ri USA - Friday, July 03, 2009 at 12:58:41 (PDT)
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In early June 2009 (this month), I was outside my house after a thunderstorm. It had stopped raining and lightning about 45 minutes before, so I had the floodlights on and was looking at the fallen limbs in the yard. The lights from the house as well as the floodlights suddenly went off, so I looked up at the house and above the house and moving about the speed of a butterfly or a slow bird was a small pale blue glowing ball with a bright blue trail. It must have been about 4-6 inches and the tail looked about 3 feet. It was traveling about at a 45 degree angle from the east downward to the west. It landed on the roof and disappeared (I would say hit the roof, but it was moving pretty slow and not at the speed something falling moves at). The lights were off during all of this. About four seconds passed and the lights came back on. I walked over and looked at the roof where it had landed, but there was no damage. Then I ask my father who had been in the house at the time it landed if he had seen anything, but all he noticed was the the lights went off and came back on about 10 to 20 seconds later. We thought that perhaps this was ball lightning and that it had flipped off the lights due to some type of electrical field! It was really pretty cool!
Sarah W
AL USA - Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 19:00:06 (PDT)
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C.1958-1960 (8-10 years old) saw a yellow/orange ball descend from storm clouds for at least 1.5 seconds to about 500mtrs.it then exploded into forks of lightning. As this was high in the air I wonder if anyone else saw this. It was dry & calm, but strange atmospherics; there was inter-cloud lightning & prior to the ball sighting one of the clouds seemed to accelerate into another! Spectacular, unforgettable, but I wouldn't like a close encounter!
Ted Bennett <bennett481 at btinternetdot com>
Greenford, Mdx. UK - Monday, June 08, 2009 at 04:16:45 (PDT)
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In the early 90's I was laying awake in bed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The lights were off and the room was dark. Suddenly a yellow and white sparkling fireball came racing through the window and up to the edge of the ceiling where it began to speed counter clockwise from one corner to another, following the edges and corners of the ceiling. It circled the room over and over again so fast your eyes couldn't follow. I immediately recognized the fierce power this thing had. As I sat up, it shot to within inches of my face, never touching me, but it was like it was almost threatening to for about 4-5 seconds. It then suddenly shot back out the window it had come in through. I was horrified, and not until then did I understand being scared speechless. I tried so many times to scream and wake my husband, who was asleep next to me, but I literally could not utter a word.
Tammy <trholt_5885 at gmaildot com>
tulsa, ok USA - Sunday, June 07, 2009 at 00:26:24 (PDT)
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In 1990 I was in Reno Nevada, in a modern apartment complex. I was sewing, and it was very late. I was exhausted and ready to wrap up for the evening when I noticed my black cat, about 12 feet directly in front of me, transfixed on something to my immediate right. I turned to look and was amazed to see a blue sphere, about 9" in diameter, hovering above the seat to my right about 2' away, bobbing slightly up and down. I immediately blinked, looked away and determined that It was just exhaustion. But, when I looked back at my cat he was still transfixed and his head was following something. I looked immediately followed his gaze to see that the ball was moving away from me and toward the far window across the living room. It disappeared out the closed window. I was aghast. I finally looked back at the cat whose back was to me as he had never taken his eyes off of the "thing" either. I've never before or since seen anything like it.
S. Gentry <sandragentry at coxdot netdot com>
Norfolk, VA USA - Friday, May 08, 2009 at 18:15:29 (PDT)
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It is 9:45 PM on April 20, 2009. About 15 minutes ago I think I definately saw "Ball Lightning". I was standing on my back porch watching a tremendous thunder storm (I'm weird like that) and all of a sudden I was looking up and saw a bright yellow ball of light that lasted approximately 3 or 4 seconds. I felt as if it had radiated heat. It is 51 degrees outside and it felt as if it had warmed up to about 70 or so in those few seconds. Almost instantly after the ball vanished, a huge clap of thunder, louder than I've ever heard any before, hit and sent a vibration so strong I could feel it. I'm not sure if this was ball lightning, but it sure does seem like it.
Chris Catalano <c_catalano at comcastdot net>
Woodbridge, NJ USA - Monday, April 20, 2009 at 18:48:45 (PDT)
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I was 12 years old in the spring 1955 when I saw a round ball of light about 48" out my window right after a mild storm in central TX one morning. The ball hit the ground from an angle and started back up(like a bounce)when I turned to tell my mother. When we looked back it was gone, of course. She didn't believe I had seen anything. I never mentioned this incident to anyone. I was 35 years old before I heard the phrase "ball lightning" somewhere. I knew that instant what I had seen. My mother still doesn't believe me. Just thought I would throw my story out there. Thanks
mona l pendley <pendml at aoldot com>
athens, tx USA - Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 08:25:39 (PDT)
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12 years ago my 8 yr old son & myself lived in the top apartment of a house conversion in Ealing UK
the kitchen living area & kitchen was the whole length of the building we had a velux window fully open at each end of the room. It was muggy and lightening with a dark but somehow bright sky
my son was walking towards me talking as I stood at the hob cooking he was about 18 inches in front of me when I saw this blue ball of moving light near his elbow I said don't move but he had seen it and was frozen to the spot, instinct took over because we did not move until it shot off, a couple of seconds later, the full length of the flat like .. well lightning.. through the television which came on and through my son's toybox.. his battery operated dinosaur - which roared when you touched the two metal rings implanted each side of it's head - started roaring over & and over we had to remove the toy cover with a screwdriver to get the PP3 battery out and stop the roaring.
When we tell certain people they seem sceptical, I find this ridiculous that's what happened and so what.. it's not magic it's an electrical phenomena isn't it?
Judging by some of the reports we had a lucky escape, I didn't know what would happen if it had touched my son.
I'm sorry for all the people who have had terrible experiences of the phenomena
Jan
JANET TAYLOR <flossytread10665 at aoldot com>
LONDON, UK - Sunday, April 05, 2009 at 18:09:49 (PDT)
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Lightning ball
I have seen a lightning ball. This will probably be the only time I ever witness any type of phenomena in my life. But I saw this, and I can vouch to anyone that a lightning ball is real. I saw this back around 1990 or so. I was driving back home to Simsboro, La from Ruston, La on highway 80. It was dusk and had either just sprinkled or was about to start, I don't remember which. But as I was traveling along looking ahead of me, I turned to look out my side window. As I was turning to look out the side window, something was catching my eye right back in front of me, and I jerked my sight forward again. There were no other cars in sight, and I had a stretch of road about 100 yards all to myself. What had appeared in the road in the blink of an eye was an approximately 4 or 5 foot blueish-whitish sphere slowly spinning in one spot right on top of the blacktop. This thing was only there for 1-2 seconds, and it disappeared quicker than you can imagine. I was looking directly at it and it was GONE. It didn't move any direction other than what looked like very slowly turning or spinning. When I witnessed it, it was about 40 or 50 yards in front of me. I don't know whether it made any sound when it dissipated because I was still far away from it, my windows were up, and music was playing. This ball happened so quickly and unexpectedly that actual footage of one of them is impossible unless it happens in camera shot of something already being filmed. It makes me feel a little special to have witnessed something many people never will or will never believe in, but it's also a little disheartening that others don't have that experience in common. I don't claim to have seen UFOs or ghosts, but I know that lightning balls are real.
Chris Willis <ramfan31 at hotmaildot com>
Ruston, LA USA - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 09:18:55 (PDT)
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i was around six the year would have been 1962.our family lived in country just outside of paragould ar.we were a big family but not unusual for that date of time.myself and two brothers were sitting in the front room.i was the baby of the family.ben was shinning his shoes sitting on the end of the couch. i was sitting a little toward him from the other end. jim was sitting over on the other side of the room in chair.we had no tv then the window fan was on.we were just talking iwas kind absorded wathing ben shine his shoes.it was a nice clear day.then in floats this ball of light a little bigger than a basketball right though the fan and did't hurt affect it.i could feel asort tingle well it just hovered in the middle of the room.to me it seemed like it was thinking i could see it kind of vibrate.i seen a little tail on it.then bam it struck between ben and i setting the couch on fire. my mother and sister were in the kithen sis got hot coffee water and put out the fire.i now know this was ball lighting.it seems to me it thinks or is controled somehow.
daniel paul johnson
leachville, ar USA - Friday, March 13, 2009 at 23:01:36 (PDT)
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I saw ball lightning in Southern Montgomery County, north of Houston, Texas several years ago. I was standing on the second floor at work, looking west at the afternoon thunderstorm. I saw a lightning flash directly in from of me, about 100 feet from the building. The lightning flash went from north to south and did not go all the way to the ground. I saw a white globe of lightning quickly roll down the lightning strike. The strike disappeared, leaving the ball of lightning hanging in the air, hanging on nothing. It was about even with my eye level. It hung there several seconds, until the top of it caught on fire. Large red flames raged from its top. Then the flames pulled into the white ball and the ball imploded - it withdrew within itself. Like a "pop" it was gone. I looked outside later and saw no sign on the ground or anywhere around that it had been there. My coworkers told me later there was a terrible sound with that strike, but I was the only one who saw it. I heard no sound, I guess I was so enthralled with what I saw. It was amazing to see.
Janis Allen <janisallen6 at hotmaildot com>
Spring, Tx USA - Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 14:07:48 (PST)
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Last night I was in my son's bedroom pulling apart two polartec
blankets. The blankets had been washed and dried earlier in the day, but
were currently room temperature. As I pulled the blankets apart, I gave a
big tug because I could tell that they were being held together by static
electricity. Amazingly a small ball of bright light, about the size of a
golf ball, jump out from the blankets, rotated in space for a second or
two and then jumped about three feet across the room and turned on my
son's desklight. I immediately yelled "Holy cow, did you see that? It even
turned on your light." My young son was not as amazed as I was with this
event. After reading about the dangers of ball lightning I think that I'll
turn up the humidifier and hope that this doesn't happen again.
Cathie <cathietauber at comcastdot net>
Lincolnshire, IL USA - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 10:35:16 (PST)
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I do not recall the year or how old I was at the time. I would guess around 1977. a friend and I were out in the driveway watching the lighting from a coming storm. We then seen above us about 100 feet 3 red balls of lightning with little streams of lightning coming off each of the 3 balls. They seemed as if they were floating. We both seen this and it lasted about 4 seconds I would guess. We then ran in the house and looked at each other with the look of what was that! it really scared us at the time. I never knew what it was or even that it had a name until about 5 years ago. All I can say is I will go to my grave saying I seen it with my own eyes.
jim carlson <##swordofthlord7 at yahoodot com##>
mi USA - Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 17:18:11 (PST)
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I am an 11 year old girl and when i was about 3-5 years old me and my brother where in a ball a lightning. It was the middle of a hail storm and all i heard was a rumbling noise and then my body felt strang and my brother says he blacked out and his equilibrium went all wacky. So he came to check on me and i was really scared and i didn't know what happened until 2-3 years later when my brother looked it up.
Alexandria <catqueen19 at gmaildot com>
USA - Friday, January 09, 2009 at 18:10:09 (PST)
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It was about 1992 and we were bieng battered by the noisiest fiercest storm Ihave ever known,we lived in a mobile home and my husband had to go out.a split second after he opened the door a large orange ball appaered right in front of my face.it was in between me and the window and about the size of a large baseball.there was no heat comming from it .Icould see through it and into it in great detail,it had brighter horisontal tendrills inside it that were spinning around just as if it had been stirred with a spoon insideand it was slowing down gradually;I held my breath sensing danger not daring to move fo fear of it moving,it was very beautifull.then it had almost stopped spinning inside and it vanished.
jan wallace
england - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 13:58:39 (PST)
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About a year ago I was sitting at my PC during a storm logged on to MSN and had been there for about 2 hours before it happened. I was very tired that night and was about to go to bed after another hour. Suddenly, infront of my PC (lower towards the power button) a light blue ball of electricity appeared approximately the size of a kids soccer ball, almost totally spherical. I had to blink many times before it was gone, I just couldn't believe what I saw. It stayed for around 3-4 seconds and it lit up the surrounding objects. the closest objects were the desk and the PC which is a black plastic and it clearly glowed a light blue. This ball was about 50 cm away from my head. There was also faint little lines like sparks which wrapped around the ball in an even lighter blue color. Until recently I was on wikipedia and stumbled across the articles on ball lightning. I hadn't even heard about it before and was astonished how similar the occurances were to my odd event.
shaun
Australia - Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 04:54:24 (PST)
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I was walking back from my girlfriends house at night and 4 saw this orange/yellow glowing ball come from the ground and started to float away at a walking pace up in 2 the sky.it was about the size of a soccer ball and was silent, for some reason i was calm and stood and watched it until it floated so far up in to the sky it was 2 far 4 my eyes to see.the when it had gone fear sunk in and ran home. no cloudsin the sky so i dont think it was weather related but it was very weird.Has anyone seen this b4?
Kevin
USA - Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 16:22:17 (PST)
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This happened last night. There was a strong storm that came through. Lightning struck our home. It was a very loud bang. My young daughter and I were standing in the bathroom. Then the room was bright with 2 or 3 small blue balls of light, that started to crack/explode. It hurt my feet. They weren't hot, but I could feel warmth from them as they exploded. I screamed. My daughter screamed. My husband came to save/console us, saying that he could see blue light flickering down the hallway, and hear the "firecrackers" too. My husband thinks it was ball lightning. All I know is, it was one of the scariest experiences of my entire life.
AllisonW <alicenw30 at yahoodot com>
OK USA - Thursday, November 06, 2008 at 14:10:43 (PST)
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I was standing on the deck at my buddies house when I witnessed a ball of lightning that blew up in the sky at approximately 10,000 ft? It was a large ball that just blew up perfectly from the center outward. About 3 seconds after that, the power in the house went completely off grid, about 5 seconds later my cell phone I was talking on went dead. This just happened, which is what prompted my search on the internet.
Dutchess County, NY 11/5/08 8:45PM
Vinny Robertson
USA - Wednesday, November 05, 2008 at 18:06:27 (PST)
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One night (around 10-12 yrs old) i was walking from one side my house to the other and it was night so it was pretty dark..
as i was walking i saw this floating Blue ball looking like a lightning orb, now i was young so it scared the shit otta me so i turned on the lights immidiatly thinking it wasa ghost or somthing (and im deathly afraid of ghost) i told my friend about this and he said it was a "lighting ball"
Shane
dexter, ny USA - Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 21:49:01 (PDT)
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I am 70 years old. When I was approximately 10 or 11 years of age, I along with my family, was visiting an uncle and his family in a small town in Missouri. It may have been Springfield or a town nearby.
We were in the church rectory, as my uncle was the minister of the small church. Some of the family and I were standing in a room talking. My younger sister was among them. I believe it was storming and raining outside. I was facing a window when I saw a large ball of lightening, or fire, come toward the window in a downward tragectory at what I remember would have been less than a 45 degree angle. I remember it now as looking like a comet, with fire flowing behind it. The ball of fire seemed as wide as the window. As soon as it should have hit the window, or passed through it, it suddenly dissapated or disappeared. I did not know at the time that the sighting was anything unusual. I cannot remember if anyone else saw it, and if it was discussed at all.
Years later, when my sister and I were discussing the visit and what I had seen, she said that at the time she had been holding onto an old iron bedstead and had been "shocked". I am assuming this was ball lightening and have been facinated by other reports of this type of reports ever since.
Norma <normah2236limited at aoldot com>
rockford, il USA - Saturday, October 18, 2008 at 14:44:16 (PDT)
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I think I have finally found out what I experienced in boarding school 20 years ago!
In 1987, I awoke late at night to find a basketball-sized ball of light traveling over my body. It slowly moved from head to to, and I could feel an incredible electric heat coming from it. My roommate, Pat saw it too, because I began to pray out loud, wondering if it was some kind of spiritual happening.
I was not really scared but I was shocked and too smart to try to move. It lingered for about 30 seconds and then broke apart between our two beds, with a terrible thunderous sound.
Pat had a better look at it, as I could see it mostly in my peripheral vision (I was laying on my side and too cautious to move)
She said it was the size of a basketball, with various colors of spherical lights inside of it. It also had a halo of light around it.
If she hadn't seen it too, I might have thought I was dreaming or hallucinating. Crazy experience and I'm glad I'm not alone!
A R Fenton <arfenton## at yahoodot com123#$%>
USA - Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at 18:39:00 (PDT)
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What I will describe happened about 30 years ago when I was about 12 years old and living in West Milford, NJ. I have told this "lightning strike" story many times over the years, always including the details that made is odd, but never having any explanation. Having just recently learned about ball lightning, it all makes a lot more sense.
This strike was witness by myself (as a 12 year old) and my mother. We saw it from different perspectives in the room and we both have some slightly different details. I remember this vividly in my head, but so does my mother to this day. I might trust her description a bit better, simply because she was an adult when it happened. Any detail I put here is corroborated by my mother. If she has a different description, I will indicate so.
I was sitting at the kitchen table doing homework. I was facing the stove/kitchen sink area of the kitchen, about 10 feet from the stove. It was raining outside, a thunderstorm. There was a sliding glass door to an outside deck in the kitchen. The door would open right from where the stove met the wall, so that the open door was only about 12 inches from the edge of the stove.
The glass part of the sliding glass door was open about 4 inches for ventilation on a warm evening, but the screen part of the door was closed. My mother was boiling water with an egg in it, making hard-boiled eggs. She was in front of the stove and then stepped a few feet away toward the sink. At that moment, I saw a sphere of blue light dance around the stove area. The nature of the light was reminiscent of the "light sabers" of Star Wars...very glowing, almost fluorescent, and "fuzzy" toward the edges. I remember the size as being as big as a basketball. My mother doesn't remember it as blue: she says yellow. And she says its size was between an orange and a grapefruit. We both agree that it danced around the stove for several second...maybe 5 to 10 seconds. Then it disappeared. I recall a VERY loud noise, like an explosion. My mother doesn't recall the noise, but I am confident about it, because I ran to my older brother and told him that the stove exploded.
After the ball disappeared, we inspected the whole area. The pot that was filled with water was empty: there was a hole the size of a dime melted into the bottom of the pot, and the water emptied through there. It was an electric stove with coil burners. The one burner was melted.
The strange thing is that no damage was done to the screen door. In fact, no damage was done to anything but the pot and the stove. I have been fascinated by this incident for 30 years. I'm glad to finally be able to put a label on it.
An interesting note: there were apparently problems with the lightning rod system on that house. We were one of the highest houses of the 10 houses closest to us, and the property had (has) a huge sloping boulder next to it. Over a period of time (maybe 1 or 2 years), the house was hit by lightning a minimum of 5 times causing damage each time. Presumably, the other hits were not ball lightning, but they were not witnessed visually.
