Originally Posted by
andrewcocke
I was wondering if anyone has experiences what is called "ball lightning"
My step father tells of a story when a electric ball came through their storm door when he was a kid during a weird thunderstorm, it ran across their legs and made the hair stand up on end, and then went down the air return register for the furnace never to be seen again.
My father also tells of a simmlar story.
And then, I have one of my own, when I was very young, (about 7), I remember a wild thunderstorm, I recall looking out our storm door, and I observed a bold of lighting with a large ball that decended from it. The ball went out a few seconds later. I was to young to really take a good mental note of what I saw, all I have is a 20 year old vague memory.
Is there any professional opinion here on this subject? or just any stories you want to share about ball lighthing. I would love to see it again, now that I have a better mindset for it.
I personally have never seen a ball lightning. But I found this story on the internet:
In a letter to the editor of the London Daily Mail, Morris(1936) described an unusual incident in which a ball lightning caused a tub of water to boil:
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."
http://polarmet.mps.ohio-state.edu/~bdaye/balligh.html