Welcome to the
|
 Ball
lightning reportedly takes the form of a
short-lived, glowing, floating object often the size and
shape of a
basketball, but it can also be
golf ball sized or smaller. It is sometimes associated
with
thunderstorms, but unlike
lightning flashes arcing between two points, which last
a small fraction of a second, ball lightning reportedly
lasts many seconds. There have been some reports of
production of a similar phenomenon in the laboratory, but
some still disagree on whether it is the same phenomenon. |
Are there accounts of people
seeing ball lightning?
Yes. Thanks to
the web, there are many ball
lightning accounts that are now being compiled. If you are a witness to a
ball lightning event and would like to be included in the first scientific
survey, click here.
Are there images of ball lightning?
Interesting atmospheric phenomena is occasionally
captured on film or video, here is an example:
There are also some serious research attempts at propagating the phenomenon that
are worth looking at:
Here is a very interesting video; a team in Brazil has cooked up a simple recipe for making similar eerie orbs of light in the lab, even getting them to bounce around for several seconds...
We highly recommend visiting the WEIRD SCIENCE PAGE database of BALL LIGHTNING REPORTS for an exhaustive list of eye witness accounts.
Copyright 2007 Ball Lightning Research Center. All rights reserved.
Revised:
04/03/07