Susan B. McDermott
West Milford, NJ USA - Wednesday, October 01, 2008 at 17:26:55 (PDT)
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In about 1962 I pulled the 2 pin flex from its plug in my vacuum cleaner while switched on. A shimmering ball about 2" diameter slowly rolled from the break across the floor about 10 feet into the meter cupboard and disappeared silently. It was witnessed by my small daughter who pointed to it and said 'ball'. The floor was Victorian tiles, slightly concave and treated with a tile sealer/polish which may or may not have made the floor insulated.
Anne Hartnoll <gwinear at yahoodot com>
HAYLE, UK - Wednesday, October 01, 2008 at 05:56:07 (PDT)
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I have witnessed this phenomenon 4 times personally, 3 of them being in the town of Lackawaxen. Each time it appeared out of nowhere, was about the size of a basketball bright and yellowish and moved across the sky and down behind the trees. Seemed relatively close, maybe 100 yards or so. I have spoken to quite a few other people who have witnessed similar experiences all along the Deleware valley from here south to Stroudsburg.
JohnnyBravo <+//portercable78 at yahoodot com//+>
Lords Valley, PA USA - Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 20:51:50 (PDT)
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"Ball Lightning"
First off, I am not clear if what I saw was what people call Ball Lightning (BL), but after hearing/reading stories involving BL, I believe that is the most logical conclusion to what I saw. Your judgment is only as good as your information, and based on what I've read/heard, I believe what I saw was BL. Below is my encounter.
I am uncertain on the exact age I was, but to the best of my recollection, I believe I was between 8-10 years old (between years 1991-1993) and the time of year is uncertain, other than it was a warm night.
I was playing games after dark with some of the neighborhood kids, and when the game we were playing had ended, one of the kids said "What is that?" As we all looked to the East towards the mountains, we saw a bright spherical object drifting slowly towards the Earth. We all stood speechless as we watched the mystery object float towards the ground. The object was incredibly bright. In hind sight, I realize the illuminating color greatly resembled lightning.
About 4.5 miles, horizontal distance (used Google Earth years after this encounter to get the approximate horizontal distance), there are a range of mountains from where we were standing, and we watched the unknown object go behind the mountains. So, as a minimum, the BL was 4.5 miles (horizontal dist.) from where we were standing and the object was not hard to see.
The size of the object, viewed from my perspective, appeared to be comparable to about 3/4 the size of a golf ball held out at arm's length. Yet, I saw the BL go behind the mountains, which would imply that the BL was great in size to look as large as it did, and at the distance it was from me.
My first impression of the object, was that it was a comet or an asteroid (that was the only logical conclusion at the time for me) and as I watched the mystery object go behind the mountains, I anticipated hearing an impact from the object or see lights fill the sky from the impact. But as we all waited for the aftermath, nothing happened.
What I saw was amazing (there is no word I can think of to describe what I saw and everything in the English language is an understatement to describe this event). Since I was sure that this was a comet or an asteroid, surely there would be people who would've monitored an object of such great size before it entered the Earth's atmosphere. I would go through the newspaper and watched the daily news to see what was said about my "comet/asteroid", but to no avail. I never saw any reports on one of the greatest spectacles to be witness from the Earth.
This perplexed me greatly for years because I didn't have an idea what I saw now. How could no one else have seen this object? I didn't think it was an asteroid or a comet now because no reports came out issuing "Massive Object Falling Towards Earth". I let it go, but would tell people my story occasionally to people and no one had an answer for me or what it could have been.
Then in the Fall of 2005, I had a class in college where the professor told of story that began to sound very similar to my BL story. He then explained about the rare phenomenon of BL. I was ecstatic to hear this. His visual of what he saw slightly varied from mine, in that he could see the BL slightly alter its shape. As opposed to the BL I saw, it seemed to hold a perfectly spherical shape.
This was a great relief to me. It diminished my perplexity as to what I saw that particular night. Yesterday (September 19, 2008), I thought I would try to figure out the diameter of the BL. I used Google Earth to get rough horizontal distances and vertical distances to assist in calculating it. I remembered that the BL was roughly the size of golf ball held out at arm's length and used this data to calculate the diameter of the BL. Below are the variables and how I did it.
Horizontal Dist (HD) from my location to peak of mntn: 4.5 miles
Vertical Dist (VD) my location to peak of mntn: 0.85 miles
Golf Ball Diameter: 1.68 inches
Arm length: Roughly 2.5 feet
To get accurate numbers, I converted all variables to feet.
I used the HD and VD to calculate the Slope Dist (SD) with the Pythagorean Theorem:
SD = (HD^2 + VD^2)^1/2.
I remember the BL being about the size of a golf ball held out at arm's length, and to account for overestimating the size, I used 1/2 the diameter of a golf ball in my calculations. I found the ratio between the golf ball (half the diam) and the length of my arm at the current moment (September 2008):
(0.50)(Golf Ball Diam)/(Arm Length).
I then used the ratio above to compute the diameter the following way:
Diameter of BL = ((SD)(0.50)(Golf Ball Diam))/(Arm Length)
The diameter of the BL is an estimated 615.50 ft.
Note: I used minimum numbers to calculate the diameter of the BL (such as the HD and the golf ball diameter) and I relied on the accuracy of Google Earth for some of my variables. My answer is only as accurate as Google Earth's horizontal distances and elevations. It is my firm belief that the diameter of the BL is larger than what I calculated.
If anyone has any questions for myself on this subject or on the size of the BL, I am more than willing to discuss this. e-mail: waner21 at hotmaildot com
waner <waner21 at hotmaildot com>
USA - Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 14:16:08 (PDT)
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I was driving down a road near Sandia Heights in Albuquerque with a friend. We saw a large (perhaps 5' round) ball of lightning hit a gas station window (the windows bowed out, but did not explode) then the five-foot ball rolled across the road and hit the side of our car. The inside of the car was a bright white light everywhere. There was a popping sound. I thought the tires had exploded. I kept driving, stearing forward although I couldn't see. We didn't speak. We continued on our journey, both of us were shocked. I didn't realize that ball lightning was controversial. All I can say is that it is real and I have never seen anything on a video or photo that was as big or strange as the lightning which we experienced.
Ann <annabeyta at yahoodot com>
Albuquerque, NM USA - Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 12:07:19 (PDT)
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One rainy day in 2003, I was driving with a friend down route 40 in
Monroeville heading towards Elmer, NJ. It was raining, but I had not seen
any noticeable lighting. All of the sudden, everything in sight flashed
purple. I noticed a large, bright purple ball of energy floating directly
in the middle of the road. As I noticed the ball, a Mac truck that was in
front of me slammed on his breaks and screeched to a stop directly in
front of the ball. I quickly followed suit. The ball floated at
approximately the same height as the telephone poles. The ball of light
emitted a sort of electrical or static sound. It flashed or sort of
blinked out a couple of times. Every flash was followed by a thunderous
sound. This whole event lasted perhaps 20-30 seconds until it quickly
flashed brightly about three times and completely disappeared. I should
have approached the Mac truck in front of me to talk about it, but I was
scared as hell and immediately turned around and went home a different
way. My friend was frozen in disbelief and remained mute until i dropped
him off at home. I have asked him several times about that day and every
time I ask him he gets really nervous and he refuses to talk about it. I
got him to acknowledge that this happened, but unfortunately, this is as
far as he has ever gone. I have been looking for a place to report this
incident for a long time. If anyone knows of another place please let me
know. My email is as follows, please just delete the Q's and W's:
QjWaQ at WaQlWeQxWaQnWdQeWr QdWeQsWiQgWnQ. W4QtW. QcWoQmW Thanks.
Joseph Alexander
Monroeville, nj USA - Saturday, September 13, 2008 at 10:59:55 (PDT)
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I found this site about Ball Lightning.And believe this is what I saw about two weeks ago last week in August I can't remember the exact day. I was leaving my mothers house earley evening to go to my car it was slightly raining and quite warm all of a sudden a ball of light about the size of a melon with a tail shot over above my head to my right it made me want to duck as it was very low my instincts made me jump as quick as i could into my car it seemed to go straight into a house and dissapear. This was in Putney London. August 2008.
shell
USA - Saturday, September 06, 2008 at 17:14:56 (PDT)
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IN JUNE 2008 I WOKE UP to a thunderstorm around midnight.I HEARD THE POWER GO OFF.I WAS LAYING IN MY BED AND ABOUT 20 MINUTES LATER.I SAW THIS BIG WHITE BRIGHT BEACH BALL ABOUT ABOUT A FOOT AWAY FROM MY BED.IT WAS LIKE IT WAS SHAKING AND STAYED IN THE SAME SPOT FOR ABOUT 5 SECONDS THEN IT WENT BANG!!! AND THEN IT WAS GONE.NO DAMAGE AT ALL.I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT.MY BEDROOM WINDOW WAS CLOSED AND MY POWER WAS OUT.IT JUST APPEARED IN MY ROOM.LIGHTNING DID HIT A TREE ABOUT 10 HOUSES AWAY FROM ME.CLOSEING THE STREET DOWN.
Suzanne Fecteau
Torrington, CT USA - Monday, August 25, 2008 at 21:38:56 (PDT)
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I saw a ball lightning at night. It was very clear. A few hours after I walked around in the same area that the lightning was and I saw 3 blue lightballs sit in the grass. Moments after they were gone.
Fred
USA - Monday, August 25, 2008 at 14:44:33 (PDT)
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I don't know which month it was but it was when I was 8 back in 1997. I was watching a Thunder/Lightning storm as I usually did, and still do, when I saw a perfectly aligned *at a slight angle* string of bright yellow balls that flashed, they may have stayed for roughly 1 second though I can't quite remember. I don't know how big they were but it appeared as though they were within 200 feet of viewing distance...and they were BIG just not sure about apx. size.
Dana Bragg <DonneyDarco at gmaildot com>
ME USA - Saturday, August 16, 2008 at 13:17:51 (PDT)
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Back in the early 80's I was working in a shop painting In Oakland CA.I was working a swing shift with a co worker and the power went out.I pulled my car in the shop.My co worker and i were sitting in the car listing to the radio waiting for the power to come back on.We drove the car through a large roll up door and their was a man door at the back of the shop both doors were open. The shop was about 1200 sq.ft. We were parked just in side the roll up door when the both of us saw a flaming ball appear the size of a basketball it appeared at the man door at the end of the shop about 200 ft in front of us. The flaming ball appeared to hover at the man door for about 2 seconds then it moved towards us at a very high rate of speed it flew over the top of the car and must have gone out the roll up door. the co and I looked at each other and i said to him did you just see what i saw.He said yes with a scared look on his face! I was very happy he saw it too we both told many people of the phenomena people laughed at us and thought we were idiots but only we knew what we saw and it was no joke.
Curtis Nagengast <Littlebear118 at comcastdot net>
Livermore, CA USA - Saturday, August 16, 2008 at 02:39:51 (PDT)
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Reporting SLI (Streetlight) experiences.
My sister and I have both experienced this phenomenon for many years. Every time I have visited one of these sites there are always the wanna-be Bill Nye posters who say things like, "Streetlights just naturally go out. They are built to only have so many candle hours." As if we don't know this. Before these skeptic geeks come in here with their lame explanations, try driving or walking around with someone who experiences this. Then, and only then, do you qualify for comment. Because, Mr. Got-an-A-in Science, this only happens to a small handful of people. Anyone who has experienced this knows that it happens with HDI lights, incandescent, and LED. My most memorable experience was when 15 lights went out in a single evening on a single small stretch of road - more than half the lights went out. My husband, a former skeptic, used to blame it on my vehicle. He said my minivan had gold in the windshield to aid in defrosting, which is why they were so costly to replace. Then I got a Subaru and it still happened. It is uncommon for us to walk near streetlights, as we live in the country, but once we were walking in the city and streetlights as well as parking lights were going off. Then he admitted there really was not a logical explanation. I have been fortunate to be able to share this with my sister, which has helped to validate the experience for both of us. It's not something we brag about and I have no idea why it happens. It just does. But I just wanted to speak out against the skeptics that until they actually spend time with someone who experiences this, keep your mouth shut. Some of us aced science, too. :D
Debiny <mrsbip at yahoodot com>
syracuse, ny USA - Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 09:53:10 (PDT)
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On August 4, 2008, which as of this wrinting was just a few days ago, we were having some terrible weather in Northwest Indiana, including a tornado. At my house, we didn't have very bad storms but we did have some rain and a lot of lightning. After the storms seemed to settle down I went out on my front porch to smoke a cigarette. Just as I was getting ready to go inside, I saw something really weird. Just to the west of where I was standing, about treetop height, this light blazed through the air. It flew just the length of my yard and then fizzled out. It looked exactly like a little blue comet. I figure it must have been ball lightning - I've never seen anything like that before. Thank goodness I wasn't standing 15 feet farther to the west!!!
Barb McGee <barbmcgee2 at verizondot net>
northwest, IN USA - Saturday, August 09, 2008 at 07:50:26 (PDT)
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When I was probably no more than 6 years old (I'm 63 now) I was looking out of the 3rd floor window of the apartment building where I lived. The building was U shaped, buildings on each side and back, all joined together. The ball of lightning came down that courtyard so fast and bright, and it was at the 3rd floor level. It came up to the window for a second or two, went backwards and disappeared. I never told my parents, but I remember being very frightened, and I never forgot about it. Finally after all these years, I know it has a name, and yes, ball lightning really does exist.
Pat Stone <sip10909 at aoldot com>
Chicago, IL USA - Tuesday, August 05, 2008 at 15:21:08 (PDT)
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When I was about 12 years old, my sister and I were in our bedroom playing a card game at a card table, seated across from each other. It was a rainy night. All of a sudden there was a crack of lightning and before we could move or respond, a bluish ball of light came through the double windows looking out onto the front yard and moved in a straight line across the room and went right between us into the wall on the other side of the room. It was just above the top of the card table, so it must have been about 3 feet off the floor. It never deviated in its path. There was no sound, smell, or feeling of an electrical charge. It was just there and gone in an instant. We sat for a few seconds with our mouths open, looking at each other in stunned silence, then began screaming. Our parents believed us because of a story in my mother's family that my grandmother had to hurry to pick up my mother when she was a baby when ball lightning rolled down the front porch directly at her. It was an incredible experience and my sister and I both saw exactly the same thing at the same time. It was about 1964 in Milan, Tennessee.
Lynn Edwards
USA - Friday, July 25, 2008 at 08:46:43 (PDT)
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July 24/08 Approx 12:45 PM. Immediately after a lightning strike (flash and "boom" time almost indistinguishable), a ball of blue-white light, a little larger than a golf ball, and not overly bright, drifted in a first floor window, in between my daughter and I.It lingered for 2 seconds or so, then disappeared/discharged with a sound like a cracking whip. No smell, no damage. It just shook us both up.
Bill Kay <gwkywg at yahoo dot ca1245>
USA - Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 11:11:25 (PDT)
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New member. Havnt a clue how or where to start a thread so sorry if this is the wrong place.
I was just thinking back on something me and my family witnessed about 20 years ago,probably longer. Three of us arrived home,me my mother and my brother. Me and my brother walked into the living room and my mother decided to turn the central heating up by the dial behind the door we just walked through. As i approached the televsion to turn it on, a perfectly shapped ord shot out from what looked like the plug socket,it was made up of what seemed like thousands of little sparks,it travelled towards my brother who was at the time doing some kind of boddy popping move and it seem to just disapear. Then my mother came into the room quite panicked and said something had just flown past her. It must have passed my brother and travelled through the living room door,but left no marks. I remember enquiring to my science teacher shortly after but didnt really get an explanatiobn. Im just wondering if anyone can shed any light what it could have been. Also when we tried turning the TV on, it wouldnt work. Lighting and other electricity worked fine and the TV and video player eventually turned on shortly after without messing with and circuit breakers of fuses. The ball of sparks was about 6 inches in diameter.
My appologies for posting in this thread and thanks in advance.
Jay3dee at hotmaildot co dotuk
JaYDee <jay3dee at hotmaildot co dotuk>
leeds, uk - Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 13:39:43 (PDT)
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It was during February- March 2003, night about 2- 2.30 am myself, wife and my 4 year old son were sleeping in bed room in the first floor in Tirupur, South India. There were people working on the ground floor thoughout night in a computer firm. My sleep was disturbed by my wife calling me get up.. do you hear that.. do you see that.. outside window panel.I got up to see a bright bluish white ball with sparks on the back gone past over our bed with a whirring noise and dashed against the wall inside the room and disappeared without a trace. People working in the downstairs rushed up up hearing the sound and seeing the light. The neighboring house also heard the sound and he also came out. We all were stunned and my wife started crying after seeing that it vanished inside the room. There was no mark in the wall were it struck. Now only I understand that it might be a ball lightning. I can never forget the whirring noise that it produced.
Senthil <emailidofsenthil at yahoodot co dotintyutrfbnm>
Tirupur, Tamil Nadu India - Saturday, July 05, 2008 at 06:01:01 (PDT)
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When i was driving to my parents house a Orange Ball decended down from the sky in front of me and came streight over my car.
This Orange Ball took less than about two seconds to appear and vanish over my car at such a speed it was amazing to see.
I slowed down to see if any other drivers had seen this' and to my disapointment i was the only one on the road at that time.
The Orange ball was the size of a beach ball with a short trailing tail' extreamily fast' i thought it was going to hit me face on yet thankfully the ball went over the top of the car and out of sight.
This incident was in about 1983' on a dark evening with mild weather along the dual carrageway outside the Ford Tractor Plant.
paul durussel <paul.durussel at skydot com>
Basildon Essex , Great Britain - Thursday, July 03, 2008 at 19:01:28 (PDT)
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June 30 2008 approx 3:45 to 4:00 PM MTN STD time; The thunder and lighting had already started and I decided to get one more walk around the block just in case the rains came and didn't let up later on. The walk was around a 5 story brick condominum building with very large trees lining the streets. As I rounded the corner I noticed a women walking toward me with her small dog. We were approximately 30' from each other, when without warning a pure white ball appeared between us. It was about 4 to 5 feet off the ground and the size of a small soccer ball. At that moment I saw nothing else. It happened so fast I can only guess it lasted less than a few seconds. Within milli-seconds there was such a loud crack of thunder I literally ducked and felt my whole body shudder. Even my ears were vibrating from the sound. I immediately asked the women in from of me if she had seen the white ball of light, because I needed to know it wasn't just me. She did verify that she witnessed it but was so shaken by the events she immediately turned around and headed back into her building. I have never ever experienced anything like this before. I was on crutches recovering from very recent hip replacement surgery. I cannot help but think, having another person's energy on the other side of the white ball may have saved one or both of our lives!!!!!
PS I was also somewhat shaken by the experience and at the time did not know what I had just seen.
