Bizarre,
personal encounters with the most puzzling of all weather phenomena.
Much of
what we call “paranormal” are facets or properties of the natural world that we
do not yet understand. And although ball lighting is not usually considered a paranormal
phenomenon – and is almost certainly a natural phenomenon – its mysterious
nature has puzzled scientists and paranormal researchers alike for centuries.
There currently is no fully satisfactory or generally accepted scientific theory for
ball lightning, mainly because it is so rare, and when it does occur it doesn’t stay
around long enough to be studied; it generally has a lifetime of less than five seconds.
According to one researcher,
“ball lightning is the name given to the mobile luminous spheres which have been
observed during thunderstorms. Visual sightings are often accompanied by sound, odor, and
permanent material damage.” Many scientists still deny its existence, but there are
so many eyewitness accounts of the phenomenon that it’s difficult to deny its
reality.
It’s these personal encounters with ball lighting that have given it its
mysterious reputation. Many eyewitnesses describe its movement or “behavior” as
seemingly intelligent, as if it knows where it wants to go. When it enters houses, it
often enters through doorways or windows and travels down hallways. But people tend to
personify such peculiar events and it’s ludicrous to think that the balls of light
have any intelligence, but the anecdotes are no less intriguing. Here are some fascinating
first-hand accounts:
In January 1984, ball lightning measuring about 4 inches in diameter entered a Russian
passenger aircraft and, according to the Russian news release, “flew above the heads
of the stunned passengers. In the tail section of the airliner, it divided into two
glowing crescents which then joined together again and left the plane almost
noiselessly.” The ball lightning left two holes in the plane.
A “ball of sparks” about the size of a basketball entered a commercial
aircraft, apparently through an engine airtake, moved into the fuselage, and proceeded to
chase a flight attendant up and down the aisle. She was screaming as she tried to outrun
the ball lightning. It dissipated quickly before striking her.
From The Lightning Page
[no longer online] – All about
lightning phenomena, with some ball lightning stories.
Glenn R. Frazier relates at incident at his grandfather’s cottage in upstate
Pennsylvania. “I was sitting on a screened porch. I remember a brilliant flash of
lightning and a large clap of thunder. Seconds later, my mother screamed. My grandfather
and I turned to look in through the doorway and saw what looked like a ball of electricity
coming down the hallway from the back door. It was about the size of a basketball and had
an off-yellow kind of haze. It sounded like a large stream of water coming through a
faucet. When it got to the kitchen area, it flickered and flashed a little brighter, and
then was gone.”
"They were glowing with a blue-green
light that was about as bright as a 50-watt bulb and translucent as a balloon. They moved
side by side, the larger one leading."
“While on vacation on a small farm in Tennessee,” writes Bill Melfi, “I
saw two balls of light, one about three feet and the other about four feet in diameter.
They were glowing with a blue-green light that was about as bright as a 50-watt bulb and
translucent as a balloon. They moved side by side, the larger one leading. The movement
was quick and somewhat zigzag. I chased after it with a stick in hand, but they were
faster than me. They didn’t break up, just disappeared in the woods.”
This incident occurred in Bavaria in 1921: A nine-year-old girl and her uncle were in
the first floor of a building during a severe morning thunderstorm. Ball lightning
appeared on the left side of the window sill. The ball fell to the floor where it jumped
up and down once or twice, then started to roll slowly toward the observers across the
wooden floor, leaving no marks. It was translucent, and the rapidly changing colors showed
spots of light green, crimson, light blue, and pale yellow. It then rolled toward the tile
stove, crept up the iron parts, leaving a deep groove about the width and depth of a
thumb. Then it exploded in an air vent.
A Coast Guard officer reported this sighting in 1977: “The ball lightning
phenomenon was very large and estimated to be about the size of a bus. It was a brilliant
yellow-green transparent ball with a fuzzy outline. Intense light was emitted for about
three seconds before flickering out. Severe static was heard on the radio. The object
slowly rotated around a horizontal axis and seemed to bounce off projections on the
ground.”
An observer in Canton Ohio writes, “I saw a ball of light moving along the ground
across the street from my house. It seemed to be about 10 inches in diameter. I saw the
light move through the window of a church building. The light moved in and out. It seemed
curious and not something frightful. I continued to watch the light ‘explore’
the building, and move into a tree – without any sign of damage.”
"I first saw the ball lightning when
it came out the front of the stereo. There was an explosion, smoke, and debris, and a
large orange ball. It went into the front of the television set and exited through the
wall behind the TV."
“During a light thunderstorm in July of 1991,” writes Joanna Bosse of
Nashville, Tenn., “a ball of plasma about 3 inches in diameter entered through my den
window. The ball passed through the window leaving no marks on the plastic screen or the
window glass. The ball was orange and blue and made a frying sound as it moved across the
room, through the door into the living room where it exited through the front storm door
back outside, leaving no marks on the glass.”
Kim LeVeque of Ann Arbor, Mich. tells this incredible story: “I first saw the ball
lightning when it came out the front of the stereo. There was an explosion, smoke, and
debris, and a large orange ball. It went into the front of the television set and exited
through the wall behind the TV. With the explosion, cupboard doors flew open and were torn
from the hinges, glass jars broke, the refrigerator door blew open and eggs cracked
inside.”
From Ball Lightning –
This site has a lot of good information on the ball lightning phenomenon, including
characteristics and theories.
In 1936, a reader related this story to the editor of the
London Daily Mail:
“During a thunderstorm I saw a large, red hot ball come down from the sky. It struck
our house, cut the telephone wire, burnt the window frame, and then buried itself in a tub
of water which was underneath. The water boiled for some minutes afterwards, but when it
was cool enough for me to search, I could find nothing in it.”
Have You Had a
Paranormal Experience?
Send me your true tales of strange, unexplained,
and paranormal experiences. E-mail them
to me
for inclusion in a future article.
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