Ball lightning is the name given to floating balls of light/electricity often observed during thunderstorms, or in the days following thunder storms. The 'lightning' appears to be self-contained in a spherical formation, and despite numerous theories, nobody knows what causes it.

This story concerns several people who were travelling through a Derbyshire Dale. One woman, who, one night was driving back to her home from Manchester in 1969, was shocked when the whole sky was lit up like daylight - she described seeing all the features of the terrain so clearly - everything was illuminated. The light stayed for quite a few minutes as she completed her journey and was still there when she raced into the house to call her husband. He immediately came out, but the light was gone (of course!) but curiously, the bonnet of the car, even though she had just finished a long journey, was coated in ice.

For hundreds of years, people have reported sightings of strange balls of energy floating through the air- and sometimes through walls. Ball lightning is generally accepted as concentrated energy in shape of a sphere. Although most scientists acknowledge its existence, it can not be proven due to lack of evidence. Reports date back to at least 1754 when Russian scientist G.W. Richman was killed while studying the phenomena. The most common report of ball lightning includes the energy sphere slowly floating through the air as it occasionally passes through physical objects. The energy seems to have the ability to change colors- perhaps due to its varying heat. The lightning usually vanishes in one of two ways: either a loud explosion or a slow fade into oblivion.

Ball lightning is a natural phenomenon, or debatably, a pseudoscientific theory. It is sometimes associated with thunderstorms. It takes the form of a long-lived, glowing, floating object, as opposed to the short-lived arcing between two points commonly associated with lightning. An early attempt to explain ball lightning was recorded by Nikola Tesla on March 5, 1904 (Electrical World and Engineer). Some laboratory experiments claim to produce ball lightning, but there is no consensus that the phenomenon reproduced is related to the natural one. The natural occurrences are, by their nature, difficult to document accurately. Consequently many scientists continue to dispute the existence of ball lightning as a distinct physical phenomenon (see, for example, the review by Singer (2002)). In one such occurrence, Singer reports that staff at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge apparently saw ball lightning, although Brian Pippard, the Head of Department, was skeptical on its reality.

On the 1st February 2002, during one of the most severe thunderstorms seen in Melbourne Australia for many years, I observed and photographed a rare type of lightning - Ball Lightning - so called because of it's spherical shape similar in nature to the animated GIF above.

Ball lightning is the name given to the mobile luminous spheres which have been observed during thunderstorms. A typical ball lightning is about the size of an orange or a grapefruit and has a lifetime of a few seconds. Compilations of eye-witness reports of ball lightning have been published by Brand(1923), Rodewald(1954), Dewan(1964), Silberg(1965), McNally(1966) and Rayle(1967) among others. Visual sightings are often accompanied by sound, odor, and permanent material damage, and hence it would appear difficult to deny the reality of the phenomenon [as Humphreys(1936) has done]. 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:

Ball lightning is described as a luminous sphere which seems to appear out of nowhere and vanish into thin air. It varies in size from two to ten inches in diameter. It usually is seen shortly before or after, or during, a thunderstorm. Its duration varies from a few seconds to a few minutes. "The lifetime of ball lightning tends to increase with size and decrease with brightness. Balls that appear distinctly orange and blue seem to last longer than average....Ball lightning usually moves parallel to the earth, but it takes vertical jumps. Sometimes it descends from the clouds, other times it suddenly materializes either indoors or outdoors or enters a room through a closed or open window, through thin nonmetallic walls or through the chimney."*

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 a real phenomenon.

Welcome to our web site devoted to the study and experimental modeling of the ball lightning and other related fenomena!

This is a great experiment to try at home. It requires a microwave oven, a candle, a toothpick and a lighter. First you put the candle (~1-2 inches in heigth) in the micorwave (remove glass plate on bottom so candle sits on metal). Put the tooth pick in the candle sticking straight up. Light the tooth pick on fire so that flames are leaping off the tip. Shut the door quickly and turn on oven full blast. There will be loud popping noises and then balls of fire will leap from the toothpock and fly around inside the microwave while making a buzzing sound like a bee. If it doesn't work at first try moving the position of the candle. You have to find the "hot spot" in the oven for it to work.