S.G. Gordon <roadstar2005 at gmaildot com>
Calgary, ab canada - Tuesday, July 01, 2008 at 18:02:03 (PDT)
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Last night I was driving with a friend in Ohio. It was raining a little but very dark ahead with lots of lightning. The radio warned of "deadly lightning" and said we should take cover, so we did, but just before we turned into the rest area we saw a very prolonged streak of lightning coming fairly straight down ahead and to the left of us, followed by a biggish ball of lightning. It was large, about a quarter of a mile away, and sat at treetop level for a few seconds, then exploded. We both saw it. It was bright white, just like lightning but a large round ball. It made quite a crack when it blew up, not distanced in time like thunder, but right away. It was very scary. I did not know lightning could do that, and was glad to be that far away.
Carol Nix <carol.nix at gmaildot com>
Sewickley, PA USA - Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 15:20:36 (PDT)
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My neighbours and close friend were eating dinner on Saturday night, there was a storm about an hour before the incident. The mother of the house had just left the sitting room which is right next to the dining room, when a ball of lightening came down the chimney stopped at the entrance to the dining room, turned a corner and went out the front door, which was closed. Three people were sitting at the dinner table and watched it hover briefly before turning and going out through the door, which by the way, was not damaged at all. There grandmother was sitting in a chair in the sitting room when it came down the chimney! It only made a loud crash when it came down. It was about 2.5ft across, and yellow/orange in colour. Outside on the farm, the mains electric fence for the cattle was blown out, fuse box and all, the phones (except the daughters!) were blown but the tv and computer were fine with no damage.
Kate Conway <gooseandbear at yahoo.ie>
Ennistymon, clare Ireland - Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 14:48:26 (PDT)
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I saw what seemed to be (ball lightning) at aprox. 11:10 pm in the NW corner of OKC. Was watching a large wall cloud moveing away from me, when I saw it just shoot out the the cloud and quickly travel out of site. It was seen for aprox. 3-4 seconds. Very strange
Brandon C <fatthedz at coxdot net>
Oklahoma City, ok USA - Monday, June 16, 2008 at 21:41:56 (PDT)
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Two nights ago around midnight, after our area had been washed over with some thunderstorms that day, I was lying in bed watching tv when I saw a yellow-orange light in the sky just above the treetops. It looked like the movies, when they show a meteorite heading right for someone. It grew in size for a few seconds, turned orange, then disappeared. The moment it disappeared, I felt like I had been hit with a sonic boom, the power surged-- hard-- and then there were several loud snapping/popping noises, like muffled fireworks. The boom feeling and the noises were loud (and impactful) enough to wake my husband. Immediately after this, I saw a bright blue flash of what appeared to be cloud-to cloud lightning, and again the power surged (but only a little), and once more I heard the strange popping noise.
I few minutes later I heard something which sounded like a sizzling sound coming from my neighbor's yard. When I went out to investigate I saw nothing out of the ordinary, but the air did feel and smell electrically charged. I went back inside, and nothing else unusual happened for the remainder of the night.
I don't know if this was ball lightning or not, but that's the closest explanation I can find!
Ona <onaanddennis at charterdot net>
Asheville, NC USA - Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 18:43:56 (PDT)
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This had to have happened back around 1975, I must have been 7 or 8 years old. I was very scared of the dark as a child. I never went to sleep easily being scared of what was there when the lights went down. Well, one night there was a fierce thunderstorm and I woke up and was immediately aware that the power was out in the house. Along with that I had the sensation that I was in our spare bedroom in bed. That bedroom horrified me because the furniture in it came from my great-aunt's house who had recently died. The whole room just gave me the creeps and I used to either have to shut the door to the room just to walk by it, or I ran past the doorway. Well, that night I awoke and was convinced I was in that bed and was very scared to say the least. I hadn't lay there more than a couple seconds with my eyes open but very scared to make any sound when a ball of light about the size of a pingpong ball passed in front of me from left to right. I was no longer scared to make a sound and screamed out for my parents. They came in the room with flashlights and calmed me, but then they saw the same balls of light I had seen earlier. They bounced across the covers on the bed and floated around the room. They explained it away as static electricity from the storm but never before or since have I ever witnessed the same thing. What was this? Ball lightning?
Jeff Parris <parris001 at comcastdot net>
Franklin, TN USA - Friday, June 13, 2008 at 17:44:33 (PDT)
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I live in the sub-tropical part of Australia where afternoon thunderstorms are common in Summer. 3 years ago when I was 43 a friend and I witnessed a pehnomena which could have been ball lightning. During an afternoon storm when it was dark outside a light drifted down from the sky onto our neighbours yard and lit up our living room like daylight. The doors to the patio were open and we could see it glowing on the next door neighbours lawn. It was bluish and produced a light similar to a welding arc and looked like a large bubble of power of some sort. It blinked off and left us in complete darkness again, the air had a slight smell of ionization. It lasted long enough for us to run to the door and see it from only 10 feet away, it was about 5 feet across. Neither of us knew what we were looking at and were both glad we had a witness. It left no trace on their wet lawn.
Mark Ellison <oz.marky at bigponddot com>
Gold Coast, Qld Australia - Saturday, June 07, 2008 at 17:19:12 (PDT)
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Ball Lightning
My father told me about an incident that happened to him in Preton, Lancashire in about 1930. He was in the doorway of his house during a severe thunderstorm. There was a lightning strike close by and shortly afterwards an orange ball of light about six inches across appeared and moved along the street at ground level, floating just above the ground and making a crackling noise. It reached the house opposite and travelled up the metal drainpipe to the roof of the house where it disappeared. My father was always convinced it was ball lightning he had seen.
Alison Fiddler <alisonfidler at btinternetdot com>
Preston, UK - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 04:50:18 (PDT)
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Ball lightening. I am a truck driver and was making my way through South Dakota USA one night when during a thunderstorm I witnessed the unusual event of ball lightening. During a heavy downpour I happened to look at a car going westbound on I90 as I was going eastbound. Just then a ball of light appeared on the top of the car and seemed to travel at the speed of the car. The ball was approximately 4 feet in diameter. When I looked in my rearview mirror to see if it was still riding on top of the car, I noticed the brake lights on the car as if the car was stopping. I kept on going and rode out the storm. I often wonder if the ball had penetrated the top of the car and entered inside, but I will never know. Visibility was extremely poor that night due to the heavy rain. I thought I don't remember hearing any thunder.
Jon Curtis <hbjon2000 at yahoodot com>
USA - Sunday, May 25, 2008 at 16:02:39 (PDT)
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Re: Ball Lightning. It was either 1970 or 73, in Papua New Guinea where I grew up as a missionary kid. I was in a small plane (Cessna 206) leaving Madang airport either to or from boarding school when, as we taxied fairly near the airport tower, I noticed a dog on the side part of the airport, and then this strange beach-ball type thing, brightly colored (almost glowing? swirled colors?). Not seeing where it came from, I thought maybe it had been thrown from the tower to scare off the dog. It just seemed strange to me, this ball, at least half my height, bouncing in the vicinity of the dog, about 50 feet from the plane. It sort of bounced/floated down, hit the runway and bounced/floated up a few feet, then seemed to pop - no noise, but suddenly disappeared. (I don't remember if there was any visual flash.) the whole thing might have only lasted 5 - 10 seconds, maybe a bit longer? I told no one on the plane; told my dad when I saw him and, after a bit of research he suggested it might be a form of St. Elmo's Fire. There was no doubt I'd seen something real. I now realize that it was probably some form of ball lightning.
Mark <mmc_sh at yahoonotdot comnot>
Exton, pa USA - Monday, May 19, 2008 at 20:15:35 (PDT)
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Ball Lightning
During the late Summer of 1996, in El Paso, Texas we were having a somewhat sudden thunderstorm. We were in my Apartment on the West Side of town which is hilly. I was standing in-between the dining room area and the living room when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flicker of light on my main living room wall. I abruptly turned my head to get a better look and confirmed that there was something lit on my wall. As I turned around to face it, the sparkling light began to extend out from the wall in a narrow, projected stream, changing colors and crackling quite loudly. Seeing that it was headed my way, I jumped out of its impending path and it vanished.
I'd estimate is that this Ball Lightning lasted anywhere from 4-8 seconds, not including how long it may have taken to form before I took notice of it. And it reached out to about a Meter/Yard before it stopped. It looked like a column of multicolored sparks and tendrils, not unlike one of those novelty plasma lamps, with a few extra colors. The crackling noise was quite loud and sounded similar to an Arc Welder or radio static. My girlfriend was sitting in the dining room at the time but didn't see anything due to her angle of view. However, she absolutely heard the crackling noise. I didn't notice any Ozone smell, etc, but then I also used to smoke. I immediately inspected the wall where the ball lightning came from and found nothing unusual - no scorching, no holes, cracks, nothing hot to the touch. Excited, I called up my dad and told him about what had just happened. He said it sounded like Ball Lightning. I looked it up at the time and saw that the Ball Lightning phenomena was considered very rare and somewhat mythical.
Adam Kitzmiller <retroflow at yahoodot com>
El Paso, TX USA - Friday, May 16, 2008 at 12:50:47 (PDT)
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BALL LIGHTNING ?
On 3/30/2008 mid-afternoon, at the intersections of W. Napolean and
Causeway Blvd. http://maps.google.com/
maps?ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=29.992642,-90.155627&
spn=0.001861,0.002629&t=h&z=19 while waiting at a redlight it was very windy.
The powerlines were waving back & forth, suddenly there was a loud buzz and large blueish-purple ball (approx 5' around) of lightning moved across the powerlines approx. 100 feet from one pole to the to other. I assume it was ball lightning.
The power went out at the intersection and the surrounding businesses for about 20 seconds if that. Then returned as normal.
Chris Friedrichs <chrisf 69 69 at america online dot com>
Metairie, LA USA - Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 10:39:31 (PDT)
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In approximately 1982, it was night time and it was raining outside. I had walked into the kitchen and saw a faintly glowing ball about 12 to 18 inches in diameter emerge from below the sink.It floated across the kitchen about 2 feet above the floor.It then went under the table about 10 feet away and disappeared without any noise.The table was made of metal and there was an electrical outlet on the wall under the table.The object was white in color and slighty bluish.The whole thing lasted about 5 seconds.
c. sheets <cdsheets"remove this in quotes" at intellexdot com>
ok USA - Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 07:17:42 (PDT)
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In 2001, some time around april, i was on my college campus in Miami when i saw several beautiful balls of light which I later realized must have been ball lightning.
The amazing thing is that i saw the spheres form and disappear at a mere 10 feet distance, and possibly more amazingly i escaped without any injury and without realizing i may have been in danger. I was literally stunned when i saw the first ball, and i stayed as still and silent as possible through the entire jaw dropping experience.
My campus had a relatively large wooded area we students called "the forest", which we would often go to hang out. It was there that one night i witnessed the phenomenon. I dont remember exactly what the weather was like that day, however it wasnt raining where I was.
I went to the woods to relax, and brought with me, as often did, my mp3 player and some portable speakers. I was relaxing listening to some tunes when suddenly the music cut off and the speakers started emitting static like noises. I was pretty pissed cause my mp3 player costed a pretty penny, i looked at the lcd screen and it looked like it was on but the screen was blank. i tried resetting the player by turning it on and off yet the speakers were still emitting static.
I dont remember if i got to turning off and on the speakers as well since at this point an orange doughnut the size of a basketball appeared about 10 feet from the log on which i was sitting. I literally froze up at the sight of this, forgot completely about my music, and diverted my entire attention to carefully watching the object.
The "doughnut" was a bright orange color while the empty part was, amazingly, a very dark shade of grey, close to black. I couldnt see through the object, and furthermore i cant explain how the hell the inner circle was black. It appeared to be spinning and did not appear to illuminate the surrounding area. After a few seconds of "spinning" i could see brighter orange/white filaments, or strings, travelling randomly throughout the edge of the doughnut and in a "V" shape in the inner, empty, circle. As the spinning appeared to get more intense the doughnut suddenly, literally in blink of an eye, turned into a sphere, although it looked a hell alot like a disk. The sphere also appeared to be spinning and had a very particular pattern in it. Although the sphere was orange it had alot of black spots, more like "s" curved shapes, which appeared to move in an extremely convoluted spiral pattern. This pattern is what gave me the impression of it spinning. Also, the very central part of the circle had and a black spot, also "s" shaped. Ive tried looking up this particular spiral pattern but i havent been able to find anything identical. Finally the sphere just disappeared in the blink of an eye, without noise and without trace.
a few minutes later, as I sat on the log in stupor, another orange ball appeared near where the first one appeared, it was over some low bushes, at approximately the same height. The process repeated itself once again, more or less of the same duration. this time i tried focusing as hard as i could so that i would not miss any detail. However i was still unable to see the instant in which the ball dissapeared.
Finally, not long after the SECOND ball, a THIRD ball appeared, except this time the ball was not orange, but silver. This final ball, was simply beautiful, i have never seen silver and black light in my life, and never had it even ever entered my mind that such a thing existed. The same spiral pattern was clearly visible in this ball, and it may have been slightly bigger. I observed this last ball with even more focus trying to imprint in my memory the pattern, and possibly catch anything i had missed with the others. Most likely out of luck I actually caught a glimpse of this sphere's end. It appeared to explode and get sucked into/striking the ground beneath it. In a spiral arc it hit a spot in the ground and looked very much like normal lightning, except for the fact that it arced horizontally as it went towards the ground, similar to how water goes down a drain.
As a final note, i forgot to mention what it looked like in the moments before the balls actually appeared. This is a highly subjective description of course, so i leave it for last. Tiny grey dots of light, barely noticable, appear around where the ball lightning would later form. The dots, at first, are barely noticeable and appear to move randomly. However, thse dots appeared to concentrate in a single area, and as they do they become more visible, then suddenly the ball appears in their place.
Im sorry to write such a long report, but i observed this phenomenon closely and wanted to give all the details i could remember. If scientists ever do discover the mechanism behind ball lightning I sincerely hope they do so with great intentions, not just good, but great. Fortunately from what ive read up on, researchers are currently MILES away from explaining it.
Ive chosen this site to post my experience in order to make it public, hopefully anyone will be able to view and exchange this information and that of the many other posters who were fortunate enough, in most cases, to witness bl. Good luck.
VIC
VIC <silence777 at aoldot com>
USA - Tuesday, April 08, 2008 at 13:59:31 (PDT)
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I'm a Bsc older student. While as part of my study in the town of
Marienbad in the Check republick, I was woken from my sleep feeling hot,
half asleep and looking up at the cieling, I saw flashing lights, I
decided to lower my blanket because I was feeling warm, on touching it I
noticed that my fingers caused static electricity it was a ball of yellow
light about eight inches and sempt to be in a ball shape, which was the
shape I had grabed the blanket up in my fingers. After realising I was not
on my way through the fires of hell, I began to play with the blanket and
to my amazement found that I could make the whole blanket turn into a
yellow ball of light. After a few minutes, I began to wonder if it was
possible that if I persisted would the balnketignite. Idecided to put the
blanket out of reach of my body so it would not charge.
I'm curious, I did not think static could be this powerfull unless it was
part of a major industial intallation. Marienabad is famous for its
mineral waters, earlier that day I had had a carbon gas bath.
More recently on returing home, I have recreated this for my son to see,
however not quite as strong.
I can never wear a watch as they never keep time on me regardless of how
they work, and more recently I have had trouble with my computer.
I found my experience at first frightening and then great fun, however I
do wonder if I'm charged like this is it always and can it be dangerous?
sharon
PS My fellow students thought it was too much wine from the night before, so an explanation as to why this happend would be great!
Sharon Mason <slmason70'hotmaildot co dotuk>
Uk - Monday, March 31, 2008 at 18:32:23 (PDT)
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I was down in Wyoming visiting our grandparent about 2 years ago. My cousins from OK were there also. Since my sister and my 2 cousins love scaring our selves we dared each other who could go into the woods the farthest. one of my cousins and i are always the "brave" ones so we go and walk around in the wood for awhile. after a while we notice my sister and my other cousin left us alone in the dark and in the woods. We decide to leave and right as we are about to enter the open feild in front of the house we see this big red glowing thing about 50 ft away from us we freaked out not taking another glance and sprint into our grandparent house. We got in and looked out the window where we were and nothing was there. I never even heard of ball lighthing then so we thought it was either our minds playing tricks or it was this sign of a creature we made up to scare our selves. Either way it was creepy.
Crystal <saddlestirups at hotmaildot com>
MT USA - Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 17:03:16 (PDT)
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I experienced ball lightning between the years of 1994 - 2000 (the actual date is now foggy) at a house I lived in between those years in upstate NY. It was during a hot and humid summer afternoon in the midst of a severe thunderstorm. I was standing at the screen door of the house looking toward the street as I was watching the dark clouds and flashes of lightning and a poorly defined lightning bolt hit the middle of the street in front of the house. Immediately after, a yellow-orange glowing ball the size of a basketball slowly floated from about 5-6 feet above the street straight down in the path where the lightning bolt had hit. Within the minute it reached somewhere between 3-5 feet before disappearing with a sudden explosive noise and created a bright flash that was too bright to look at (the confusion, not knowing what it was, and utter fear caused me to scream loudly and get away from the screen door as fast as possible). There was nothing left in the air when I looked back to the location and the storm carried on like a regular thunderstorm. Also, there were no unusual scents and the ball itself had not made any sort of noise besides the explosive one, it didn't change color. The ball did not have a well-defined outline but it was definitely spherical - it resembled how the sun looks behind, say, cirrostratus or altostratus clouds.
Lindsey D. <eccentricvirgo at gmaildot com>
Oneonta, NY USA - Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 14:41:08 (PDT)
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I expeienced "BALL LIGHTNING" while sitting on my couch in the living room of my home one night during a wicked lightning storm years ago in Phoenix Arizona. I was watching TV with my wife and a friend when a strong electrical surge dimmed the entire house and TV. Out of the corner of my eye, as if coming from the backyard through the sliding glass door, a cobalt blue colored sphere about the size of a softball slowly started traveling across the room with tiny electrode-like fingers pusing out from it. It looked as though it was slightly bobbing up and down as it moved through the air then just disappeard. Both my wife and friend saw it but we couldn't understand what the hell it was! NOW I KNOW.
Kevin Norman <kev_norm at yahoodot com>
Phoenix, az USA - Friday, February 22, 2008 at 11:21:53 (PST)
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Thank you for this web site. When I ran across it, I stayed up most of the night reading the personal experiences. I can see why scientists are skeptical. Some eye witnesses describe it?s color as white--others as green, blue, orange, red, yellow?even black. It can be as large as a house, or as small as a golf ball. Some say it makes a hissing or crackling sound, others say it makes no sound at all. Some describe an acrid smell?others say there is no smell.
While regular lightning is very fast, ball lightning moves very slowly. It can turn mid flight and go in the opposite direction. It can pass through glass, screen doors, even walls. It may last from a few seconds to 10 minutes or even more.
Some people describe streamers or tails, sometimes connecting 2 balls together. Others say there are no tails, no smoke, no trails.
