Having a ball with lightning
Category: Nature...
Posted Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 11:30 AM [GMT-6]

So, I'm sitting in a recliner in the living room on Tuesday afternoon, around 5:00 p.m. I've just started watching a movie on DVD, and while I'm focused on the TV screen, I'm also monitoring the ominous clouds assembling in the frame of one of our skylights. Isolated thunderstorms had been predicted, but I was still surprised when a few big drops splattered against the skylight.

My eyes moved back to the television, and that's when it appeared, off to my left, up near the ceiling and just below the other skylight, perhaps nine feet above the floor. It was a fist-sized crackling blue-white ball of – something – and it vanished, quick as thought, before I could shift my gaze directly to it. Almost simultaneously, a peal of thunder shook the house.

Oddly, the lights didn't flicker, and none of the electronics reset themselves. The thunder didn't carry that sharp crack! that we associate with a lightning strike that's much too close for comfort. But that odd crackling blue-white ball seemed related, somehow.

I was hesitant to tell my wife about it at dinner, because I wondered if I'd seen it at all. But the visual was too clear, too real, to be imaginary. Later, she googled the phenomenon and found this, an article in Scientific American. According to this article, I may just have been one of the estimated 5% of the world's population who have seen an occurrence of ball lightning.

Has anyone else ever experienced something similar? I'd love to hear your story.

Permalink
Comments

Haven't seen it (or honestly, heard of it before now) but the article was very interesting. Glad you're all ok though. :)

Posted by: beth at July 12, 2007 11:55 AM

Oooh...sounds scary! I would have thought it was lightening and checked the electrical wires carefully. I've never seen it before. Glad you're all safe!

Posted by: gwynne at July 12, 2007 12:11 PM

I've never seen ball lightning myself, but you are not the only person I know who has. What surprises me is that only 5% of people have seen it... I personally know three people (up now from two) who claim to have witnessed the phenomenon. The difference between their accounts and yours is that I believe yours.

Posted by: Jim at July 12, 2007 02:35 PM

Beth, Gwynne – I don't think I was ever in danger; most indoor encounters seem pretty benign, based on what little is documented about them.

Jim, I appreciate your confidence. ;-) Honestly, it happened so quickly that I initially doubted whether I'd seen anything, but I also couldn't figure out why my subconscious mind would provide that particular imagery; there was no context or stimulus to draw it out of nothing. It was the immediate proximity to the thunderstorm – specifically the fact that it happened a split-second before the thunderclap – that was the clincher.

Posted by: Eric at July 12, 2007 02:45 PM

Cool. Did you notice an odor in the room afterward? (No, not that.) I've read that the smell of "ozone" or an "electrical" smell is often reported in such cases.

Posted by: Les at July 12, 2007 03:28 PM

Les, that was the one thing that seemed amiss. I didn't smell ozone. (AFAIK, anyway; I'm not sure I know what ozone smells like. It's kind of a sharp odor, like burning metal, isn't it?) My sense of smell isn't very sensitive, but the literature also says that the odor isn't always present after an occurrence.

Posted by: Eric at July 12, 2007 03:33 PM

I have yet to see it, but it sounds fascinating.

Posted by: Shawn at July 12, 2007 03:48 PM

I am jealous... I have chased thunderstorms for 35 years hoping to see ball lightning and st elmo's fire... and you see it in your house.... geez!

Posted by: burr at July 13, 2007 07:22 AM
Post a comment [Take your time...we're in no hurry.]
Note: You must provide either a website URL or an email address...but there's no rule that says you have to tell the truth. If you don't want your email address published on this site, just input a website URL, or make up an email address.









Remember personal info?