ball lightning

[Terry Tyler]

heres a little bit of information on ball lightning...i decided id put up some information on it even though there really isnt too much too say about it...

i found these videos of ball lightning artificially created by scientists...some people still arent sure if the labratory mechanics that made this are the same kind made in nature...in the second video, the scientist explains the mechanics of the lightning...

VIDEO: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bc3_1179570327
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgdeLDaB9Rg

here are some additional videos of the ball lightning in nature...

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ioN-3UWYrY
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfRtbB8juTc
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V65iWNNYrNU


i also did a little research on 'ball lightning' from googling and wikipedia and found out some interesting facts on ball lightning...which im sure you all know is a form of lightning that takes form as a orb or ball...

heres a little information on ball lightning...

Ball lightning reportedly tends to float (or hover) in the air and take on a ball-like appearance. Its shape has been described as sperical, ovoid, teardrop, or rod-like with one dimension being much larger than the others. The longest dimension reported is between fifteen and forty centimeters. Many are red to yellow in colour, sometimes transparent, and some contain radial filaments or sparks. Other colours, such as blue or white occur as well.
Sometimes the discharge is described as being attracted to a certain object, and sometimes as moving randomly. After several seconds the discharge reportedly leaves, disperses, is absorbed into something, or, rarely, vanishes in an explosion.

Pilots in world war 2 described an unusual phenomenon for which ball lightning has been suggested as an explanation. The pilots saw small balls of light "escorting" bombers, flying alongside their wingtips. Pilots of the time referred to the phenomenon as " foo fighters," initially believing that the lights were from enemy planes. However there are other theories as to the identity of the foo fighters.
Other accounts place ball lightning as appearing over a kitchen stove or wandering down the aisle of an airliner. One report described ball lightning following and engulfing a car, causing the electrical supply to overload and fail. In 1773, two clergy men recalled that they saw a ball of light drop down in their fireplace. Seconds later, it exploded.

yes, the lightning can even explode...ball lightning also doesnt always form with the most powerful storms...some say it forms in clear skies as well...but it is a very mysterious force that people are still trying to understand...

 

[Skip Talbot]

Ball lightning is a very mysterious and powerful force and it's mystery is exceeded only by it's power.

The ball lightning primer reminded me of my physics lecture. ZZZzzz...

I did find the reworking of the Kansas/Anvil/Airplane ball lightning video very intriguing. The first instance with the light immediately to the right of the primary suspect looks like it could be the aircraft's strobes reflected off the tower. The other lights are more interesting. Explanations other than ball lightning could include meteors (which is stretch given their varying paths and frequency), or possibly something much smaller and closer to the camera like a firefly, or other bug caught in bright light. Did the people shooting the video mention the other lights? If we can spot them on the video, I'm sure they were more than able to see them.

I want to see some chaser footage.

 

[Willie Dines]

Ball lightning, has always intrigued the heck out of me, ever since I started becoming interested in thunderstorms, tornadoes, etc, and I was only about 9 years old then

there is 1 night, that I believe that I may have saw ball lightning, but about 8 balls of light simultaniously, they were of a white light, and quite a reasonable diameter considering the distance they were from me, but what makes them stick in my mind, is how they were there for about a minute or so, and then faded again.

This occurred about 10 years ago, and when I saw them at first glance, I didn't take much notice of then, but then I quickly looked at them again, and thought that it looked really odd, and then shortly after they faded, there had been a few regular lightning flashes, and then I realised what it was, that I had saw, but I hadn't thought much of it since then, untill reading this thread, it's kinda brought that memory back again, thank you guys

I'm still a little unsure if it was actually ball lightning, that I witnessed, but it was certainly interesting.

Willie

 

[Terry Tyler]

Ball lightning is a very mysterious and powerful force and it's mystery is exceeded only by it's power.

The ball lightning primer reminded me of my physics lecture. ZZZzzz...

I did find the reworking of the Kansas/Anvil/Airplane ball lightning video very intriguing. The first instance with the light immediately to the right of the primary suspect looks like it could be the aircraft's strobes reflected off the tower. The other lights are more interesting. Explanations other than ball lightning could include meteors (which is stretch given their varying paths and frequency), or possibly something much smaller and closer to the camera like a firefly, or other bug caught in bright light. Did the people shooting the video mention the other lights? If we can spot them on the video, I'm sure they were more than able to see them.

I want to see some chaser footage.

im not sure...i know they have a longer video up though ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSH7eBlQ9NU ) it might explain it a little bit better...

i dont know much about it but with such a electricly active storm...im sure it had enough power to make one...

looks alot more like an airplane on this video...

 

[Dan Robinson]

This video was discussed on this thread also:

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=10983&highlight=ball

 

[Shane Adams]

As I've mentioned for years when this topic resurfaces, we shot possible ball lightning on May 26, 1997. Ron Hollie and Dave Rust (then at NSSL as lightning researchers) were floored by the video and wanted a copy to study. For a few years I thought we had something really unique, but I was watching Jim Leonard's amazing June 9, 2003 lightning storm video and saw at least two examples of the exact same thing we shot...I don't think Jim even knew he had it because he didn't comment on the video. Since then, I've seen it a few other times in various videos. Whether or not it's ball lightning, it doesn't seem to be the rarity we thought when we first discovered ours.

 

[David Wolfson]

None of the YouTube examples seems to fit the definition of ball lightning. The lab "experiments" look like pyroclastic metal dropping off an arc to me. I've see bead lightning from time to time that looks more like a string of beads than irregular lightning channel decay, which as I understand it may or may not be related to ball lightning.

True ball lightning is reported to float well above the ground, and most plausible theories of its cause require a rather intense and unfocused ambient electric field AFAIK.

 

[Shane Adams]

The stuff we saw and the stuff I saw on Jim and others' video looks like meteors or falling stars, only just above the surface or in the cloud deck. When you watch ours in slo-mo frame by frame, it appears to pulsate and change shape. We had two instances in our video, but the first one was destroyed when we tried to make a copy of it and was never able to be repaired. Unfortunately, this one was the more fascinating of the two, as it appeared as the classic falling star, then suddenly zipped off to the right at a very high rate of speed (2 inches per frame on a 13-inch TV). A friend of mine, Ron Hollie, and Dave Rust are the only ones besides myself that ever saw it before the master was destroyed. Coulda been something amazing, but we'll never know.

 

[Paul Knightley]

IMO, the 1st video shows an aeroplane briefly head on, with landing lights on.
The second one doesn't work.
And I'm not really sure what the 3rd one shows!

I do think it exists, but at the same time, with the mountains of storm footage gathered by chasers each year, I don't understand why there isn't some decent footage!

 

[Anna Lindstrom]

When i was like 10 months old lightning struck my grandmothers summer cabin in the Finnish archipelago.
It was a thunderstorm that came from the ocean and that almost always means a BIG storm. It rained horizontally cause of very heavy winds.
Then all of a sudden lightning struck the edge of the roof. And at the same time my grandmother who stood by the stowe saw a glowing ball hover over it. She said that it had like a moon color to it yellowish white.. Nobody else saw it and I dont think that anybody really belived her. But after reading this thread about reports seeing them over a stove gotta say pretty cool. We all sat about 2-3 meters from where the lightning struck but nobody got hurt.
I called her and told her about what i´ve read, she was really happy about the information and she said i´m gonna tell everybody who didn´t belive me.
I guess she saw some kind of ball lightning.

Anna

 

[Jeff Miller]

I would give that story more credibility then a rogue ball lightning story due to the fact that ball lightning struck during the occurance of the strike on the roof. I would certainly believe your grandmother.