Some even say that the ?ball? was in the shape of a football or a log.
The balls float, bounce, and roll. When they vanish, some silently dissipate--others explode with a bang.
Some folks? hair stood up on their arms as it would during an electrical storm when lightning was imminent. Others say their hair did not stand up.
After passing, some report the items it touched as being still cold with no visible damage. Others report the area scorched, smoking, and blackened. A few report that their electrical appliances were damaged. A few said it started fires.
The strangest thing of all is the effect on people. Some lightning balls have killed people on contact. Other people have been touched, but not killed, although many sustained injury to the touched body part. A Delta airline flight attendant sitting on an airplane (which I assume was in flight) said the ball bounced right through her without hurting her in any way.
Am I a believer? YES. Many years ago my mother told me about seeing a white ball of fire about the size of a soccer ball come down from the sky. It landed on a wooden fence. It bounced along on the top of the fence then turned and bounced onto the back of my Grandfather?s bull standing there. The split second the ball touched the bull it dissipated, and the bull fell dead. I believe it, because my mother was not given to telling tales. She lived the rest of her life never knowing what it was she saw. This happened about 1920. I am 73 years old, and I have often wondered about that incident as well.
Thank you again to whoever is responsible for this web site. Scientists ought to get on the ?ball? and study this phenomenon. No pun intended.
Carrie Leech <countrycarriel at charterdot net>
USA - Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 06:10:36 (PST)
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Many years ago when I was 16 years old, I went on a cross-country trip with a bus full of other teens. Typically we would camp out for maybe 4 days, then spend one in a dinky motel for a break. While in Wyoming, we camped out at Devil's Tower. Breathtaking of course. My friend Gail and I decided to sleep outside instead of inside the tent, for the sky was just absolutely bursting with stars. We lay there, staring up at the sky, and chatting into the night.
In front of us, maybe 150 feet or so, was a ravine. I imagine there was water down there. Behind this ravine was thick woods, sloping upward into darkness.
Nothing out there but us, the woods in front, that cliff with the water down below, and that mamouth tower! As we sat crosslegged on our cots facing the woods, I noticed a white ball of light floating maybe 15 feet above the ravine, in front of the woods- to the left of the two of us. We both saw it, for it caught our eye immediately. There was only woods out there, after all. The light hovered for about 5 seconds, then started to very slowly drift downward, until it went below the ground level into the ravine. We were confused and excited, and had no idea what we just saw. Then no sooner had we vocallized 5 seconds of amazement, and it suddenly appeared again, back up above the ravine. It didn't float up, however, it suddenly just was there. We saw it, and it started to move horizontally all the way from the left to the right. FAST. And then it was gone. We flipped out. We went shrieking back into the tent, certain we had seen some sort of Devil's Tower UFO. I now know that what we witnessed was clearly "ball lightening" at its best. If only I could tell Gail, but we lost touch soon after that wonderful, memorable trip.
D. Russell <drussell at yahoodot com>
NJ USA - Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 18:14:41 (PST)
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I recently moved into the country and on my property was a lot of wildlife, so I bought a hunters camera to take pictures of any critters coming by. On many pictures there are strange lights appearing, mostly on stormy nights. A friend did some research and decided that what I was getting on my cameras was ball lightening. Some are scary and some are just plain strange.
Darlene Potts <lydiadar at hotmaildot com>
in USA - Tuesday, February 05, 2008 at 13:16:52 (PST)
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In the early 1990's my daughters and I had to leave our neighborhood pools because of thunder. We came home and settled in our family room to watch a movie on tv. The tv was in front of a large window. We heard thunder (for about 5 years we had many bad storms in our area) so we were all near each other on the couch directly in front of the window. A big BOOM occurred and we all screamed and then the TV screen turned green and a ball of fire dropped down in front of the window outside. It hovered outside the window and then exploded and fire hung in the air before our very eyes.
Paula <atl_paulakata2 at yahoodot com>
Marietta, Ga. USA - Saturday, February 02, 2008 at 23:45:15 (PST)
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I was watching a thunderstorm around the year 1969 at my gran's house in Belshill, Scotland. My gran spotted a dazzling ball of light trundling down the back garden path. She said it then floated up and passed through the kitchen window, through the house and out through the living room window (my mum said this is what happened too), where I was sitting on the table with my brother, sister and her friend. I remember my gran panicking. She was terrified of thunderstorms. I didn't see it in the house nor did any of the other three kids on the table. It would have passed over our heads by only a foot or two. According to my brother it actually ran through the close (an open hallway between two houses). He said it floated down the front path, between the hedges, and rose up as it reached the road. I sometimes wonder if there were two of them or my mum and gran had been dazzled by it and they were seeing a persistent image. They said it was about the size of a grapefruit, my brother said it was more the size of a soccer ball.
Everyone was shouting and pointing but I couldn't see anything. I remember my brother saying "It's on that aerial". I looked towards the roof he was pointing to. At that, an almighty explosion thundered across the sky. The light was blinding white and seemed to pulse several times. There also seemed to be black lines interspersed through it, radiating from the centre of the explosion. The image had a cartoon quality to it. The noise was incredible, like a cross between a sonic boom and an over head thunderclap. The windows rattled and shattered roof tiles rained down in the street, some flying 50 yards. The roof had a smoking hole in it about 2-3 feet in diameter right next to the chimney breast where the aerial had been fixed. Dogs were howling , making the strangest noises. The poor woman's house was filled with soot and her television had exploded.
I remember the neighbours all pouring into her house with hoovers and cleaning stuff. The only physical casualty was a workman who was called to check the chimney and was hit by a piece of tile as he put his ladder up against the gutter. The incident was reported in the local paper. My gran always hid in the cupboard under the stairs (next to the fuse box) any time there was a thunderstorm.
E Kane <ewan.kane at yahoodot co dotuk>
Bellshill, Scotland - Saturday, February 02, 2008 at 03:36:35 (PST)
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This occurred in the summer of 1964 in the Ochoco National Forest out of Burns Oregon. My husband and I spent the first summer we were married on the Donnely Butte Lookout working for the Forest Service. Garry had gone to fight fires and I was manning the lookout. It was stormy but the worst had passed. I looked up and in the top of the pine trees I saw an orange ball bigger than a basketball. It "floated" down the trees to the clearing and "bounced" on the ground and then floated back up into the trees. It seemed like it moved in slow motion. It did this several times until it moved out of my line of sight. Later, when it was safe to use the crank phone, I called Rocky on another lookout and he told me it was ball lighting. I thought I had been up there too long. I experienced this personally. Ginny Gilman
I just submitted my experience with ball lighting on a forest lookout. I neglected to estimate the time, but I saw the orange ball for about two minutes before it went out of my sight range. Ginny Gilman
ginny gilman <garryginny at cableonedot net.space>
Boise, Id USA - Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 22:12:35 (PST)
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I saw something during a thunder storm where lightning bolts were dropping left and right near my home. I observed a purple and orange ball of light about the size of a beach ball hovering in an open space directly over our staircase. It made a soft cracking or buzzing noise. The ball had alternating colors and after a few minutes it increased in size to about 3 feet in diameter. As it did this, the colors and brightness diminished until it simply faded away
Michael Stewart <mstewart at grsd.orgxix>
Lakeland, MN USA - Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 18:07:29 (PST)
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Ok i was about 6 years old, it was at my church parkinglot after the summer sundaynight service. My church is right outside the city of Greenville on the corner of a field inhabited by cows. ok i was standing about 50 feet away fom a fence with my Dad, and a friend and his Parent. I remember there was lightning, and suddenly a glowing bright blue ball apeared hovering about 7 feet of the ground over a wooden post. It slowly decended, and i remember atempting to go and check it out, but my dad said to stay. He started talking to the Parent, i guess about the lightning. I had no idea wat it wasat the time, only that it was a ball of light. It wasnt until 6th grade that i learned of ball lightning
CAlvin <bentmetal_clvin at yahoodot com>
USA - Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 09:22:09 (PST)
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This incident took place near Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire,
Scotland on the night of the 3rd January 1984.
There was a terrible storm raging with hurricane force winds
and thunder and lightning. I was wakened at 4.15am by strange flashes in the eastern sky and when I went to the window I saw three balls of light rising and falling between
100 and 110 degrees, over the ocean.They rose up in the air
then began to fall again exploding in midair. At first I
thought I was witnessing UFO,s but then thought of ball lightning. It was a spectacular display! In the morning I
checked with the met office and the local military base
but nobody knew what I had seen and the met office confirmed
that it was most likely ball lightning.
A curious post script is that on the 20th/21st January
one of the worst snowstorms ever known hit the NE of Scotland.I felt the ball lightning was an omen of this
terrible storm. Has anyone else noted severe storms comming
after a sighting of ball lightning ?
Michael Walton
UK - Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 09:07:42 (PST)
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Last night we had some storms and my 4 year old woke up in the night and said she saw a ball of fire hovering in her bedroom near the chimney breast. She said it was dancing red, yellow and orange colours in a ball, and she said she sat and watched it moving for less than a minute and then it disappeared. She also said it was very odd but she couldn't help but watch it.
Was this ball lightening?
Lisa Henden <lisahenden at yahoodot co dotuk>
Rugby, UK - Monday, January 07, 2008 at 03:49:17 (PST)
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When I was a teenager, so probably over 30 years ago, I experienced what I now think may have been ball lightning in Detroit, MI.
My older sister and I had turned in for the night in our second story bedroom. The lights in our room were out, so it was dark. I don't remember any rain/storm/thunder or anything unusual happening that night. All of a sudden, an orb of light about the size of a basketball, and as I recall, yellow and bright white, flame-like in my mind to this day, came silently through the wall beside me, a few feet below the ceiling, in the upper 3rd of the wall. I describe it as an orb, because it seemed to be three dimensional, as opposed to someone shining a floodlight into the room (which wasn?t possible as the shade was pulled.) I watched it slowly travel across our bedroom and move silently out through a shaded window. It almost ambled across the room, and I followed it with my eyes the entire way until it exited silently through the shade and window. When I found my voice, a few seconds, I remembered my sister was there and wondered if she was sleep. Half thinking she would not answer and that I was seeing things, I asked, tentatively, "Did you see that?" She answered, just as tentatively, "Yes." I said, fervently "Turn on the light." She said, just as fervently, "YOU turn it on." We finally decided we would both turn it on at the count of three. We counted three and jumped up together and quickly turned on the light.
Luckily, my mother was from the Southern part of the U.S. and folklore was a part of their lives, so she listened to us and believed us. She told us that our much older brother had seen a similar sight just floating above the toilet tank in our bathroom at one time, on a different occasion. That bathroom was on the other side of the wall where our ball of fire had first appeared.
That vision has always stayed with me. I?ve only recently started researching ball lightning, but it seems to explain what I?ve seen, only I don?t remember there being any sort of storm. I also do not recall neither sound, nor smell. I am only glad this seemed to be the innocuous variety instead of the type that causes so much damage.
Thank you all for the stories and thank you for this site!
Lynda
Detroit, MI USA - Wednesday, January 02, 2008 at 07:43:50 (PST)
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In May of 1988, Myself and 3 of my children were sitting and standing in our partially built farm house. The roof was on ,studs were in and the walls were up. There was no glass in the windows or no doors or electricity yet. There came a violent thunder storm in which it hailed. We were sitting watching as the storm moved away and all became quiet. I heard a low sizzling type noise. We all turned to look back into the rest of the house. There was a large ball of lightening a bit larger than a basket ball. It seemed to be playing all around the studs then hovering around in the open, it played for over a minute maybe 2. It came close to where we were and then came a huge boom which knocked me out of the lawn chair I had been sitting in and knocked the children to the floor. At this point it disappeared. We were stunned, then we were all talking at once, did you see? etc: We were amazed and felt we had been given a strange gift by its visit and felt lucky we weren't killed. It left no burn marks on the studs it was playing around. It never moved fast it seemed to glide and hover. It did not seem to have any electricity coming out of the ball it self.It made no sound except for the initial sizzling sound and the final boom. It was a perfect ball of red,orange and some blue.
Martha <martinlight at hughesnetdot com>
maxville, fl USA - Monday, December 31, 2007 at 13:11:22 (PST)
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in 1981, I was watching tv, laying on my stomach on the livingroom floor. The door to the 2nd floor screen porch was open, and in flew an electric blue, glowing orb about the size of a softball. It shot across the floor and into the corner of the room, and moved very quickly up and down from floor to ceiling several times. It then went back from the direction it had come from, and either disappeared out the door, or it may have gone into a light socket next to the door. I did feel a sort of energy charge, which could have just been me freaking at witnessing something so strange. I had never heard of ball lightning, but years later I saw a show about unexplained phenomena(the one Leonard Nemoy narrated)that made me think that was what I had witnessed. It was probably as close as 4 feet from me, but I was laying on the floor, and I wondered what would have happened if I had been on the couch, which was where it went zooming up and down the wall. Of course I was home alone, and no one I told had a clue what it could have been. There was no "weather" in the immediate area.
shar <squirrelygirly57 at aoldot com>
USA - Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 19:29:48 (PST)
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Back in 1985, I was about 15 year old, talking to my friend on the phone. It was a fine day. Suddenly a white/blue ball of light appeared outside of the window and just hovered there. Then it shot in a beam toward my hand which was holding the phone. It seemed to rivulet like water over my hand and then disappeared. Then my friend screamed and said 'what the (bleep) was that?', and I said 'what happened', and she said 'this light just came flying out of my phone', and I replied 'well, it just went in my end'. This all happened very quickly.
Jo <jojo22 at cleardot net.nzzzz>
Wellington, New Zealand New Zealand - Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 04:37:11 (PST)
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About four years ago while looking up at the stars off the back of my friends deck, i noticed something strange. It was mid winter and the sky was clear, i was smoking a cigarette when i noticed a star that seemed like it was getting bigger. I shrugged it off at first untill it was about the size of a baseball. I went inside and and asked my friends to come and confirm that this was happening and i wasnt just crazy. After stepping out on the deck ( i was with about 6 other people) the light or star was straight out on the horizon a good distance away probabley the size of a volleyball. It was a perfectley round bright white light moving along the top of a distant tree line. We observed it for about 1 min when suddenly it speed off at a speed I cant directly explain (i mean it was moving) untill it seemed to just disapeer up in the sky. Needless to say i was much releived that everone with me witnessed the same thing and had the same reaction of awe. From the time i first veiwed the object which looked like a star in the sky untill it zoomed of was less then the time it took for me to smoke a cig. I dont know of any satelite or technology that we have that can move that fast or far in such a short amount of time and return back to the sky so fast. I personally have never seen anything like it again and my friends and I still talk about it to this day. There is no way this was an airplain, helicopter,spotlight,or satellite. It had no blinking lights and was just a solid white ball. I am still perplexed on what it could have been and have heard no reasonable explenation on it. If anyone else has experienced something simillar to this or has a comment feel free to email me at toolfan4eva at yahoodot com (thanks for reading me)
matt <<(toolfan4eva at yahoodot com>>
jackson, mi USA - Monday, December 10, 2007 at 14:12:15 (PST)
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I've witnessed ball lightning twice in my life, once in Essex County, New Jersey in the late 70's and the second time was off the coast of Santa Barbara, Ca. in the mid 80's but these sightings were unlike any other that I have heard of before. They were like great balls of fire falling out of the heavens, I would estimate their size to be at least the size of a house and maybe as large as a superdome. I was just wondering if anyone else has seen this phenomena.
Christopher <cristo111 at comcastdot net>
Houma, La USA - Tuesday, December 04, 2007 at 17:56:23 (PST)
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In November 2005 I was driving home during the afternoon, as a storm was building in the ranges near Ipswich to the west of Brisbane, I saw a large ball of lightning, followed by a short 'tail' of more normal lightning like a comet form at the front of the cloud bank, travel accross the face of the storm for about 5 seconds, then dissapate back into the cloud. Unfortunatly, since i was driving into a breaking storm, i didn't get to record it. My friend living in the area i was driving through at the time also witnessed the event.
Glynn Spencer <glynnpeterspencer at hotmaildot com>
Brisbane, Qld Australia - Saturday, December 01, 2007 at 06:21:28 (PST)
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In sept 96 ,sheffield uk me and my brother were walkin back from the local shops,it was 5pm, hazy sunshine an dry.a large electrical ball roughly 2-3 m in diameter apeared overhead to our left (20 0-300 ft away low in the sky by pie bank church spire.the ball hummed like a power station and pulsated like a plasma ball (type u put ur hand on attracting the electric arc).it was an awesome sight of blue spherical energy, that lasted 3 seconds b4 it exploded into an ear spliting bang like knw other sound heard b4 or since,i personaly thought some one had droped an atom bomb it was that loud.the ball remained stationary for the 3 seconds b4 exploding.the first of 3 loud bangs threw me an my brother a gd 400 ft an landed at the entrance of my home.the strangest thing was the 400 ft 2 my door was nt a straight line, we should have hit a wall but landed almost touchin the door.when we got inside 2 mre v loud bangs ocured and it imediatley began 2 rain hard an developd in 2 a conventional thunderstorm.me and my brother were left full of static with everyhair on our body standin up 4 30 mins after.the other thing was we both had memory loss from leaving the ground till landing on the doorstep. WD APPRECIATE ANY EXPERT OPINION OR ANY 1 ELSE WHO HAS EXPERIENCED SIMILIAR 2 CNTCT me if u thnink u can shed anylight/theories on the matter. johnyrebel at 3maildot com
John harrison <Johnyrebel at 3maildot com>
USA - Friday, November 30, 2007 at 12:40:08 (PST)
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Must have been 1965, I was 7 years old. We'd just moved into a new house on the central Florida Gulf coast. It was afternoon and I was alone in my bedroom, playing with my dolls, pushing them in a toy carriage with a metal handle. I don't recall the weather being stormy. I became aware of movement outside the bedroom window and when I looked up, I saw a softball sized, glowing yellow-orange ball that resembled a mini sun. The surface shifted and threw out little spikes. I watched, transfixed, as it hovered there, then moved toward me, passing right through the glass window pane. Once inside my room, it hovered again, about three feet from me, probably four feet off the floor. I was frozen to the spot. After what felt like 10 seconds or so, the ball jerked into motion with blinding speed, arcing down toward me. It hit the metal baby carriage I was holding and knocked it out of my hands against the wall, destroying it, leaving red marks on my palms. The instant it made impact, there was a deafening sound of thunder and I fled from the bedroom in terror, nearly knocking over my older sister, who was running in to see if I was okay. No one else saw this ball, but it was definitely of an electrical nature, blowing up the television in the living room and several fuses in the house...and left a two foot black scorch mark above the wall outlet I'd been standing next to. To this day, I've never seen anything else like it.
Nova <Macrobealle at aoldot com>
USA - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 19:48:14 (PST)
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It was around 4:30 Pm on a Friday afternoon. I was with my daughter driving to Clearlake, Texas on Hwy 3 heading south.
