Possible ball lightning video

[Jason Foster]

If it was the day of that gaint hailstone...now that would be crazy.

Looking at slowly (frame by frame as best I can via YT), certainly is NOT a camera aberration, which is usually my first comment on these kind of things.

I've got frames up in photoshop and that turn half way down is also very interesting.

Another interesting part, as much as I try, I don't see any movement above the bottom of the cloud base prior to it emerging in the better contrast area. It also appears to fall behind the treeline (which would haven enough contrast to see it in front of the trees). This would give it some level of distance prediction. I also would say that reduces the likelihood it just coincidentally appeared there.

I've been very skeptical of ball lightning, but this is the first video I would actually leave the door open for the possibility, even if remote (IMO, based on multiple reads on the subject).

 

[Rob H]

The flash I saw in roughly the same area and at roughly the same time (based on cell appearance and amount of daylight) was not looking through a camera, and I had the window rolled down since it was dirty - so whatever I saw was not a camera or glass artifact of any kind.

Was there anything odd, meteorologically speaking, about that storm environment? I don't ever recall seeing Roger's vans that day, and I've parked next to them before so I know what his group looks like. So I must have been on a different part of the storm. It seems strange that for a phenomenon as rare as ball lightning, two separate groups of people claim to have seen it in what were likely two separate events.

 

[James Hammett]

It also appears to fall behind the treeline (which would haven enough contrast to see it in front of the trees).

I haven't split it up into frames like you have Jason but when I pause the youtube video it clearly appears in *front* of the tree line. Anyone else notice this? Still, it appears some distance away.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I think given Roger's 82 tors this year that he has some special power. My bet was he whispered, "Let there be ball lightning" and then it happened.

 

[Mike Deep]

I haven't split it up into frames like you have Jason but when I pause the youtube video it clearly appears in *front* of the tree line. Anyone else notice this? Still, it appears some distance away.

Definitely in front of the tree line, but was the shelf actually in front of the trees too?

I wonder what, if anything, could be found if someone were to conduct a search of that area?

 

[Jason Foster]

I only saw one frame (again, from what I could capture off the YT) where blurry part does extend beyond the trees, but the 'object' seems to stay behind the trees. I haven't been able to find any frames (yet) where the object goes beyond just a small portion of the trees, and as said I think that might be a blurry part that might be due to the camera (CMOS?).

I sure do wish I knew the approx. location of the video.

 

[James Hammett]

Here's a screencap from the .MP4 that shows the object in front of the tree line nearly to the ground in the next frame (see arrow):

Here's a screencap showing the object at its brightest:

 

[A Luttig]

That would almost be worthy of a trip to that location to scour the ground for evidence of whatever it may have been. With those still frames, you could identify a relatively small area to search (obviously with the O.P. knowing the location to begin with) However, be prepared for something like this....

 

[Jeff Hawkins]

My thought was perhaps a small meteorite that passed through the clouds and caused the CC lightning flash BUT...
...the curve in the path and the change in velocity as it came to the ground,
...no impact evidence in the video..it just disappears into the ground.
So that theory may be out the window too.

 

[Joel Wright]

My thought was perhaps a small meteorite that passed through the clouds and caused the CC lightning flash BUT...
...the curve in the path and the change in velocity as it came to the ground,
...no impact evidence in the video..it just disappears into the ground.
So that theory may be out the window too.

Yeah those were my thoughts initially as well. Sort of has the look of a daytime meteorite, but obviously the erratic path it displayed throws that out. I've watched the video dozens of times and still can't get a good grasp on what it is. One thing I'm very confident about is that it's not something in the foreground like a bird or a bug, etc. IMO the light disappeared behind the tree line. Because it's moving so fast it sort of appears to dissipate in front of the tree line, but I think because of the speed of movement the camera may have lost some clarity there.

My gut feeling is it's some sort of lightning related phenomena. Whether it's ball lightning or not is obviously open for discussion. As we all know, sometimes lightning produces sprites and blue jets that shoot above the anvil tops out into space. Watching this video makes you kind of wonder if maybe it's possible that whatever manifests sprites/blue jets can produce other lightning related phenomena.

 

[Eric Sipes]

As noted above, It does "fall" in front of the trees. This raises a huge red flag for the "Ball Lightning Theory". So, I watched the rest of the video looking for similar objects, moving in a similar manner. Oddly enough, only 10 seconds later (~1:10), you'll notice another object moving in an arcing motion just left of the first power pole. This time, in front of the grass in the foreground. This second object is almost certainly an insect.

Comparing it with the first object, you'll see they're very similar. My opinion is that you can't see the first object in front of the grass because it simply blends in. The light colored object appears out of a similarly light colored cloud and falls in front of similarly light colored vegetation causing the camera to loose contrast on the object. (Think camoflauge) Likely shot with a relatively low quality hand-held camcorder, the camera probably wouldn't be able to make it out. This leads me to believe that the "Ball Lightning" was none other than a bug flying a few feet in front of the camera.

As for multiple witnesses, I can only use the information given. Unfortunately, the only information that I'm aware of, is in the video decription on YouTube.

I've gone ahead and posted a screen capture of the second object in the video so you know where to look. Notice how it "disappears" as it move in front of similarly colored vegetation.

-Eric

 

[Scott Weberpal]

Since he not longer posts here, Roger Hill gave me permission to state a few things about the video which he posted on a different forum with some commentary...

Both of these may be relevant to dispelling some of the comments about bugs...

"On my last tour a bit over a week ago on July 17th, we encountered an outflow dominant supercell northwest of Watertown, South Dakota. While we were watching this, an intercloud flash of lightning occured, which resulted in a ball of lightning coming out of the cloud base to the ground. It was the craziest thing I have seen in sometime! After talking with my tour guests, I found that one gentleman actually caught it on video!"

"I don't think it was a bug as a few folks DID see it and comment on it. A bug would have only been seen by the camera operator."

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Again, it was visually witnessed by numerous people in the same place.

One thing I'm wondering is that I keep seeing that it was witnessed by multiple people, but no one says a thing. The camera operator doesn't even seem to care and just lazily pans the camera to the left 10 seconds afterward. Apparently some did, but I'll be damned if I can hear anything. Just Roger discussing the wall cloud, but nothing at all from the camera operator or anyone near him or her.

Unless I'm missing something, if multiple people thought they saw something so extraordinary as ball lightning wouldn't one of them have said something? All I hear is wall cloud chatter...

Perhaps I'm missing something.

Also, whatever it is does not appear to be all that far off. It crosses in front of that row of trees, and a good portion of the field.

EDIT: I see Eric Sipes already hit on what was my theory of simply an insect. I know some say it doesn't seem all that insect like, but I personally don't think it's all that ball lightning like either, so we're even in that respect.

 

[Jordan Hartley]

As I watched the video I noticed that this phenonmenon fell infront of that line of trees. The object clearly when slowed down does not go away as it falls underneath the tree line. That has to be within a mile and i feel safe saying as much as a half mile from where the video was taken. Thats pretty darn close to where this thing fell. Very nice grab hell I dont know what it is the cloud to cloud dishcarge then the orb falling to earth right after that kinda makes me think its ball lightning but who knows. Great catch!

 

[Charles Loring]

Very cool video regardless of what it was! I know the jury is still out on the whole ball lightning theory, but this is the best video of possible evidence to support its existence that I've ever seen.