5 ms·

That link says: “Owing to the lack of reproducible data, the existence of ball lightning as a distinct physical phenomenon remains unproven”

OmarShehata 3y ago
There are videos of it, and lots of people have seen it, not sure how much more proof you need: > An optical spectrum of what appears to have been a ball lightning event was published in January 2014 and included a video at high frame rate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bBNeyrMOJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bBNeyrMOJE I think what that sentence is saying is that we don't know how to reproduce it in a lab. We don't know what exactly is happening in the real world that is causing us to perceive this. It could be an illusion I guess, but I think it's undisputed it's a real phenomenon.
- hombre_fatal 3y ago
  > There are videos of it, and lots of people have seen it, not sure how much more proof you need That describes Bigfoot. I’d hope your epidemic standard is beyond anecdotes + videos that report to show what they report they’re showing. Else you can be made to believe anything. I don’t know enough about ball lightning to care one way or another.
  - koheripbal 3y ago
    This is a dishonest comment. No one has dressed up and walked in front of a camera as ball lightning
    - atdrummond 3y ago
      Not yet they haven’t.
      - glompers 3y ago
        Haha look Hold my beer
    - KnobbleMcKnees 3y ago
      This is an even more dishonest comment because the answer to the question "can evidence of ball lightning be easily faked using video editing?" is quite obviously "yes".
    - albedoa 3y ago
      Talk about a dishonest comment. You are literally replying to a thread in which a History Channel feature of a confirmed CGI video was used as evidence that "there are videos of" ball lightning.
- ImAnAmateur 3y ago
  The History channel is junk, sadly. They're perfectly willing to promote false things. Both of the two recordings shown are likely not ball lightning. I personally agree that ball lightning probably exists. However, there is another interesting phenomenon where a brilliant blue/white "spark" of electricity can travel along a wire. I don't have a name for it but power companies are certainly familiar with it. I've seen footage of it happening repeatedly along the same stretch of wire after a storm as an automated system tried to restore power a few times before keeping the power shut off.
- ninkendo 3y ago
  At the end of the video you linked, they admit it was CGI.
  - kyriakos 3y ago
    admitted one of the 2 videos were cgi but the other one is not conclusive.
atdrummond 3y ago
We had ball lightning blow a painting off of our wall in front of 30-odd people at Thanksgiving. It’s possible it was a mass delusion or a ghost but both of those strike me as less likely.
- glompers 3y ago
  The 31st person dressed up and walking behind the painting may have had something constructive to say about the situation
- orwin 3y ago
  The theory is that it's regular lightning, and the rest is a retina-caused illusion? So people actually see ball lightning, but it would be almost impossible to get on a digital camera. So it does, in fact "exist", just not physically.
whoopdedo 3y ago
My father saw ball lightning. He described it as occurring near a small fence -- really a couple stakes and string with flags for visibility hanging off it. Said that the ball would hover as it jumped from post to post then fizzled out. Ball lightning is one of those things that you'd expect to be easier to detect because of the increased use of cameras. Why isn't Youtube flooded with dozens of videos showing lightning balls? There are a few, but none of them are convincing. (One is clearly a drone being flown in a thunderstorm.) Most are fakumentaries. (3 seconds of shaky zoomed-in "proof" and 5 minutes of a so-called expert breathlessly talking about it.) How can ball lightning both have lots of people claiming to see it, but is infrequently caught on video? My suspicion is people are encountering normal lightning discharges at close range and the "ball" is an illusion caused by how eyes work. If someone attempted to get ball lightning on camera they'd be disappointed to see the recording look nothing like how they remembered it.

OmarShehata 3y ago

There are videos of it, and lots of people have seen it, not sure how much more proof you need: > An optical spectrum of what appears to have been a ball lightning event was published in January 2014 and included a video at high frame rate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bBNeyrMOJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bBNeyrMOJE I think what that sentence is saying is that we don't know how to reproduce it in a lab. We don't know what exactly is happening in the real world that is causing us to perceive this. It could be an illusion I guess, but I think it's undisputed it's a real phenomenon.

hombre_fatal 3y ago
> There are videos of it, and lots of people have seen it, not sure how much more proof you need That describes Bigfoot. I’d hope your epidemic standard is beyond anecdotes + videos that report to show what they report they’re showing. Else you can be made to believe anything. I don’t know enough about ball lightning to care one way or another.
- koheripbal 3y ago
  This is a dishonest comment. No one has dressed up and walked in front of a camera as ball lightning
  - atdrummond 3y ago
    Not yet they haven’t.
    - glompers 3y ago
      Haha look Hold my beer
  - KnobbleMcKnees 3y ago
    This is an even more dishonest comment because the answer to the question "can evidence of ball lightning be easily faked using video editing?" is quite obviously "yes".
  - albedoa 3y ago
    Talk about a dishonest comment. You are literally replying to a thread in which a History Channel feature of a confirmed CGI video was used as evidence that "there are videos of" ball lightning.
ImAnAmateur 3y ago
The History channel is junk, sadly. They're perfectly willing to promote false things. Both of the two recordings shown are likely not ball lightning. I personally agree that ball lightning probably exists. However, there is another interesting phenomenon where a brilliant blue/white "spark" of electricity can travel along a wire. I don't have a name for it but power companies are certainly familiar with it. I've seen footage of it happening repeatedly along the same stretch of wire after a storm as an automated system tried to restore power a few times before keeping the power shut off.
ninkendo 3y ago
At the end of the video you linked, they admit it was CGI.
- kyriakos 3y ago
  admitted one of the 2 videos were cgi but the other one is not conclusive.

atdrummond 3y ago

We had ball lightning blow a painting off of our wall in front of 30-odd people at Thanksgiving. It’s possible it was a mass delusion or a ghost but both of those strike me as less likely.

glompers 3y ago
The 31st person dressed up and walking behind the painting may have had something constructive to say about the situation
orwin 3y ago
The theory is that it's regular lightning, and the rest is a retina-caused illusion? So people actually see ball lightning, but it would be almost impossible to get on a digital camera. So it does, in fact "exist", just not physically.

whoopdedo 3y ago

My father saw ball lightning. He described it as occurring near a small fence -- really a couple stakes and string with flags for visibility hanging off it. Said that the ball would hover as it jumped from post to post then fizzled out. Ball lightning is one of those things that you'd expect to be easier to detect because of the increased use of cameras. Why isn't Youtube flooded with dozens of videos showing lightning balls? There are a few, but none of them are convincing. (One is clearly a drone being flown in a thunderstorm.) Most are fakumentaries. (3 seconds of shaky zoomed-in "proof" and 5 minutes of a so-called expert breathlessly talking about it.) How can ball lightning both have lots of people claiming to see it, but is infrequently caught on video? My suspicion is people are encountering normal lightning discharges at close range and the "ball" is an illusion caused by how eyes work. If someone attempted to get ball lightning on camera they'd be disappointed to see the recording look nothing like how they remembered it.