There was a field on our right with power lines and trees and had somekind of natural gas tank in the middle. A jet flew over the field very low. Repair pilots would test planes from Ellington AFB in the area.The year was 1987 or 88.
We noticed this blueish purple ball traveling along side our car in the field. This was the strangest thing I ever saw.
It dissapeared in a few seconds but seemed like it lasted a long time. I bellieve it was created from the exaust of the jet plane and gasses in the field.
I never saw anything like that again.
Dwight Sheranko <Bluebaren*0*0 at gmaildot com>
Houston, Tx USA - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 01:48:18 (PST)
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In 2000 I saw ball lighting created right in front of my eyes about8ft in diameter,for a long time I have often thought about this event,and have thought to recreate it but do not have the equipment to do it,contact me if I spike your interest,ps Im not a quack lol I am very serious I would rather not be posted thanks
john guy <texas_57 at hotmaildot com>
USA - Monday, November 26, 2007 at 20:12:49 (PST)
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about 7 years ago i saw a lightning ball during a raging thunder storm. i pulled my car over at a local 7-11, because the rain was coming down so heavily and was waiting for the rain to subside. in my rear view i saw a bright light and turned around to see. approx 15 feet from my car i saw a ball of light blue that hovered 5 feet above the ground. it emitted a loud sound like a high voltage buzz. and then it shot out toward a little hill and slammed and vanished. in the mean time right as the ball appeared all the power went out on the roads and gas stations. a car parked right below the light sped away and when the ball vanished the power went back on. after seeing the movie burnt by the sun, there are lightning balls in it and the one i saw had the same flowing motion. a friend had witnessed it also but she claimed it was a ufo, but i know it was not a material, but some form of high energy ball. the image and sound has been hunting my mind and i have never seen anything on the internet that it resembles.
jessica <jessglinski at hotmaildot com>
new fairfield, ct USA - Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 12:39:24 (PST)
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Back in the 1940`s I experienced one encounter and have knowlege of another close by. I was at my neighbor`s house during an electrical storm when a transformer blew on a pole nearby, this cause an explosion in the house and a fireball appears to have exited a chest high electrical outlet, stripping off the wallpaper, it hovered for a while, then in jerky motions, disappeared, as I remember it. It was about the size of a baseball. The same day a funeral service was being performed in a house close by , where one hit the minister in the leg. It is probably fortunate for him that he had a wooden leg, having lost his leg during the 1st world war, I don`t know all the details but i think it just damaged the leg.I was just a child 8 or ten years old but still have nightmares of it, I`m 72 now. For those doubters, they are for real, believe me.
Lloyd Way <togo_one_way at rogersdot com>
orillia, canada - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at 17:06:49 (PST)
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When I was 6 years old my grandmother used to babysit me after school while my parents were working. She lived in Saint Claire Shores, Michigan. One afternoon during a storm, I was alone in the living room and my grandmother was in the kitchen. Suddenly a bright yellow ball, the size of a volleyball came down the chimney, out of the fireplace, and began moving around the room, hovering just above the floor. I yelled to my grandmother in the kitchen, she could see it as the rooms were connected. She calmly told me to get up onto the sofa, then she opened the kitchen door, and like an obedient pet, the thing passed through the doorway and dissapeared outside. This was in 1951. I have never seen anything like it before or after. My grandmother has since passed away, and I never got to ask her how she knew what to do.
Larry Hansen
USA - Monday, November 12, 2007 at 17:56:48 (PST)
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It was around 1996 and I was in my moms house when I felt a wierd feeling. My little kitten started meowing at the window so I looked out the window. There was a glowing orange circle, like a basketball, floating in the air, it looked to be on fire. I was stocked so I just stared. It moved down then stopped, then fell down some more, then stopped...this happen maybe 4/5 times total, then fell behind the trees and exploded!! NO JOKE!! I WAS SCARED SENSELESS!!! I later found out from my grandmother that it was ball lighting and I was lucky to see it!! IT WAS SCARY DONT WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN!
stephanie <montenegrostephanie at yahoodot com>
sugarhill, ga usa - Monday, November 12, 2007 at 10:57:37 (PST)
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Korat , Thailand, Summer 1971:
I was walking along a recently graded dirt road in Northern Thailand about 9:00 P.M. near Korat Royal Thai Airbase while I was stationed there during the Viet Nam War. As I walked to the bus stop in the dark with some walled-in bungalows and some hooches on stilts in a fairly remote area , I noticed a faint, dimly glowing object, about the size of a vollyball in the grass just outside the recently graded roadway. It appeared to pulsate with a weak, greenish-blue glowing light as I approached. As I came closed, the glowing object began to become brighter and brighter,and turn very bright white, almost as if it was frightened and was trying to scare me and drive me away. The light became so bright that it totally blinded me and then I became startled and I actually felt alarmed and threatened. All of a sudden the light went out completely leaving me in total darkness and totally blinded by it's intensity. I felt the need to leave immediately but I couldn't see anything at all. No one was near me and I was totally alone on the road. I was so blinded that I couldn't tell which way the road traveled to escape and I had to walk until I "bumped" into the recently graded shoulders of the road and followed the shoulders until I walked far enough to regain my vision and find some kind of light. I was a sergeant in the Air Force and thought I was pretty "tough" but the encounter scared the hell out of me. I have never told anyone about this encounter which took place 36 years ago. I honestly feel that this "thing" reacted to my presence and was fightened or alarmed by me when I walked up to it. I also feel that the "globe" or whatever it was was agitated and wanted to warn me or drive me away because it felt threatened. The only possible ,reasonable explanation I have ever been able to come up with is that it was "Ball Lightning". It is most interesting to note that this thing acted like a living object, like a frightened animal. It got extremely bright than disappeared, or it was still there but I was blinded and couldn't see a thing. I sure know one thing, I wanted to get away from it as fast as possible.This happened to me many years ago in my youth. I have no reason or motive to "create" this story. I still think about this thing now and then. Does anyone have any idea what this thing was? Has anyone ever experienced something similar. Bill in Tampa
W.H. Pearson
USA - Wednesday, November 07, 2007 at 12:31:57 (PST)
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This happened in Mid June 2007.About 12 noon on a warm and sunny day I was just shutting my front gate. I noticed the only cloud in the sky was a very dark smallish cloud coming over head. Just as I shut the metal gate I saw a ball of lightning coming out of the sky towards me. In a nano second it came down just before colliding with a hickory tree which was in it's path. It did not hit the trunk of the tree but I could hear the leaves of the tree separate with a kind of a whooshing sound. I went to see if the tree was on fire but there was no evidence that the ball of lightning had been there at all. Several other people had reported very intense lightning that day without the accompaning thunderstorms.
Dorothy Benedict <dbenedict6111 at charterdot net>
W Brookfield, MA USA - Tuesday, November 06, 2007 at 03:07:52 (PST)
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I want to tell you a true story - which happened to me when I was around 8 years old. This happened in the early 70's, and I still remember it like it was yesterday and have never found what this was. I graduated from college with a BBA and have had the same job over 15 years. I have good character and don't lie.
Here is how it happened - I grew up on a farm - and learned to never be afraid of anything at a young age. I rode horses from age 5+, we had several horses - many cows - dogs - chickens, etc...
At night we (me and my brother) slept in the back room, and the back room had several windows. I woke up one night and thought I heard something at the backyard and opened the back door and walked out into the backyard. It was nothing to walk out in the back yard after dark, because the dogs were always there.
Here is what I saw: No dogs there this night. As I walked out the back door into the backyard - I turned and looked at the window and a glowing silver ball fell from the window. It was the size of a basketball - glowing silver - glowing in the dard. It had been hovering at the window. When I looked at it - it fell from the window. It fell on the ground and bounced away from me. The ball bounced away from me as I approached it. It bounced like a basketball, but made no sound. Each time it bounced - it went higher and higher into the air. It bounced - the first time - and went up maybe 5 feet and cover only a few yards - and the 2nd bounce maybe 10 feet high and 10 yards. It was bouncing away from me and I chased it. With its last bounce - it shot off into the sky so fast I could barely see it go. It moved slow at first, but by the last bounce it was really going very fast.
This is a true story - something that really happened that I will never forget. I would really like any help in this mystery that has been with me all my life.
I know this thing was alive - it bounced away from me - and never let me get close to it.
Carl <carl_ok2003 at yahoodot com>
Abilene, TX USA - Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 19:06:16 (PDT)
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When I was 17 years old my current boyfriend and I were sleeping in bed when we saw what is called ball lightning. Our bed was directly under a small window in the room and we were both lying on our backs to the left of us a computer that was on that particular night. I do not recall if it was raining out that night or not, but what i remember specifically that night is the details of the ball lighting, because that is something you do not forget. What woke us that night was a loud noise, and we both sat up at the exact same time. We both felt the tail of a ball of lightning come in over our heads and then the tail kinda combined with the ball of lightning. The ball was yellowish in color but had sparks of other colors around the edges. It was about the size of a cantaloupe and just hovered about a foot and a half from our faces. While it hovered in place it spinned in a circular motion and then almost as if it saw the computer and had decided on striking it, it with a flash like motion struck the computer in the corner. The computer had a small explosion with sparks flying and it was over. We both looked at one another asking "Did you see that?" In which we both had agreed we saw the same exact thing. We named it ball lighting not ever knowing what it was exactly. I have never really told any one this story till recently when I was telling my good friend, and he said that it was a rare thing to see and I should go on the internet and check it out. So I am here.
Frances S <MystiqueFrost at yahoodot com>
MI USA - Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at 07:14:00 (PDT)
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Hi I was driving up to my horse in kumeu today it started to rain just as I left my home when i were almost there the rain got heavier and small thunder storms were occuring. Just before I got there a small green round flash of light went accross the windscreen of my car and dissappeared, the light was very blinding but gone in a instant. Few seconds later more lightening came on and off and really bad thunder came ( like really bad ). Then the sky cleared up ten minutes after i got home then rained again but the thunder hasn't been that bad again.
carla Taylor <carlat187 at hotmaildot com>
Auckland, 1008 NewZealand - Sunday, September 30, 2007 at 21:33:33 (PDT)
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I was a about 4 or 5, when I lived in Victoria Australia near a lake, I was sitting near the living room window when during a storm there was a little ball of lightning the size of a graperuit that quietly hovered and bounced around outside the window and seemed to hover similar to the motions of a butterfly.It also appeared to be spinning in a ball. Then it entered through the window . It lasted for a minute or so before it just quietly dissapeared. A second one appeared but didn't last as long. I waited a bit longer hoping it would return before I ran to my parents room extremely excited. They didn't seem to care. They probably didn't believe me. I just thought it was normal only realising it was so rare as i got older. I was so happy I thought it was there just for me. I witnessed it first hand.
Sarah
Victoria Australia - Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 23:27:41 (PDT)
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I was laying in bed awake on a summer night in 2007 during a severe Thunderstorm in Oak Forest, IL. Looking out to the western skies I witnessed an ORANGE BALL OF FIRE. It was the size of an orange. It was rotating in a circle. After a few seconds, it exploded with three white explotions. Then it was gone. The three explotions, woke my husband up from a sound sleep.
Cindy Phalon <cphalon at gatxdot com>
Oak Forest, IL USA - Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 07:53:37 (PDT)
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Ball Lightning
Summer 1986 Mansfield Ohio, 5 red balls apear in the sky during an electric storm that started very quickly with red lightning and swirling clouds.
The 5 red balls were in a straight line for a second and then shot off in the same direction, the center one went straight and the others arced away from the center.
David Weis
Ashland, Oh USA - Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 09:25:38 (PDT)
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I am deathly afraid of lightning-although I do find the sound of rolling thunder fascinating....A few weeks ago the threat of a thunderstorm was in the making...It was the evening before trash day so I decided to take the garbage to the curb before the rain started...I could hear thunder clapping in the distance-so I hurriedly ran to the trash cans-praying all the way--"GOD please dont let it lightning until I get back inside the house"...I successful made the trek to the curb and was only several feet from entering the safety of my apartment-when suddenly in front of me--hovering waist high to me and not even a foot in front of me appeared a whitish blue ball of lightning about the size of a cantaloupe...I stopped dead in my tracks and covered my ears with my hands because I dreaded what was coming next....I know that lightning doesn't travel without thunder----Within less than two seconds the loudest and most terrifying clap of thunder I had ever heard sounded--the sound seemed to have generated only a few feet from where I stood frozen after witnessing the incredible phenomenon...I rushed inside the apartment--the thunder was still rolling--I had never heard thunder roll for so long....Once I realized what had just happened--once I realized that a ball of lightning had just struck only inches in front of me---I shivered--"How blessed I am" I said to myself...and after pulling myself together I sat down on the side of the bed and began thinking about what had just happened..."What if I wouldn't have stopped when I did? Would I have walked directly into the floating ball of white/blue fire? Then what? What did it mean?...Exactly what was it?" --All I know is that I was left with the feeling of being special...I'm 41 years old and I had never experienced anything like that in my life...Here it is-three and a half weeks later--and I still feel special---but also--I'm still even more deathly afraid of lightning than ever before....
Marie <poisonivory at bellsouthdot net>
roswell, GA USA - Friday, September 21, 2007 at 21:06:42 (PDT)
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Years ago I witnessed a red ball of light moving quickly above a trout stream in southern Minnesota at night. It followed the stream perfectly in every turn and twist. My first reaction was that this was some kind of entity. But after years of thought I now believe that I understand what caused this phenom. I believe that the temperature difference between the cold springwater and the hot summer soil and air caused an eddie in the air surrounding the stream and coming from both sides of the stream. The humidity of the air and the current of the stream produced a kind of natural tesla coil. As the air was cooled by the stream it dropped and formed a long coil of humid turbulance. This acted as a coil of extreme lenght thus amplifing the current produced by the flowing water. Whaddya think ay.
Rodney Slinker <rslinker at kc.rrdot com*## at >
Lee's Summit, Mo USA - Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 01:02:40 (PDT)
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I recall an incident of 'ball lightning' during a summer thunderstorm back in Brooklyn, NY when I was about 9 or 10 yrs. old.(back in the late '50's) A dull reddish ball; about the size of an orange, & came through the dining rm. screen, made a left down the hallway and out through the bedroom screen at the back of the house. We had the windows open for the cool breeze. I was amazed and followed it,& my mom came out of the kitchen when she spotted it and my dad said it was ball lightning. It travelled rather slowly and if color is any indication of 'heat' it was probably relatively 'cool', but I wasn't about to try & touch or grab it, although I don't remember the screens being melted, or even scorched.
Debbie Zwirtz <crispycritter19 at hotmaildot com>
Tucson, AZ USA - Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 21:08:08 (PDT)
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My mother and I witnessed ball lightning at our home in the Redlands area of south Florida, north of Homestead, in roughly 1951. It was about the size of a basketball with a surface of sparks like you see on sparklers, and it rolled through a bedroom window, bounced off a table and began rolling across the floor. At this point we both fled, so its demise went unnoted, but there was no noise, odor, or burn mark.
To email, remove the initial a in the address.
Arlette Fontaine Miller <achasestream at junodot com>
Albuquerque, NM USA - Monday, September 17, 2007 at 18:56:02 (PDT)
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About 5 years ago, when I was 12, I was playing basketball with my neighbor in my backyard at about 10:00. It was pretty dark outside and the ball had rolled into the grass next to my fence so we chased after it. When we were almost to the ball, we both saw a white/yellow flash that was about 4 feet across. I remember seeing the flash and then falling to the ground and getting knocked out. I remember when I opened my eyes I couldn?t see anything and I couldn?t get up. When I finally was able to get up I saw my neighbor panicking because she didn?t know what was going on. I later found out that we were hit by ball lightning.
Julia <superstriker at Bellsouthdot net>
KY USA - Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 05:56:57 (PDT)
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October 1963; I was in a Beverley freighter aircraft flying 8,000 feet somewhere over France. As the Loadmaster, I was about to start checking the lashings on our load of Landrovers and other machinery when a ball of flickering blue flames drifted throught the side of the aircraft about halfway along its length. The freight hold of the aircraft was 40'x10'x10'. The ball entered the hold about halfway down. When it got to the centre it changed direction and bobbed up and down the centre line before vanishing through the fuselage on the opposite side of where it came in. What impressed me, was that it seemed to move with a sense of purpose and that I was of no interest whatsoever! The fact that the load consisted of metal vehicles may have been a factor. Logically this seems to have been Ball Lightning but it also fits with some of the descriptions of Foo Fighters. The relatively low height (8,000') compared with the todays' higher flight levels, may explain why sightings have diminished.
David <wilsc0mbe at googlemaildot como>
Cirencester, UK - Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 05:56:53 (PDT)
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In the early 1980's in Ann Arbor, there had been a bad storm and my parents had gone to my Grandmother's apartment to make sure that she was alright. My sisters and I were sitting in our living room on two chairs which were on either side of a picture window. We were backwards on the chairs looking outside at the outcome of the storm. Across from our house was a golf course. One of us noticed a large ball speeding across the golf course toward our home. It looked like the ball in which Glenda the good witch drifted down to Munchkinland. It was about the size of a yoga ball and had a sort of rainbow glow. It came directly through our picture window, right between us and through the living room into the dining room and out the dining room window.
Suzanne Perkins
ann arbor, mi USA - Wednesday, September 05, 2007 at 17:54:07 (PDT)
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My husband and I were living in a two story home about close to ten yrs ago now..on top of a hill overlooking the Puget Sound. From our bedroom window we had a terrific view of the city..and the Sound.
It was around 10pm in November..my husband was already in bed .. watching tv in our bedroom..when I came in and sat at the end of the bed..was looking out of our window when all of a sudden I saw this bright florescent ball of green light approx the size of a basketball.dot coming straight down. It wasn't coming down fast..but it seemed at this controlled rate..anyways..
Just as I said "Oh my god..would you look at that?!"and prepared for some type of impact frm the ball hitting the ground, it just disappeared. My husband didn't see a thing..and he just laughed at me stating that I must've seen an ufo. I just glared at him and ever since I've tried to make head or tales..of what I saw.
The closest I believe I've come to explaining it has been the Ball Lightening.I truely believe that ..is what I saw.
Nothing else describes it..nor looks even close to what I saw that night.
It was a beautiful sight.
Denise Henry <dee_henry at hotmaildot com>
Richland, Wa USA - Saturday, September 01, 2007 at 18:19:59 (PDT)
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This happened last year in October of 2006, and I have been trying to figure it out since then.
My niece had her 13th birthday party on a Saturday night, and wanted me to tell her and her friends some ghost stories and take them on a tour through the woods. When it got dark enough, my sister and I rounded up the kids and began our tour. We walked through the woods, and eventually crossed the road and walked over to a nearby cemetery (my sister lives in the country...near Chatom, AL). It was overcast, and had begun to drizzle a bit, but we heard no thunder. While walking up to the gate, we noticed an orange globe of light floating about 5 ft above the back fence line. Before we got to the gate, the globe disappeared. Once inside, I searched the back gate for anything that may have been reflecting light from nearby houses, but found nothing that would create a perfect globe of light at that height.
