Ball Lightning Encounters?

[Jason Harris]

Anyone have any encounters with Ball Lightning and perhaps taken the formation as an indication of any particular storm conditions?
I suspect ball lightning accounts for some UFO sightings, particularly how one ball can separate into 2:
http://www.jstor.org/view/1364503x/...su.edu/01c0a834750050a82bb&dpi=3&config=jstor
And some scientists have also identified a related meterological phenomenon called "plasma vortices":
"The Japanese scientists identified the object as a plasma vortex, caused by freak weather. The phenomenon is similar to ball lightning and believed to be generated by 'mini-tornadoes' of electrically-charged air.
Plasma vortices can be luminous at night. 'They are often mistaken for UFOs,' says Dr Terence Meaden, director of the Oxford-based Tornado and Storm Research Organization."
---
http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf072/sf072g12.htm


Huge Ball Lightning bibliography:
http://www.fis.unipr.it/~albino/documenti/Bibliografia_BL.html

 

[Bill Tabor]

Yeah, I've seen it before. If you do a search though you will find past threads where many of us went into details about our experiences with ball lightning - or whatever it was.

 

[Jason Harris]

Ah, yes, I should have searched more. I wonder what the lifespan of that ball lightning was since in your post you describe the thunderstorm having ended earlier. Anyway, should this thread be deleted or switched over elsewhere for redundancy? But then again, this is the "education" thread here, and at least maybe those articles might be interesting to some folks.

--
Ok, here's my story. I don't know what this was...it occurred years ago before I started chasing.
Not of a lot of scenario to it. I believe I recall there had been rain or a thunderstorm earlier in
the day or evening but not positive. I do know that most of the sky was clear at the time. Anyway I
was over at a friend's house at night (perhaps 10pm) and I had stepped outside the front door to get
some air and enjoy the night sky. I was back a bit from the house and could see over the top of it.
Suddenly there was a horizontally moving ball of swirling, hissing bluish purple flame cruising along
in what appeared to be over the house - although it could have been a bit further back. Not sure of
the scale because there aren't many references in the sky but it appeared to be fairly close to the
house - I'd say perhaps 50ft to 100ft over it. I'd estimate the size was around 3 or 4 feet. It
didn't emit any heat that I could feel. But it sure was freaky! It got my attention. It was
probably almost as bright as a full moon. While I had noticed, it had only lasted about 10 seconds
and I believe it just disappeared, disintegrated, or discharged. It was really cool to watch. IMO
it looked like what I would think a ball of plasma would look like. This event occurred in south
Austin, Tx in a rural/suburban area.

 

[Bill Tabor]

I wonder what the lifespan of that ball lightning was since in your post you describe the thunderstorm having ended earlier.

To the best of my knowledge a thunderstorm had moved off about an hour previously. I can't remember if we actually got rain where I was observing. I believe I saw the initial creation of the ball because it was bright and made a fairly loud hissing sound.