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I persoally witnessed ball lightning. At the time, myself nor my family members that were with me knew it was that special. I mean, not that we had witnessed t

I persoally witnessed ball lightning. At the time, myself nor my family members that were with me knew it was that special. I mean, not that we had witnessed this before or since, but we had no idea that this was even disputed or had a name. This tennis ball sized ball of lightning came in the house during a storm through our kitchen back door that stood open. It very slowly swerved acoross the floor at a few centimeters height. It was so slow you could have caught it, for which admittedly I felt the urge. We just stood around an watched it. Then it made it's way to the living room, slowly but surely making it's way towards the television (which was not turned on). When it got to about 2 or 3 meters from the set, it made a curved leap, sort of like a logarithmic curve, right to the center of the CRT. This took out the electricity not just in our house, but apparenrly in several houses down our street. This must have been sometime late 70's or early 80's. If we had known how rare this was, I'm sure we would have made some sort of report or note. I only found out many years later people even doubted this phenomenon's existence.

RappingBoomer 4y ago
in the 1960s in San Antonio Texas an orange sphere about the size of a baseball floated into my aunt's kitchen and vanished with an audible pop over her stove... researchers have been studying these things for decades in northern Norway... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessdalen_lights https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessdalen_lights they seem to be a product of interactions between the soil, the sun, the atmosphere and the Earth's magnetic field
- ncmncm 4y ago
  This fascinating: a place where they happen almost often enough to study. Hessenden is a good companion for Lake Maracaibo, in Venezuela, that sees hundreds or thousands of lightning strikes per hour on almost half of nights. Some people fish by their light. I have seen a claim that the strikes do not make thunder, contradicted by the name "catatumbo" that means "house of thunder". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning
ectopod 4y ago
At about the same time, when I was young, my grandmother told me a similar story from when she was young. About a century ago. I don't doubt it is a real phenomenon.
mtalantikite 4y ago
I had a similar experience as a kid. I was sitting in our living room at the desk that had our computer and modem (it was maybe 1995). All of a sudden I turn around and notice this pea-sized ball of something floating in the air. It was glowing and looked like a tiny ball of electricity. It was moving slowly through the air for maybe 15-20 seconds and then all of a sudden it sped up and curved right down into my hand, burning the hell out of my finger. It sort of felt like getting electrocuted (I got tasered once by a dumb kid around that age and it was a similar sort of shock). I was probably 11 so I didn’t think much of it, but when I got older and read about ball lightning I realized that may have been what it was. Very bizarre experience.
animal531 4y ago
I have a very similar story from around 1986 or so. We had a big lightning strike and a ball formed, also about tennis ball sized. It traveled slowly through our dining room over the heads of all the adults sitting there, then moving into the living room. It also aimed for the crt tv, although in our case I don't think it did much of a jump as it entered it. It switched the tv off and caused a power surge that made all the lights flicker, but everything was fine after (although the tv had a discolored spot that even with degaussing took some time to go away). The really interesting thing for me at the time with it being some kind of lightning was how slow it moved.
- PeterStuer 4y ago
  We did at the time not feel any heat radiating of it. In the living room there was a wall-to-wall carpet, and it left no scorch marks or anything burned. I also can not remember any paricular smell. The color of the ball was bright white, with hints of blue/green.

RappingBoomer 4y ago

in the 1960s in San Antonio Texas an orange sphere about the size of a baseball floated into my aunt's kitchen and vanished with an audible pop over her stove... researchers have been studying these things for decades in northern Norway... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessdalen_lights https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessdalen_lights they seem to be a product of interactions between the soil, the sun, the atmosphere and the Earth's magnetic field

ncmncm 4y ago
This fascinating: a place where they happen almost often enough to study. Hessenden is a good companion for Lake Maracaibo, in Venezuela, that sees hundreds or thousands of lightning strikes per hour on almost half of nights. Some people fish by their light. I have seen a claim that the strikes do not make thunder, contradicted by the name "catatumbo" that means "house of thunder". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning

ectopod 4y ago

At about the same time, when I was young, my grandmother told me a similar story from when she was young. About a century ago. I don't doubt it is a real phenomenon.

mtalantikite 4y ago

I had a similar experience as a kid. I was sitting in our living room at the desk that had our computer and modem (it was maybe 1995). All of a sudden I turn around and notice this pea-sized ball of something floating in the air. It was glowing and looked like a tiny ball of electricity. It was moving slowly through the air for maybe 15-20 seconds and then all of a sudden it sped up and curved right down into my hand, burning the hell out of my finger. It sort of felt like getting electrocuted (I got tasered once by a dumb kid around that age and it was a similar sort of shock). I was probably 11 so I didn’t think much of it, but when I got older and read about ball lightning I realized that may have been what it was. Very bizarre experience.

animal531 4y ago

I have a very similar story from around 1986 or so. We had a big lightning strike and a ball formed, also about tennis ball sized. It traveled slowly through our dining room over the heads of all the adults sitting there, then moving into the living room. It also aimed for the crt tv, although in our case I don't think it did much of a jump as it entered it. It switched the tv off and caused a power surge that made all the lights flicker, but everything was fine after (although the tv had a discolored spot that even with degaussing took some time to go away). The really interesting thing for me at the time with it being some kind of lightning was how slow it moved.

PeterStuer 4y ago
We did at the time not feel any heat radiating of it. In the living room there was a wall-to-wall carpet, and it left no scorch marks or anything burned. I also can not remember any paricular smell. The color of the ball was bright white, with hints of blue/green.