I have wondered if we saw something paranormal...I went back frequently to see if the phenomenon would repeat itself, but I never spotted it again. After seeing the reports of orange ball lightning, I believe that may be what we saw that night.
Timothy Williams
Mobile, AL USA - Saturday, August 25, 2007 at 12:53:31 (PDT)
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August22, 2007 night of
This was a very strange occurance probably around 3 in the morning on a strong stormy night in north myrtle beach. I was uneasy all night because the lightning was popping all around our rv for hours. I huddle under the covers as if this would protect me from the storm. As the storm seemed to subside, I glance out of my window at the upper sky and suddenly I couldn't believe my eyes. A circular ball of light flowed through the clouds. The ball was not extremely large but was very very bright. It disappeared quickly, and I thought my mind was deceiving me. But I know what I saw, and it was totally weird.
r pendleton <magictrois at aoldot com>
n. myrtle beach, sc USA - Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 19:21:48 (PDT)
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I am currently 55 and was very young at the time, so would estimate the occurrence to be 1954 to 1956.
I lived in the South Wales valleys (UK) where much housing is built with abutting rear gardens and a street ?crossing? the ends. I was in my rear garden, drawing, in a late summer / autumn afternoon when I noticed at about 20 feet from me a bright ball floating in mid air. It was probably about 8 to 10 feet from the ground and blue and yellow in colour, about a foot across. It was moving fairly slowly in the direction that was down hill, and I watched it ?float? at about the speed of a soap bubble, out of my garden, over a fence and on down the street. When it was about 8 houses away from me it accelerated and disappeared with a bang.
I later learned that it had ?hit? a house in the street that was at right-angles to our gardens and had ?blown the roof off?. At the time this was called a ?thunderbolt? and accepted as something that happened occasionally.
I remember it as vividly as if it was yesterday.
Gareth <garytuck1 at yahoodot co dotuk>
Rhondda, UK Wales - Saturday, August 18, 2007 at 11:11:08 (PDT)
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on august 16, 2007, around 10:45 pm I was driving my daughter & her friend home from another classmate's house on Middle Road, Bayport. It was a very humid, hazy night with severe thunderstorms predicted, which had never occurred. Suddenly there was a quick-moving, glowing ball in front of us, about the size of a softball, with a long jagged tail moving from the sky at an angle towards the ground; we saw it between trees, and I said, what the heck is that, and my daughter said she saw it too. At first we thought it was a failed firecracker, but it did not burst or sputter, it just disappeared behind a group of trees. The friend did not see it. Then I thought it must have been ball lightning coming out of a hazy night sky. I've seen moon-rainbows, they were strange, but this was sudden; it couldn't have been a perseid meteor, it was too close & bright for that.
sue s
bayport, ny USA - Friday, August 17, 2007 at 21:41:21 (PDT)
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In the 1980 i personaly was struck by a ball of lightning in my bed as l watched a storm over the sea this ball rolled down our roof through the wall hit the radiator and earthed immediately my feet in bed were very close to the radiator and did not burn on the outside but the heat was unbearable i was informed my blood probably boiled for a second we called the emergency services as a hole was blown out of the wall and the smell was overpowering a smell l will always remember, it was reported in the paper the local university were very interested. This is fact a picture was taken by the local paper of the damage
Heather Webber
UK - Friday, August 17, 2007 at 05:32:48 (PDT)
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hello,
I would like to file this report that was seen today. UFO report.
My dad called me out into the backyard saying he had seen something. By the time I got out there he said I was too late, he explained to me later what he had seen and why he was so exited.
the time was just before darkness, about 15 minutes before dark, called "dusk" time. The sky was still blue-grey like in daytime, it was not a dark sky yet, for 15 minutes.
I wrote down exactly what he said, and I am typing it in here now.
"The sun was low on the horizon, not visible. There was an airplane going toward west"
But it was not dark" The passenger plane did not have the lights on" Behind the plane was a light in the sky, following plane. 500 feet behind plane was a round light shape following plane, moving" "It continue moving forward with plane" It had no tail, just a round light" It dissapeared after maybe 15 seconds" It did not move away, just dissapear"
He speaks spanish. English not very well, I can understand pretty good what he says and I also speak spanish and german. My mom speaks german, and we use german around the house a lot.I just wrote down exactly what he said.
He said he saw this object of light, round, moving the same speed as the plane, but behind it, evenly flying, he was very excited and said that he saw a ufo. He said it followed for a while and then it just kind of faded out and dissapeared. He said it seemed that it was looking at the plane, in a curious way, and then was done, and it left.
His name is Jose , my name is Michael
We live in Los angeles, California, USA, and the exact time he called me to go look was 7:42 pm, on tuesday august 14, 2007. we live in west hollywood, and we are right under a flight path, where planes always go by to land at the santa moinica airport in santa monica.
thanks,
michael
michael j <mjo_3d33 at lycosdot com>
los angeles, ca USA - Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 01:48:54 (PDT)
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Near La Belle Florida. Typical subtropic afternoon thunder storm during raining season.
A bolt of lightning struck a wooden utility pole which severed the wooden pole in two. The high voltage electric lines remained live and attached and the lines and the severed uppermost part of the wooden pole violently swung up and down like huge rubber bands. I can only imagine what type of electomagnetic field this created.
I was in an auto with a perfect view, my wife witnessed the event and observed the same phenemenon that I did. As the lightning bolt dissipated, we would see a basketball sized glowing orb, it brightly glowed blue green and floated and acted as if it had the surface tension not unlike that of a large soap bubble. But it brightly fluoresced, like excited neon, emitting blue green light. Thge ball floated and drifted and lasted for perhaps five seconds before soundlessly "popping" and disappearing.
An amatuer astronomer and trained scientist, this was the most beautiful natural phenomenon that I ever had the pleasure of observing.
denis eirikis
USA - Monday, August 13, 2007 at 18:57:26 (PDT)
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Ball Lightning
Observed during thunderstorm. Orange, approx 10 inch diameter. "Dripped" out of empty lamp socket on ceiling, drifted down to approx 4 feet from cement floor, then continued to drift laterally. Light from windows reflected off surface in the manner of a garden "gazing Globe", suggesting a well defined surface or boundry. After approx 1 minute? began to accellerate toward the floor. On contact, produced literally deafening BLAST and two small burns on my leg. Hearing loss temporary, burns eventually healed w/ small scars. Examined point of contact on cement floor. No mark, no chips, no changes.
Suspect implosion as opposed to explosion.
Suspect shock excited tank oscillation.
Suspect gradient in ionized air holding energy in place.
(much like nailing one foot to the floor.)
Joseph Thomas <thomasje at copper. net>
San Jose, Ca USA - Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 16:10:07 (PDT)
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I am 37 years old and back in the summer of 1977 shortly after the flood of 1977 we had a sever thunderstorm .My brother and i were in bed but not sleepping .My mother was taking our dog out back to do her buisnes when from what she said {a ball of lightning was headed wright at her}. Thats when it hapend the whole bed room started to shake.I was scared the whole room was lit up like the sun was in the same room.From what the womman across the aly said it came out my mothers room threw a window with a screen naild to it{she said the wi window lit up like a chritmas tree.
michael boyles <mbcrich at netzerodot net dot comguitar>
lehigton, pa USA - Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 16:15:52 (PDT)
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About 50 years ago when I was 7-8 years old I lived in North East Phila. It was a very humid day in the late summer and the evening storms had just ended and the lightning continued to flash. I was walking to the doorway of the kitchen inside the ranch style house in the outskirts of Phila. followed by my Aunt and my brother Tom( at the time he was 6). My Aunt grabbed my shoulder so hard that she left a mark. She stopped me from moving forward. There was a ball of light outside the window screen over the sink. (it just sat there for a minute). It came through the screen and sat a few seconds on the faucet over the sink. We stood still. I remember the feeling of my hair standing up. Then in almost rythmic precision it moved across the room from one place to another. You could see a streak behind it as it moved so fast that it seemed to have a tail. It traveled and hit six places on the wall like a ball on a pool table and ended on the faucet and sat for a couple of seconds. then out the same window and gone. We found latter that the places it went in the kitchen were the exact locations of all electrical boxes one side of the wall or the other. Latter in life I thought it had been a bad dream and almost dismissed it as a wierd memory. One day I removed a paper towel dispenser from one of the walls and there was one of the round burn marks that it had left in every location it touched. My father had painted the whole kitchen to cover most of them but he covered one with this dispenser. All burns were almost the same size and color ,discoloring the varnished real wood wall covering.My Aunt was so shaken by this that we were not allowed in the kitchen all that night. The Circuit breakers had tripped and there was no lights in the kitchen anyway. She would not allow me to flip them back on.
Mike Gallen <msg0624 at hotmaildot com>
cape Coral, FL USA - Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 05:55:13 (PDT)
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I am 32 now. I was 17 then. I was walking home about 11pm one night in summer of 93 I believe, when I looked to my left and saw a sphere of greenish yellow light (beach ball size) about 20 feet up and 40 feet away moving horizontal, parallel to me going in the same direction as I. It was like a ball of liquid fire, not crisp light. It was moving a little faster than I was walking. It was quiet that night, no traffic on the road, no bugs making noise...just quiet. My heart started racing and I remember being struck with fear. I ran all the way home eyes facing front, flat out for about 15 min. When I got home I discovered I didn't have my keys, so freaking out I decided to go to my aunts house 7 or 8 blocks back. I took off running in the same direction I came and stopped out of breath in about the same spot as I had seen the thing the first time. ( I didn't know that until I was stopped for about 5 minutes catching my breath and looked across the street at the lake.) When I saw the lake now on my right and knew where I was at, out of the back corner of my eye I saw that sphere again only it was coming back on the same path it had gone on when it was seemingly following me.....the other direction! My direction..AGAIN!!! Moving horizontal, parallel to me at the same speed as before. This time I watched it go by me and ahead about 5 seconds and I cut to my left and hopped some fences went a few streets out of my way to get to my aunts house. Now I don't know if that was ball lightning or a ufo. I will tell you this, most people look real funny at me when I explain what happed to me that hot summers night by the lake. My freind told me it was ball lightning. I dont know....I do know that I wont forget it.
Randy M <wolfcscb at embarqmaildot com#%$!%&(!>
nc USA - Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 16:24:07 (PDT)
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During a thunderstorm my wife and I, sitting at the kitchen table, noticed a sudden softball-to-volleyball sized blue-white luminous ball seemingly coming through the kitchen outside wall, floating slowly along the counter approximately 6 feet from us. It floated to our left for about 5 seconds toward our wall oven where it disappeared in an explosive sound (without doing any damage.)
Arthur Press
USA - Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 12:46:11 (PDT)
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I recently moved to Florida; where I heard the term Ball Lightning. The TV news weather guy said that Ball Lightning can go through glass. I had an occurrence that has stuck with me since it occurred in 1973 -74 when I was about 18 years old.
It was late at night and we were at my grandmothers? house in Oxnard, California. There was no storm or lightning that night. My grandmother, my mother and myself were all sitting in chairs in a circle talking next to a window in her front room when the curtain moved as though a gust of wind blew up the curtain but the window was closed. A yellow hazed size tennis ball bounced around the room clock wise above our heads and rested in front of my grandmother. It stayed there while she talked to it; and then out it went back through the closed window. It did not ruffle the curtain when it left.
My Grandmother said it was a spirit. My father said he often saw his mother read her Bible while the pages turned them selves.
Frightened by this event I shared my experience with a friend who said it must have been from an arcing wire from the nearby power lines. I heard no noise nor did I see the flash that often accompanies an arcing power line.
Samantha Kin Aki-Meyer <Skam22202 at yahoodot com5555555555>
USA - Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 11:04:16 (PDT)
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Here is my Ball Lightning Experience.
I am 22 years old now, and this happened about ten years back. Around 1996 I believe. In my home town of Fenwick, Michigan. Anyways, my mom and dad and I were sitting in our living room, and all of a sudden, we heard a gigantic crash, like an explosion. It must've been a lightning strike nearby. It sounded like it was just outside. I think it probably hit our house.... But anyways, seconds after that a ball of light, about the size of a basketball came out of one of the electrical outlets in the living room. It floated up from the floor where the outlet was, and then just kinda drifted through the living room. It hit the wall, and left a huge black streak where it hit. Then it just kinda dissipated. It was really weird how it came out of the electrical outlet though. I have heard of lightning traveling the power grid for sometime after it hits. But it was one hell of an experience.
David C. Wagner <fenwickdrummer at lavabitdot com>
Fenwick, Mi USA - Saturday, June 09, 2007 at 09:58:50 (PDT)
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While I was in Marine bootcamp at Parris Island SC my platoon and I witnessed ball lighting. We were on the parade deck marching. The sky turned black over the horizon as a thunderstorm came our way. Our drill instructor ordered us under the cover of a pavilion to wait out the storm. Before the rain hit the air had a weird smell and looked sorta green. Then my DI yelled.."Look at that !" As a round ball of light bounced across the parade deck moving from right to left. It skipped and flew about 8 feet and skipped again. Then it just vanished in a bunch of sparks. I never seen it again.
Eric Shellhamer <rightrudder7 at msndot com>
USA - Saturday, June 09, 2007 at 08:29:24 (PDT)
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Ball Lightning.
I am amazed I have never heard of this before. I just had a weird dream (in a lifetime of strange dreams) that I was spontaneously combusting and sought to look it up as I was terrified and wondered if dreaming about certain phenomena can make them real since the brain can do powerful things if tricked right.
Anyways I ran into the Ball Lightning theory which further peaked my interest because I experience this phenomena at least once a month since I was a child. I used to blame it on an overactive imagination and my love for X-Men cartoons LOL. But I was later diagnosed with sleep paralysis. Now I mention that because these 2 things have always gone together. I will dream about being consumed in fire or electricity like a human torch or something. I will start screaming from agony in my dream only to wake up unable to move and I ALWAYS see a green/bluish flame or ball around my face or hands. Usually I am cupping my face and the ball is in my hands or sometimes it is hovering above my head. I can always feel the tingle and it doesnt burn but I cannot move for minutes and usually I am trying to scream myself (in my head, nothing comes out of my mouth) out of this state. This happens all the time to me. I am wondering if this is related. I have no sense of danger or fear other then the paralysis. If it weren't for the paralyzed state I would think it was awesome. Anyone else experience this when they see this?
jose lomeli <spicysalsero at yahoodot com>
WI USA - Monday, June 04, 2007 at 05:51:03 (PDT)
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I was about 5 or 6 years old (1970-71). My Mum picked my brother (who is 4 yrs older) and I up from school and we were walking the 1.5 kilometers home. There was a storm brewing and Mum was in a hurry because she was (and is) afraid of storms (she hides under the bed). It wasn't raining and there was no other lightening or thunder-just huge, heavy black clouds, hanging really low. We heard a crackling noise behind us when we were about 10 minutes from home. We all looked around and there was a yellow whitish ball floating in the air about 20 metres away. It would have been about 1.8 metres off the ground. It seemed to be travelling randomly, heading towards us, freaking my Mum out, then turning away before heading in another direction. It changed course several times. It was about the size of a basketball and only moving at walking pace. My Mum made us run, although I remember that my brother and I were dragging the chain, because we were both turning around to look at this thing. I seem to remember a large popping noise once we were out of sight, but am not sure (it was a long time ago and I was only little). It was in the summertime (around February/March). My brother and I talked about it for ages afterwards.
Jacqui Wayys <jacquiwatts at ozemaildot com.auextracharacters>
Sydney, N.S.W Australia - Sunday, May 27, 2007 at 17:36:12 (PDT)
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i was driving home from surrey England back to builth wells Wales it had been a nice hot day until i reached the border of wales when it started raining i was nearing the end of my journey when out the corner of my eye i saw a bright blue ball appear followed by an earth shaking bang which sounded like a shotgun going off in a tunnel the only explaination for this could be ball lightning.
Russell Perry
USA - Saturday, May 05, 2007 at 15:16:34 (PDT)
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I live in Sydney, Australia. About thirty years ago when I was sixteen I was at home during a summer thunderstorm. I was sitting on my bed which was situated under an open window to my right. To my left, about six feet into the room and three feet away from me, a ball of fire appeared in mid-air. It was the size of a volleyball, and orange and white. Just like a ball of flames. It only lasted a second before disappearing with a gigantic crack as though it exploded. It was a second that was burned into my memory and I have always felt I escaped death by three feet. I have always referred to it as a fireball, and I was delighted to find your site and read the descriptions of 'ball lightening'.
Elizabeth Richmond
Sydney, NSW Australia - Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 05:06:39 (PDT)
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I was house sitting in Steven's Point, WI in 1995. At about 12:00p.m. I woke up and saw a six inch glowing orb coming toward me on the couch. It was loud like welding (sizzled). It moved slowly as it passed my body then quickly moved to the doorway where it disappeared. (I also experienced temporary paralysis during the time of the incident which I haven't seen others report here). Lasted probably 10 seconds but it seemed like an eternity. Freaked me out. I went home and told a friend from MN it had happened and she said the same thing had happened to her in the field by her farm that same spring. Totally freaked her out too.
Sarah <starofthenorth at hotmaildot com12825792>
MN USA - Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 15:55:58 (PDT)
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About 30 years ago, I was in Northern Russia, near the border with Finland when I saw ball lightning. We were outside during a lightning storm and lightning stuck the ground about 200 meters away. I dont know if the lightning caused the ball lightning or if it was just a coincidence, but near it appeared a ball lightning. It was light yellow and about the size of a soccer ball. It moved horizontally and in jerks. Then, after about 5 seconds it disappeared into thin air. A group of people around me saw it and agreed that it was ball lightning, for ball lighning is well-known in Russia.
Ivan
NY USA - Friday, April 13, 2007 at 18:37:50 (PDT)
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This incident happened about 25 years ago.
I lived in a very small street maybe 200 yards long.
I was sitting in the living room and the TV was on.
When the room lit up like someonce had taken a photo and an almight noise rumbled over the house.
It was thunder and lightening both comming at exactly the same moment. I jumped from my seat and raced over to switch the TV off, but as I put my hand towards it the lightning struck again the intenals of the TV exploded and a small ball of light shot from the Tv and land on a wooden shelf over the fire-place. It was about the size of a golf ball, light but not dazzling and apeared to have no surface features including shadow that you might expect from a sphere. it rolled or rather moved along the shelf fairly slowly until it met the only obstruction on the shelf, A metal carriage clock it passed into the clock and came out the other side moved to the end of the shelf and dropped onto the floor. Remembering I was less that 3 feet away from the whole thing. It hit the floor, then to me, the strangest thing happened it didn't bounce or flatten but just stopped as though it was made of soft dough then it continued it's unhurried journey into the next room and out of sight. By this time I must have been standing transfixed with my mouth open. I came to my senses and ran into the next room to see where it had gone but it was no-where in sight.
