Ball lightning exsists true or false?

Allright, finally here is thing I have seen with my own eyes and couldn't beleive it !
During a trip to Germany in July 1996, I witnessed a massive electrical storm that amazing. The Thunderstorm started at 11:35pm and reached it's peak at around 1:10am and the local powergrids were knocked out. At around 1:12am I noticed a smell of strong smell of ozone and streetlamps turning flickering dimly. I thought to myself that this was pretty unusual since the street lamps were all on the same circut, no sooner had I noticed the strange event, a dim fiery orangy ball about the size of a basketball shot out of the clouds and bounced from the top of a radio tower down to the row of streetlamps and lit them as the ball made contact with them.. about 5-6 seconds the ball grew dim and started flickering and dropped from the last street lamp to the ground and exploded with a white flash. The ball must of left some sort of charged trail since milliseconds after the flash a bolt of lightning nailed the building directly infront of the spot were the ball disappeared!

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

Am seeing things or is this really what I saw? I know the area I was staying in had a lot of agricultural Nitrogen and Ammonia vapour near ground level. There was also lots of diesel powered vehicles as well. Could these have been contributing factors to what I saw. Did I take LSD and go crazy? Tell me your opinion.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

I've heard of ball lightning. My friend has witnessed him, and I believe him. I believe it exists, even though I have not seen it. It remains one of the greatest mysteries to solve in science.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Research continues on it - but it is both frightening and reassuring to know that there are still unexplained natural marvels right here on Earth. Here are some papers on the subject.

http://www.padrak.com/ine/ELEWIS3.html
http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2000/docs/0006-02.htm
http://www.amasci.com/tesla/ballexst.txt

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

From your account, Hideki, I'd say you definitely saw a classic example of ball lightning

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

No question it exists, the question is exactly what it is!

More info on the TORRO site: http://www.torro.org.uk/research/blightning.htm

 

I have my doubts. When I was a little boy I witnessed something that could have been a ball lightning. It made a deep impression. But lateron I tried to analyse exacty what I had seen.

If you would have asked me right away, it was obvious. A light ball all of sudden in font of me after a heavy thunder stroke, a few meters away only, then it started to float away and disapeared in the distance. The whole event lasted several seconds.

But what did I really see? Was I blinded shortly by the normal lightning stroke, so that a light spot remained at the retina in the eye for several seconds. That blinded white spot would move to where ever you would look, until normal vision is restored after several seconds. Exactly like a "ball lightning"would have behaved. Could have been a very down to earth explanation?

 

So how do you explain the flickering lights when the ball rolled over the street lamps?

 

Andre was only doubting his own experience - he was not questioning what you believe YOU saw.

 

Sarthane Xyzth speaks for all?

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

I understand that Andre was questioning his own experience!! I posed this question to him about the street lamps flickering on and off.

 

Has there been any theories so far on how ball lightning forms?

 

Diesel submarines had ball lightening form on their giant batteries and stuff. It's believed that electricity strips a gas (possibly gasoline or something) of its electrons and creates a plasma that the electromagnetic forces hold together.

It's been found that ball lightening can go through metal. There have been reports of ball lightening burning holes through glass and screen doors, as well as detonating like bombs.
One theory has it that the majority of research on ball lightening has been done by the US military, and is being discouraged by the same agency. Imagine using explosive balls of plasma on the battle field!
There was an article that purported this theory in an old News Scientist.

 

interesting responses

 

are there any scientists on this forum

 

There are plentyof people with degrees or equivalent in various sciences - but if you mean people actually working in research, I'm not sure right now.

 

I heard that you could create ball lightning by putting a couple of hundred candels in a microwave. however there is a 1 in a thousand chance of it happening and if it does 95% of those are fatal.

 

Not Rare !

YEs. You can create a plasma filiment in the Microwave when the candle is lit. YOU NEED ONLY ONE CANDLE TO DO THIS ! The base of the candle must be an insulator. The plasma travels where the soot from the flame touches the magnetron. This plasma filiment happens all the time during and arc event!
Basically it is a large carbon vapour arc!!

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

o cool thanks for the correction, sounds amazing to see put i dont think ill try to create it...

 

TRY IT !! You will not ruin the magnetron! Run it for 6-10 secs. Keep the run time short!

 

huh. Well I really had no idea that balls of electricity or ball lightening was under such study. I guess I had just figured that it was a normal occurance and most likely was already known and understood. Especially since I have seen it so often. Though more often traveling on power lines and in houses and just a few times from the sky. I really wonder if part of it has to do with what is already charged in the air and also possibly incorrectly grounded or poorly maintained power lines. The first time I saw one was in a person's house. And I suspected that it was because the house was old and probably had a bad ground or no ground at all.

Thanks for the links Starthane they are quite interesting. I am no scientist but I do find things such as these very interesting.

 

Glad to be of service, MagiAwen.

If you have seen ball lightning yourself, you know more about it than I do...

BTW: if you continue posting at your present manic rate, your posts will outnumber mine within 3 weeks; you will overtake Tiassa in less than 8 months.

 

Starthane Xyzth said:

Thanks for the calculations

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

I do not intend to keep posting at this rate (if it's a concern). I stumbled across this site while I am on a little hiatus from work. Tomorrow I go back to work and I'm sure my excitement about this place and the newness will wear off rather shortly.