StrangeBall Lightning Phenomena
There have been over 10,000 reported sightings of ball lightning.[1] A 1960 paper reported that 5% of the US population reported having witnessed ball lightning.[2] Another study analyzed reports of 10,000 cases.[3]
Ball lightning is photographed very rarely, and details of witness accounts can vary widely. Many of the properties observed in ball lightning accounts conflict with each other, and
More.. it is very possible that several different phenomena are being incorrectly grouped together. It is also possible that some photos are fakes.
The discharges reportedly appear during thunderstorms, sometimes issuing from a lightning flash, but large numbers of encounters reportedly occur during good weather with no storms within hundreds of miles.
A report from an area of central Africa having a very high incidence of lightning said that ball lightning used to appear from a certain hill just before the onset of the rainy season.[4] (The report also exhibits a reluctance to report such phenomena typical of many people).
Ball lightning reportedly tends to rotate or spin and can possess odd trajectories such as veering off at an angle or rocking from side to side like a leaf falling. Ball lightning can also move with or against the wind. Other motions include a tendency to float (or hover) in the air and take on a ball-like appearance. Its shape has been described as spherical, ovoid, teardrop, or rod-like with one dimension being much larger than the others. 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. Some accounts have the balls passing freely through wood or glass or metal, while other accounts report circular holes in the wood or glass or metal. Some report explosions when the balls contact electrical wiring or the vaporisation of water when the balls enter water. Some accounts say the balls are lethal, killing on contact, while other accounts say the opposite.
A 19th century depiction of ball lightning
A 19th century depiction of ball lightning
Nikola Tesla reportedly could consistently make ball lightning in his Colorado lab, with one account saying that he was able to temporarily contain the balls in wooden boxes.
Pilots in World War II 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.
Submariners in WWII gave the most frequent and consistent accounts of small ball lightning in the confined submarine atmosphere. There are repeated accounts of inadvertent production of floating explosive balls when the battery banks were switched in/out, especially if mis-switched or when the highly inductive electrical motors were mis-connected or disconnected. An attempt later to duplicate those balls with a surplus submarine battery resulted in several failures and an explosion. [4]
Volcanos and the atmosphere and earth around them have been known to produce ball lightning and other luminous effects, with or without electrical storms. These accounts vary greatly.
Other accounts place ball lightning as appearing over a kitchen stove or wandering down the aisle of an airliner.[5] 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. [citation needed]
Some researchers suggest that ball lightning has a more diverse range of properties than previously thought (e.g. Singer, 1971). Japanese investigators (e.g. Ofuruton et al) report that Japanese ball lightning can occur in fine weather and be unconnected with lightning. The diameter is said to be typically 20–30 cm but sometimes even larger up to a few meters. Ball lightning can split and recombine and can exhibit large mechanical energy like carving trenches (e.g. Fitzgerald 1978) and holes into the ground.
Until recently, ball lightning was sometimes regarded as nothing more than a myth, fantasy, or hoax.[1] Reports of the phenomenon were dismissed due to lack of physical evidence, and were often regarded the same way as UFO sightings.
[edit] Historical accounts
One of the earliest and most destructive occurrences was reported to have taken place during The Great Thunderstorm at Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon, in England, on October 21, 1638. Four people died and around 60 were injured when what appeared to have been ball lightning struck a church.[citation needed]
A famous anecdote from 1753 depicts ball lightning as having violent potential. Professor Georg Richmann, of Saint Petersburg, Russia created a kite flying apparatus similar to that built by Benjamin Franklin a year earlier. He was attending a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, when he heard thunder. The Professor ran home with his engraver to capture the event for posterity. While the experiment was underway, ball lightning appeared, collided with Richmann's forehead and killed him, leaving a red spot. His shoes were blown open, parts of his clothes singed, the engraver knocked out; the doorframe of the room was split, and the door itself torn off its hinges.[6][7]
Tsar Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, reported witnessing what he called "a fiery ball" while in the company of his grandfather, Tsar Alexander II: "Once my parents were away," recounted the Tsar, "and I was at the all-night vigil with my grandfather in the small church in Alexandria. During the service there was a powerful thunderstorm, streaks of lightning flashed one after the other, and it seemed as if the peals of thunder would shake even the church and the whole world to its foundations. Suddenly it became quite dark, a blast of wind from the open door blew out the flame of the candles which were lit in front of the iconostasis, there was a long clap of thunder, louder than before, and I suddenly saw a fiery ball flying from the window straight towards the head of the Emperor. The ball (it was of lightning) whirled around the floor, then passed the chandelier and flew out through the door into the park. My heart froze, I glanced at my grandfather - his face was completely calm. He crossed himself just as calmly as he had when the fiery ball had flown near us, and I felt that it was unseemly and not courageous to be frightened as I was....After the ball had passed through the whole church, and suddenly gone out through the door, I again looked at my grandfather. A faint smile was on his face, and he nodded his head at me. My panic disappeared, and from that time I had no more fear of storms." [5]
British occultist Aleister Crowley also reported witnessing what he referred to as "globular electricity" during a thunderstorm on Lake Pasquaney in New Hampshire in 1916. As related in his Confessions, he was sheltered in a small cottage when he "noticed, with what I can only describe as calm amazement, that a dazzling globe of electric fire, apparently between six and twelve inches in diameter, was stationary about six inches below and to the right of my right knee. As I looked at it, it exploded with a sharp report quite impossible to confuse with the continuous turmoil of the lightning, thunder and hail, or that of the lashed water and smashed wood which was creating a pandemonium outside the cottage. I felt a very slight shock in the middle of my right hand, which was closer to the globe than any other part of my body.[8]
On 30 April 1877, a ball of lightning entered the Golden Temple at Amritsar, India, and exited through a side door. This event was observed by a number of people, and the incident is inscribed on the front wall of Darshani Deodhi.[citation needed]
On August 6, 1994 a ball of lightning went through a closed window in Uppsala, Sweden, leaving a circular hole with a diameter of 5 centimeters. The incident was witnessed by residents in the area, and was recorded by a lightning strike tracking system on the Division for Electricity and Lightning Research at Uppsala University
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