Something that I later came to find strange was that it did not seem to throw any light onto other surfaces aither the shiny wooden shelf or the clock. The clock by the way remained unscathed unmarked and continued to work for several years after this event
The lighning storm continued unabated for about 20 minutes and just about every house in the street was hit. several losing windows. The event was featured on 'News at 10' Streets on neither side of Henry Street were hit.
The TV was a complete right off.
I had previously been struck by lightning while driving. and now will not leave the house during a storm
John Preston <j_preston1947 at yahoodot co dotuk>
stoke on trent, uk - Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 13:59:47 (PDT)
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I am a 56 yr. old woman. Last night, April 11, 2007, about 3:35 a.m. I awoke to a bright ball in my bedroom. It appeared to be about 6-8 inches in diameter with 'sparkles' extending out in all directions. It lasted a few seconds then disappeared with kind of a sizzling "POP!!". It was storming, and immediately following the sizzle pop, was a lightning and thunder, virtually simultaneously. Neither seemed to do any damage anywhere.. only scared the daylights out of me.
We have lots of thunderstorms here with heavy lightning and I've heard the same 'sizzle pop' immediately before a very near lightning strike, but I've never seen a ball like this before, inside or out.
J Higgs <jahiggs at coralwavedot com>
Bahamas - Wednesday, April 11, 2007 at 15:05:58 (PDT)
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In May 2000, I had just got home from work, the wind was really violent outside and I remember being relieved to get indoors. I went upstairs to my computer room, turned on my computer, and picked up the phone to make a call. I saw a large lightning strike hit the light standard outside my house, then I heard a large bang inside my house. The door into the hallway was open, and I heard a sound, which brought my attention to the hallway. I saw a bright glowing bluish white ball come through my wall but downwards from the ceiling at an angle. It was approximately basketball size and it moved away from the wall towards the doorway. The ball hovered for less than a minute, it made a sizzling/crackling sound while hovering. The ball made a large pop sound and dissipated immediately. I ran over to the wall where it came through, fearing it would have done some damage, the wall wasn't hot at all and there were no marks. Amazingly my computer never shut down, the phone line stayed active. The light standard outside my house was hit twice more. I ran outside to look at my roof, worried that my house might be on fire, which to my relief it wasn't. Strangely though..the only light standard still lit up was the one in front of my house, all others were unlit and the power seemed to be out all around me...yet my power was still up. I remember going to work the next day recounting what had happened, I said I had thought it was ball lightning, which no one had heard about. I was pleased to find this page today, and note that my experience isn't unique. All other sites seem to either discount ball lighting or try to recreate it in a laboratory situation.
Jane <bikerbabe30ahotmaildot com>
Calgary, AB Canada - Wednesday, April 11, 2007 at 14:13:02 (PDT)
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on vacation in florida sleeping when a light woke me up I looked over to see a round shape glowing on the bed next to me so I sat up and leaned close to look at it. from 2 foot away I could see it was actually a thin walled torus with stripes revolving over its surface at about a 45 degree angle to the horizontal when the stripes came to the top of the barrel / they turned over the top and went down \ again at a 45 degree angle on the inside of the barrel, opon coming to the bottom they turned over the rim and continued up on the outside of torus. on same 45 degree angle. (I think must be like a smoke ring with some sideways motion too) I wanted to touch it but when I turned on the lamp between the two beds the thing dissapeared. damn oh well called wife told her all about it it was 4 in the morning it the state of washington. the whole thing was over in minutes. from what I've read it is good that I didn't touch it.
Allen knapstad <allenknap at verizondot com use net not com>
USA - Sunday, April 08, 2007 at 02:12:57 (PDT)
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it must have been in 1950 when I was 5 years old. It was a beautifull summerday and hot. I was standing in the kitchen wich had two opposite open doors. I stood in the midle between the doors and facing the inner door when I saw a bright white ball traveling verry slowly towards me I thought it was a balloon I did not dare grab it because the light it radiated was so bright that I was afraid to tuch it. I did a few steps aside and the ball hovered past me trough the outside door, it flew at eye altitude and made absolutly no noise. when the ball disapeared behind the exterior wall I reluctantly walked to the door to see the ball again but it was'nt there any more. I told it very exited to my grandma but she was sceptical about it.
In the past we talked often about it.
Osterlinck E <Oscar.oo at yucom.fr>
Izegem, holland - Saturday, April 07, 2007 at 10:38:14 (PDT)
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I realize that you have sections for "old reports" but this goes back a bit further. While doing indepth research on my family history I came across a story that sounded just like a ball lightning encounter. The year was 1692 in Amesbury, MA. The report was documented in the court records for Essex County, MA as part of the testimony against an ancestor of mine during the witchcraft trials.
This case may be related to the unusual siesmic activity in the area at the time, a very powerful earthquake was recorded during this period near Boston. I was suprised that your case files are usually related to weather and geological events.
The story goes that the plaintif was walking down a path in town after dark when he came upon a glowing ball of light roughly three feet in diameter. Thinking that it was my ancestor, Susannah Martin, having taken this form to bedevil him he stuck the ball with his walking stick. The result as he relates it was that he was stuck down and rendered unconsicious for some small time. When he opened his eyes again the ball was gone.
Sounds like ball lightning is a strong possibilty to me.
c. worthen <swor319585 at aoldot com/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>
ct USA - Wednesday, April 04, 2007 at 10:17:07 (PDT)
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Hello, about 10 years ago I was travelling in Thailand on a motorcycle when a storm brewed up. I was heading to shelter when a ball about the size of a basketball came fizzing towards an old lady and myself, it stopped in midair, seemed to hover for a second then BANG! it exploded. The old Thai lady and I looked at each other in amazement and then kept on doing what we were doing. An amzing experience.
Iain
Iain Hannay
USA - Friday, March 30, 2007 at 05:38:29 (PDT)
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my name is thomas and i am a 29 year old male who lives in montgomery
county maryland. when i was 13 i was walking in wheaton maryland when a
thunderstorm began when i felt a strong static electricity unlike any i
had felt before, i felt it in every hair throughout my body. i stopped
walking and immediatly witnissed a blue ball of lightning about the size
of a volley ball appear for about 1 sec 10 feet in front of me. needless
to say i walked around that spot of the earth and hurried to my
destination as it began to rain. i want to emphasize the static rush i
felt that was so profound i stopped walking just before it happened. i
think if i did not stop walking i would have been electricuted since it
occured 10 feet in the direct path i has walking. as i stated above i
felt the static in every hair in my body, it was like a rush throughout my
whole body. i dont know if this will ever help anyone but i feel i should
say this, if you feel this rush while your walking stop like i did
Thomas Saco <cars4yourneeds at yahoo at at >
olney , md USA - Thursday, March 15, 2007 at 22:33:03 (PDT)
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Most nights within one hour of turning the lights off in the bedroom my
husband and I see a flash of light in the room. The light takes the shape
of a blue white ball and is bright enought to light up the whole room.
Usually this happens between the bed and the wall and lasts no more than a
second. There are no electric switches or appliances near, no noise or
smells. Just a brilliant white light. We are not scared of this only
interested as to what it could be. This has been going on for about 3
years. We are both in our 60's. Any idears?
Valerie <valerielyons22 at btinternetdot com>
Brighton, England - Friday, March 09, 2007 at 11:05:08 (PST)
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This happened when I was in Grade 4 at the Claude Watson School for the
Arts in Toronto - in the year 1997, I think. At that time, there was a
small arcade across the street, inside of which were many large arcade
game machines that were quite a popular destination after school ended.
One time I was walking home and just after I passed this store, the door
opened and a group of 3-4 people ran out of it laughing/screaming (not
sure which). Before the door closed, a lightning ball bounced out of it -
it was too bright to look at and around 20 cm in diameter. It bounced
along the pavement out toward the street (3-4 bounces), then sharply
turned 90 degrees and bounced sideways (~4-5 bounces) then sharply turned
90 degrees again and started bouncing - straight towards me. It was going
quite fast; about 3-4 jumps per second.
I was too shocked to
move, so I simply stood there as this (probably very hot) ball bounced
towards me, but it never reached me. About a meter away from me, it
simply vanished into thin air.
I didn't see where the people who
ran out of the arcade went, so I don't know if the lightning ball was the
reason that they ran out - however, I'm sure that I saw it escape the door
of the arcade.
Any questions - please email me or post a message
to the talk page of my wikipedia account.
Eugene Belianski <esn at (REMOVE THIS#%$^**)yorku dotca>
Toronto, Canada - Sunday, March 04, 2007 at 22:15:04 (PST)
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About 22 years ago when I was 17. This sight was seen in Williamsville,
NY. One day, while it started to rain and thunder, I went to close bedroom
windows on what was a sunny day. Anyway, I went to my sisters room to
close her window and a bolt of lightning struck a tree which was directly
in front of her window. The crack of lightning made me roll rack off my
heels before I could close the window. To my amazement, there was a grape
fruit sized ball. It was a bright blueish/green. It made cool noise like
it was spinning really fast. It hovered just outside the window, moving up
a little bit for about 15 seconds and then it disappeared with what I
remember to be a popping noise. I was excited to see it and I ran to tell
my family to no avail. They were in disbelief and thought I was joking and
I haven't really thought about it since today.
Tim Fischer <timify10 at gmaildot com>
Rochester, NY USA - Sunday, March 04, 2007 at 14:54:31 (PST)
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Our Ball lightening experience occurred in 1979, although at the time
we did not know what it was. It was a humid rainy day, my husband and I
noticed a ball of white/lemon colored light enter our family room through
the door of the laundry. The light was a little smaller than a soccer
ball. It gently bounced in the air about 1 meter above the floor. It
hovered in the family room for a few seconds, then moved slowly into the
kitchen, where we lost sight of it. One or two seconds later there was a
colossal crack/bang/explosion. When we went into the kitchen, we realized
the refrigerator was no longer working. When we later called a repairman
to have it fixed, he told us that all the wiring inside the refrigerator
had melted. The power point to which the refrigerator was connected was
also burnt out. I seem to recall that a few other power points in the
house were burnt out also.
Robyn Spence
Sydney, NSW Australia - Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 22:18:02 (PST)
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i was on night shift at sharlston colliery in west yorkshire england as i was in the pit yard with many other miners waiting to go down the mine when all of a sudden out of nowhere appeared a very bright white orb shaped light which hovered about 25 ft above us it was slow moving and suddenly stopped and did a right angle turn between two buildings and then just disapeared into the night the whole experience lasted about 10 to 15 seconds it was quite amazing at the time .
paul westerman <jakesdadat aoldot com>
wakefield, uk - Thursday, February 15, 2007 at 06:42:48 (PST)
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Ball lightning
I was smelt fishing with some friends at the Waukegan power plant pier, this was at night, in the spring, in the early 1980s.
A t-storm blew in and there was a lot of lightning strikes over the lake. I was watching the lightning and saw one strong, long duration bolt hit the water, this was close - maybe 1/2 mile out. The water depth there is around 100 feet.
A few seconds after the strike and thunder boom, I saw a bright white ball rise slowly from the water - without sound - and drift upward. It looked to be about the size of a basketball.
When it reached about 500 feet elevation, it kind of hesitated / hovered for a moment, then split into two balls which then flew off horizontally away from each other, with a rushing sound, like bacon sizzling. The parts grew smaller/dimmer as the distance increased, and simultaneously disappeared with a decaying crackling sound. This separation happened really fast, maybe 1 second max.
From the time the ball appeared to when the two parts disappeared was at least 5 seconds. I was transfixed and assumed my friends saw it as well, but when I turned to them, none of them were watching in that direction and they did not see it. They all insist I had too many beers - but I know what I saw. ;-)
Brian
IL USA - Tuesday, February 13, 2007 at 11:13:16 (PST)
|
One afternoon a few summers ago I was running errands and hopped quickly into my truck because it was starting to rain and lightning....and I swear, I'm a magnet for lightning it seems like. Anyway, as I drove down the street I was startled to witness a huge ball of what looked like a ball of fire suddenly hit the extended mirror on the outside of my truck, and as quickly as I hit it, it exploded!
It was on my drivers side, and tho it happened so quickly I am still mesmerized by what it looked like. To best describe it, it sort of looked like a ball of fire inside a water balloon...because right after I hit it, it looked like liquid electricity, and it disbursed into electrical droplets that just melted quickly. Amazingly, there was no mark on the plastic covering of the exterior mirror where it hit. Seems like after hitting a fireball looking HOT thing of electricity...it would've melted that damn thing off, right?!
Another really strange incident I had with lightning was when it hit our power pole outside of our house. I had just gotten my son up for school and walked by the bathroom to witness him holding his hand under the shower head running water (evidently checking the temperature before he got in).
From the point BEYOND where his hand was located under the shower head: the water coming out looked like a shower spray of sparks from someone agressively welding. Once again...it baffles me that there were no black smudges of residue or markings of anykind left on the shower walls from that, other than what was on his hand. Immediately as it happened, our power went off. My son said he didn't feel anything other than a light shock....even though, his hand that was under the shower head had a light black powdery looking residue on it. I used that incident for years afterward to get him up and moving on those days he just continued to sleep late! I'd mention to him a storm was moving in our direction, and if he wanted a shower before school...he better get his butt going! ha.
Nan
alvin, tx USA - Thursday, February 08, 2007 at 11:49:55 (PST)
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It was around 1980 during a thunderstorm in the middle of the night.
To this day I have always found storms fun to watch, especially living
here in Tampa Bay. I got up during the night and went to the dining room
window to look outside. The storm had passed but there was still
lightning flashing and the street out front was wet from the rain. As I
was looking across the street, I noticed a bluish white ball about the
size of a basketball float down from above into view in the street along
the storm gutter adjoining the neighbor?s yard across the street. It was
moving slowly down the street as it hovered down to touch the street,
bounced back up, then back down a second time, then bounced back up with a
lesser bounce, then slowly back down a third time. It then kind of
hovered there for a few seconds as it slowed down and then fizzled away.
I don?t recall hearing any pop sounds or anything through the closed
window, but I do remember the fizzle as it dispersed. The best way to
describe it was like carbonation in a soda, but instead of white, it was
small particles of bluish white that expanded out slighty as it fizzled
away. The duration that I saw took about 10 to 15 seconds and the ball
traveled about 20 feet as it slowly bounced and hovered. I?ll never
forget it! It?s not everyday you see glowing balls defying gravity in the
middle of the night in front of your house and then fizzle away right
before your eyes! I wondered what it was and deduced at the time it must
be something related to the lightning storm or some kind of electrical
phenomenon.
Greg <pizzaguyy at aol. com>
Clearwater, FL USA - Tuesday, February 06, 2007 at 23:04:20 (PST)
|
First I wanted to start with an experience I had at my parents home
when I was living there as a teen. An amazing experience I will never
forget. It was one of those thundering and stormy days, but unusual in a
way unlike other storms. Darker clouds, fierce winds, then all of a sudden
WHAM; lightning struck a few hundred feet away from my vantage point which
was peering out through the kitchen door facing the back yard. From the
back door was a second story landing then a stair way leading to a patio
at ground level. Out of nowhere appeared a glowing ball on the patio. It
was the size of a golf ball possibly a little larger. This ball proceeded
to hover then touch the ground with a static like sound whenever contact
was made. This ball then seemed to have a mind of its own when it started
to clime up the stairs! One step at a time and each time moving up the
stair way as if it knew where it was going. When it arrived at the landing
it ferociously attacked everything on the landing. It zipped from one
object to another as if it were a pin ball racking up points. Finally it
hit a metal chair and extinguished with a loud pop which resulted with a
burnt part of the leg.
Ronald Marquiss
Bear, De USA - Sunday, February 04, 2007 at 03:23:03 (PST)
|
This happened in England in 1985. I was with my brother in his bedroom
playing my electric guitar whilst he sat on the floor with a record player
trying to work out lyrics for a song. I was standing with my back against
a wall and with a window to my right. The window was closed as the weather
was bad that day. Opposite me was a wardrobe with a glass door. I suddenly
became aware of a heat on my right shoulder. I saw in the glass door a
ball of orange hovering off my right shoulder. I turned my head to see it
direct and saw a ball about, the size of a cricket ball. It was fizzing
but with no noise and inside the ball was like molten metal which moved.
It seemed to contain air bubbles which seperated and joined freely. After,
probably 3-4 seconds, the ball just exploded with a huge bang. My brother
saw it as it exploded and rose from the floor to help me. I was ok apart
from having my hearing effected for the next month. I feel lucky to have
experienced this as I am now aware that it is quite rare.
phillip downs <downs3021at msndot com>
USA - Saturday, February 03, 2007 at 11:46:59 (PST)
|
This happened many years ago but I remember it well. It was mid-summer
and I was living in Tampa, FL. Virtually every afternoon between 2:00 p.m
and 3:00 p.m you could count on a thunderstorm occurring in Tampa. One
afternoon as a thunderstorm was beginning, I was in our carport and heard
a strange hissing/crackling sound. I looked out toward the street and saw
a yellow/blue/green ball of light about the size of a volleyball bouncing
atop the power lines across the street. It wasn't moving very quickly,
maybe 3 feet/second. It stopped bouncing and just rode the power line
down the block where it hit a transformer and exploded. I had always
wondered what it had been until years later when I heard of ball lightning
and thought that maybe that was what I saw. Whatever it was, I'll take
the memory to my grave...
Gerry Thomas
USA - Tuesday, January 30, 2007 at 08:00:54 (PST)
|
the phenomena was ball lighting back in 1980 something i gave my
girlfriend a ride on my hog from ocala fl to hendry county fl to see her
son i just dropped her off and took back off north bound was about mid day
the weather beautiful dont rember the month anyway on the way back out of
hendry county fl the clouds started forming for our daily rain storm back
in the 80s it rained every day like clock work at a specific time anyway i
was about 20 miles out of lake placid and the rain storm caught up to me i
was on the bike but there was no where to pull over for shelter till it
passed i was doing about 50 miles per hour the rain was comming down in
buckets could barely see when i happen to notice out of my mirrow this red
and blue flashing lights i started thinking to myself what cop is going to
pull me over and get out of his car to give me tickets in this downpour
like i said i could barely see out of my riding glasses and didnt think i
was speeding so i was real puzzled so i turned around to see if the cop
was after me or wanting to pass me thats when i saw real clear even had to
lift up my shades a ball of light about the size of a basketball or
alittle bigger comming down the highway head height behind me it took me
about 2.2 nano secounds to realize what it might be and i really didnt
want a ball lighting helmet so it was full throttle into and passed lake
placid fl my face still got stung up by the rain that happens at 130 mph
in a rain storm with no face sheild any way i had heard about ball
lighting before that but never saw it or new anyone that saw it or even
heard of it i never saw it before that and can only assume that it was
ball lighting due to its perfectly round shape? have never saw it again
and still dont know anybody that has ever saw it let alone heard of
it
KEITH F. <kaos691340at yahoodot com>
fl USA - Saturday, January 27, 2007 at 20:24:28 (PST)
|
In , I think the summer of 1964 I was fishing the Loch an Eilein in the
Cairngorm region of Scotland . My late Mother & Father had gone a little
way ahead whilst my friend & I slipped down to the loch edge to have a
cast. It was a Sunday and back then in our area fishing on the Sabbath was
not looked upon very kindly , so we were tucked away in the undergrowth to
avoid any prying eyes. I was using a rod which my Father had made from ex
W.D. tank aerials ( they were all the rage at the time ). We had just
begun to fish although the weather was against us,very bright & sunny ,
not a cloud in the sky. My next recollection was of something approaching
from my right & without stopping to think I threw the rod from me & into
the loch. What happened next is still as clear today as though it was
yesterday. A ball of light , I have no idea of size ,it could have been
orange sized or the size of a ,lets say ,a car. I really have no idea, but
I clearly remember that it seemed to skip along the loch surface three
distinct long skips & its reflection was also visible . It fizzed or
hissed in passing us and it left a spent shotgun cartridge smell in its
wake . It disappeared off to our left but I have not a clue as to how long
the whole incident lasted .The strange thing though is that my parents who
had gone a little way up the hill from us had heard a massive " explosion
" which brought my Mother to her knees . We however at the lochside heard
nothing or not that I can remember. Nobody will ever convince me that ball
lightning is imaginary and if anyone would like a WW2 home made rod I know
where there is one. Russell Smith
James Russell Smith <russellat wangbardot co dotuk>
Kirriemuir, Scotland - Friday, January 26, 2007 at 11:51:31 (PST)
|
When i was a kid in the late 60's, my dad and i were standing at the
front door watching a thunderstorm. Suddenly lightning struck close by and
we witnessed a ball of lightning roll across a power line at which point
it hit the power pole and dropped to the ground. There it bounced a couple
of times and disappeared. As i recall, it appeared to be a foot or two in
diameter and was very bright. My dad said it must have been ball lightning
and i have never forgotten it.
Kerry <c1306NOSPAMat siudot edu>
Carbondale, Illinois USA - Sunday, January 21, 2007 at 17:54:58 (PST)
|
When I was very young I remember a stormy day and our kitchen window
was open and the window in the bedroom was open. The blue ball, about as
big as a softball, came in the kitchen window and it ROUNDED THE CORNER to
go out of the window in the bedroom. Since then I realize how strange it
was for the ball to turn the corner. We had to step back out of the way
but we watched it happen.
Dorothy Bonney <millpond37at msndot com>
New Church, VA USA - Sunday, January 21, 2007 at 16:17:12 (PST)
|
This report is being filed on the 21st january 2007.
At approx
20:30 hours I was driving my car down a long straight road in my home
town,In the car with me were a man and lady friend.It was hailstoning at
the time.Suddenly in the sky directly in my vision there appeared a
gigantic ball of pure white light.Relatively speaking it looked exactly
like a full moon.We stared at this object for 2/3 seconds.Suddenly this
ball exploded and the core of the ball was flame red.It immediately
disappeared and there was the loudest noise I have ever heard.I was
totally blinded by the flash of the explosion and had to pull over to wait
for my vision to return to normal.It was like a million camera flashes
going off at the same time.We just sat there stunned for 2/3 minutes
unable to believe what we had just experienced can anyone explain it to
me?.
dennis nash <dennoroxat hotmaildot co dotuk>
pontypool,wales, gwent uk - Saturday, January 20, 2007 at 20:52:55 (PST)
|
This evening being the 20/01/07, I was sitting in my lounge when I looked out the window and saw the strangest blue light. It was like a circle with jagged edges it was very bright it did not move and only lasted about 3 ? 4 seconds it was also quite large it was difficult to determine the distance because I wasn?t exactly sure where it was coming from strange as it sounds.
I told my mum about it and she too had seen the light on a different evening.
She had let the dog out and the light appeared at the top of the garden. It scared her and she ran back into the house but the description is exactly the same as mine. She too could not determine where it was coming from.
Has anyone go any suggestions?
Melissa <stephen.downey223at virgindot net>
Cookstown, Ireland - Saturday, January 20, 2007 at 15:19:11 (PST)
|
About 23 ago in central Texas, I was staying at our farm with my grandparents. It was mid-summer and a storm was brewing. Generally in that area, the land is flat and storms blow in from all over so you have plenty of time to prepare. About two hours after the darkness fell, the wind really started to pick up, just as everyone was getting to bed.
I remember the wind coming through the open windows and the darkness surrounding the farmhouse as I looked outside. I quickly shut the window and decided to sleep in my grandmother's room. I found that my sister had decided to do the same. That meant I got the floor. I didn't want to be rude and tell my grandmother to shut the window, so it stayed open.
The wind was hot and the storm drew closer. As I lay there on the floor, I couldn't draw myself to fall asleep. I started hearing a weird popping noise. I slowly raised myself so as to be able to peer through the window. I was too young to really look at what I was seeing with any amount of constructive thinking.
Exactly as I saw it - I saw what appeared to be glowing balls literally "popping" from the clouds just past the barn. Given the location, the balls were about the size of one of those blow up beach balls (3 ft diameter). The clouds were extremely low. The balls were white in color, but then seemed to change colors like a distant star might do. At first, there was 3 of them, then 5. They would float around and then eventually hover down to the ground and out of site. There was no fire or anything of that sort. They were perfectly round and glowing very brightly.
There was never any regular lightning that night and the rain never fell.
Years after, ball lightning became more publicized and the second I heard people talk about it, I knew that was exactly what I had seen.
If only I had known then, I would've watched with more knowledgeable eyes and followed up with a search for aftereffects the next morning. Nevertheless, that's my story. It remains so vivid I'm surprised I didn't chose science as my profession. It was truly unexplainable and made no sense.
Dean <deanbu41at gmaildot com>
Kansas, KS USA - Saturday, January 20, 2007 at 11:35:08 (PST)
|
When my future wife and I were dating many ?moons? ago, we were in a
parked car (discussing philosophy) on a rainy day. It was late afternoon
but not quite twilight. The rain had virtually stopped but the windows
were heavy with raindrops which obscured our vision somewhat. In the
distance behind the car I spotted a light which approached the vehicle. My
first impression was that a person was walking down the road carrying a
light. As the light came closer it became evident that there was ?no
person?, just a light. As I mentioned earlier, it was an overcast day but
still bright enough to identify objects through the raindrop covered
windows. The light was roughly the size of a volleyball and floated along
at the speed of someone walking. It passed beside the car at a few yards
and continued down the road and directly away off into the distance. We
immediately left the area.
Perhaps 20 years later I chanced upon an article describing our
phenomenon. It named the object, ?ball lighting?.
David Denny <dennydmat comcastdot net>
Clinton, TN USA - Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 13:58:38 (PST)
|
I saw ball lightning only once in my life at the age of 12 (about
1973). I was awakened by a thunderstorm and looked out the window to the
west where the weather was clearly visible. It was probably about midnight
and it seemed that the storm was subsiding when a bright ball about the
size of a basketball popped out of the cloud layer at about 3000 ft. It
descended slowly almost as if it was attached to a small parachute. What
was amazing still is that it descended directly over and fell onto the
electrical service line that fed our house. When it struck, boom, and
power to the house was lost until repairs could be made. Scared the
bajeezuzz out of me and I never forgot it. I became a professional pilot
in the mid eighties and since have logged 4000 hours of flight through
extremes of weather conditions, even experienced St Elmo's fire, but never
the likes of something so odd as ball lightning since.
Patrick Hoel <HoelPatat aoldot com>
Hudson, WI USA - Monday, January 15, 2007 at 11:48:51 (PST)
|
I believe it was 1972. I was about eleven years old, living in a
mountainous area fifteen miles south of Helena, Montana. It was late
afternoon, close to five I think. There may have been a summer storm
brewing, but there was definitely no rain. All of my family was inside,
so I was the only one to see it. As I was headed for the door of our
trailer, something bright and fiery like a little sun, at least two feet
in diameter, passed over our home, probably twenty feet off the ground,
and traveled for at least one hundred yards before disappearing. I do not
remember an accompanying sound. I thought I had seen either a ufo or a
burning airplane (I had no sense of perspective on how high up the thing
was as it was so bright). I listened to the local radio station for two
days, expecting to hear a report of some kind. For over twenty years I
had no explanation for the experience until I came across an article about
ball lightning in a book about storms. I consider myself blessed to have
witnessed this sight, considering it a sign of God's favor in my
life.
Christi Jones <christiann08at yahoodot com>
Bentonville, AR USA - Monday, January 15, 2007 at 09:54:12 (PST)
|
In March of 1984 at 11pm me and my girlfriend were parked on the beach
in Monterey, California. We noticed a bright red object glowing in the
sand. It was pulsing like it was extremely hot. The object was about two
feet wide and three feet in length. We exited the car in order to see
what it was. As we approached it we were shocked to see that blue sparks
were shooting outwards from the sides of our shoes. It happened with each
step that we took in the wet sand. Once we were next to the object we
felt for heat but it had none. She dared me to touch it than just as I
reached down it vanished without any noise. After researching the event I
determined that we had witnessed ball lightning. It is frightening now to
think how much power the BL had in order for to generate sparks from our
feet. I am really glad that it vanished before I attempted touch it.
Manuel <manl777at aoldot com>
USA - Saturday, January 13, 2007 at 01:44:38 (PST)
|
My family hopes that what we encountered was in fact "ball lightning". At the time we had not herd of this phenomenon so naturally we were freaked out.
My wife , my daughter & I were sitting in our split level ranch on 1/10/07 at 8:27 PM. The weather was cold (at 30 deg.) & dry. We were watching TV while my wife (between us, "L" shaped seating)talked on the cordless phone to her friend. I was looking toward my daughter when all of the sudden, a bright orange (sunset color) orb appeared in the direction of my wife. It created enough of a flash of light to get all of our attention but not like a spot light being turned on. Immediately I turned to see what it was , but it was gone that quick (> 1 sec.). As I looked at my wife & daughter I could tell by their expressions that they had seen this also. We all sat for a brief second in silence then collectively asked "what the heck was that?"
My daughter stated that she had sen a reddish "ball" flash. I too had seen the shape but thought it to be more of an orange color. Since I was veiwing this from my periferal I thought it was on my wife's opposite side away from me. My daughter (who was at a 90 deg angle from my wife & I)stated that she was basically looking right at it and that it was over my wife's head (at 2.5') toward me. We determined between us that it was at cue ball size. My daughter also had heard a crackle or snap sound associated with the flash.
Naturally we were amazed at first, brain storming potential causes and discounting others.
I started to wonder if it was in fact an omen of a fire in our home or something like that. I roamed around for several minutes looking in rooms, feeling walls, ceilings, etc. Obviously I found nothing.We eventually retired to bed bewildered by the event.
I went to work the next day recounting the event to people I knew would not think I was crazy (as did my wife & daughter). Basically I was looking for the one thing I had not yet found, a reasonable explaination. Upon sharing my experience with a co-worker, I was given just that. He told me about watching a program about "ball lightning". I went to my computer and pulled up a site that reasonably confirmed our event.
To give a little more background (that supports the ball lightning theory). We had an air purifier with an ionizer running continuously in that room. We also had a ceiling fan in the foyer /stairway leading up from the front door directly behind my wife. She was on the cordless phone ( I theorize that someone beeped in on call waiting) (I am not certain this would impact the situation)when the incident occured. Upon reading the web info it described saturation of ionized plasma (which could be form negative & positive ions)along with a magnetic source which I assume the cordless phone presented, could possibly have set up the conditions for this amazing event.
T. Duke <duker56at yahoodot com1234566789>
Urbana, Oh USA - Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 16:08:16 (PST)
|
At about 6 AM while traveling northbound on Rt 625 toward Kenhorst, PA,
my husband and I noticed a large bright light through the clouds. It
seemed to fall toward the city of Reading. The moon was behind us and to
our left and it was a cloudy morning, which is why I couldn't undeerstand
how we could see such a bright falling star on such a cloudy day. The
light appeared to be in the clouds rather then a shooting star. Even more
strange was that 625 is a route through very tall trees with few
streetlights. We just happened upon a stretch of road where this occurred
in the few seconds where there was a break in the trees ahead. Anyone
have any idea what this was?
A Merrick <animeangelandieat yahoodot com>
Mohnton, PA United States - Thursday, January 04, 2007 at 03:43:05 (PST)
|
When I was probably about 5 or 6 years old I believe I exprienced
seeing ball lighning phenomena. It was late afternoon and it was starting
to get dark, I was outside jumping on our trampoline, my mum and 2
brothers were inside. I noticed a bright light out of the corner of my eye
and because we lived quite close to the main road I assumed it was a car
that had stopped on the side of the road. I turned to look and saw a
bright, glowing ball, white in colour and about the size of a tennis ball.
It was floating around a metre off the ground and it appeared to be
weaving its way through the tall plants that hadn't been eaten by our cows
that had recently been moved to another paddock (field). I remember
feeling totally unbothered by its presence but to me it seemed to move on
its own accord, avoiding the plants. I remained watching it for about 10
more seconds before I, for some reason, suddenly got really scared and ran
inside. I never saw it dissapear so I don't know how long it was there
for. Whatever it was that I saw that evening, whether it be ball lightning
or my imagination playing tricks on me, I've haven't seen anything like it
since. I am now 15 and I can still remember it quite vividly and I hope I
will for the remainder of my life.
Morgan McKenzie
Warkworth, New Zealand - Tuesday, January 02, 2007 at 18:39:47 (PST)
|
Observed what I presume to be "ball lightening" the other day.
A nice thunderstorm over Adelaide midnight of 29Dec06-30Dec06 and I was
observing from my second story west facing window in Magill (approx 150m
above sea level). After numerous lightening bolts I saw what appeared to
be a glowing cloud in the distance drifting slowly with the weather
pattern. I watched as it tracked from my left to right and as it did it
slowly then suddenly inceased in brightness and what appeared was an
object with an apparent diametre roughly half that of the Moon. It drifted
along for about 60 seconds and then drifted up and then behind a line of
cloud, the entire time it was quite bright (white) to the eyes, almost
painful. I was quite astounded to have witnessed such an atmospheric
phenonema.
Ross Goble <rossmgatiprimusdotcomdotau>
Adelaide, SA Australia - Tuesday, January 02, 2007 at 05:30:33 (PST)
|
Ball Lightning.
In the summer of 1966 I was on my front porch with
kids from my neighborhood. As we watched a thunderstorm move in a bolt of
lightning hit a telephone pole in front of my house. It scared us so much
everyone ran. I ran towards the back of the house and I saw a bluish white
ball of crackling electricity floating near my father's ham radio antenna.
It was about the size of a basketball. It moved around like a balloon in
the wind. It lasted for probably 5 seconds and then vaporized with a
flash. I could smell an ozone odor afterward. I will never forget
it.
Bill Edmunds
USA - Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 20:41:07 (PST)
|
At age 12, in 1961, my brother and I were in our bedroom getting ready
for bed during severe thunderstorm. We lived on a farm. We were standing
between our beds when a ball of lightning paseed through our open window
screen (producing a softball sized hole) and exploded in the room. Scared
the H--- out of us.
Richard Hawkins <asdxrwhosuat yahoodot com>
Stillwater, OK USA - Monday, December 25, 2006 at 18:55:57 (PST)
|
Seated in an upstairs bedroom overlooking my back garden and garage one
night two months ago (Oct.2006) I heard my labrador whimpering outside.
This is unusual behaviour, so I looked out the window and was transfixed
by the sight of a perfect white sphere that appeared to be sitting on the
patio by the garage back-door. It was approximately thirty six inches in
diameter. It didn't move in any way. The light it emitted did not light up
the surrounding ground on which it stood. The light was not blinding, i.e.
when I looked to a dark spot the impression did not remain on my retina.
Despite this, it was the brightest white light that I have ever envisaged
and it should have been blinding. I was dumbstruck and couldn't awaken my
partner in the next room. I was a little frightened, but don't know why. I
knew that if I looked away to try and awaken her that it would disappear.
It remained however, for a further two minutes. It was a clear night and
had been a clear day with no storm activity nor clouds. I watched it for a
total of four minutes although it may have been there before I noticed it.
The dog continued to whine until the sphere vanished. It didn't fade into
a single dot. Neither did it dissipate. It simply 'was' no more. It seemed
to be a solid. It made no sound. I don't believe it was electrical energy.
I went straight outside when it vanished and checked the ground for
traces. There wasn't any. No-one I asked in the subsequent weeks had any
experience like it. When I remember it, the brightness is the most
striking feature. It shone 'into' itself. This is the only strange thing I
have ever encountered in my 44 years.
Damian Nixon <????damiannixonat hotmaildot com>
derry, ireland - Friday, December 15, 2006 at 09:20:20 (PST)
|
Hi we were away in Wales last week the weather was very unpredictable.
We took our dog for a walk at about 23.00hrs before bed on thursday night,
it was pouring with rain and very windy. Above one of the bungalows Isaw
what I believe to be ball lightening. It was a orange coloured ball about
the size of a large orange! It appeared to move horizontally and then just
vanished.
sue bunch <tigras55uesxxxpat aoldot com>
Walsall, uk - Friday, December 08, 2006 at 07:22:30 (PST)
|
Hi!
My grandmother saw a ball lightning in she's room. The ball went through the mirror and the mirror has a black discoloured hole now. Scientists can get the mirror for research, if necessary. Maybe there are some chemical elements on the surface, which can explain the nature of ball lightning?
Photo can be sent if necessary.
Regards
Eriks
Eriks Eisaks <eriksat jauda-koks dotlv>
Ogre, Latvia - Wednesday, December 06, 2006 at 00:09:27 (PST)
|
in the summer of 1980 or 81 not quite sure which.myself and 3 of mt freinds were camping on the local field one night after a gorgeous day and a lovely clear night we all experienced 2 ball of light one green and one red about 6 or 7 centimeteres in diameter just appeared at the bottom end of the field . hovered for around 2-3 minuites then vanished as quick as they arrived was this ball lightning
jim <jimnlesat blueyyondersdot co dotuk>
uk - Monday, November 27, 2006 at 10:40:33 (PST)
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IN 1967 I was in the kitchin of my parents house in Whataroa,West Coast,New Zealand,when douring a thunder storm a ball came through the back door and scooted along the bench then went out the door.It was about the sise of a softball.I just remember standing there and going WOW
barry jones
nz - Wednesday, November 22, 2006 at 18:45:23 (PST)
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