Some time back my neighbor was telling me about something called "ball" lightning. I intended to do some research on it because I thought he was pulling my leg...but never got around to it. I just thought of it again and wondered if anyone here had heard of it or knows anything about it.

 

Check this out.
http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/~bdaye/balligh.html*





* Link Edited by Moderator

 

Way back in my college days I had to do a speech in speech class on lightning. In my research for it I ran across ball lightning. It sounds pretty wild. It doesn't behave like ordinary lightning ie quick flash in a zigzag or fingers it is literally a ball that moves and if I recall is usually found close to the ground and moves along for several seconds or more before dissapating. I think it is quite rare and scientists doubted its existence from just the reports that were turned in but upon research they did in fact accept its existance. Can't remember that far back as to what causes it or should I say causes it to act differently than regular lightning.

 

Way back to even when I was a little kid I remember reading about ball lightening and St. Elmos fire. There have been many cases of this phenomenon occuring on top of masts of ships and even inside cockpits of aircraft. Have read stories of how a "ball" of lightening even went from one house to another. Green seems to be the color most often associated with this.

 

I actually had some ball lightning enter my cockpit one night. It started as St. Elmo's on the nose, got a lot bigger, and entered through the windscreen. Made for quite a lot of fun, since my jet is 99% electrically operated. It left a burn on my right shoulder, and some singed hair on my head! Not to mention, forced my jet to reboot itself!

 

My Mom says she experienced ball lightning back when she was a child. They lived in a mill house with screeen doors, front and rear doors stayed open during the summer to catch as much breeze as possible. During a thunderstorm her and her brother watched a ball of lightning come through the front door screen, down a hall, turn the corner and exit the rear screen door in the kitchen. Scared them to death. <br><br>They figured it must have just been following the air currents through the house.<br><br>Hey WHIFF,<br>Hope your jet didn't take as long to reboot as my MicroCrap-based computer does

 

On a vacation with my parents in Albuquerque NM, we were stopped in a KOA campground that sat on mesa.
On the other side of the valley was a thunderstorm.
From our vantage point we could see much of the lightning activity.
As the thunderstorm grew, the lightning got closer. We were just finishing up a B.B.Q. and cleaning up when we saw a ball of light pass by on wandering course and random speed.
I was 8 years old and the details didnt stick with me, but I do remember seeing a blue/white ball of light pass by our trailer.
Many of the other campers that were out doing the same thing we were also saw it.
Funny thing is, no one could describe how big it was or how close it was to them. Depth and distance perception seemed to have failed all of us.
However, it did pass by but from what I can remember it wasnt that far above us (Im thinking maybe 5 to 10 ft).
No one at the campsite knew what it was and people just went off and kept going about their business.
Doing some reading and remembering what I can, what we all must've seen was ball lightning.

Rich.

 

And all this time you've been believing in ghosts...

 

[quote author=Hoss link=board=10;threadid=16331;start=0#153276 date=1056567328]<br>And all this time you've been believing in ghosts... <br>[/quote]<br><br>I dont know about ghosts, but I see proof of the living dead every Monday morning around this office!<br><br>Rich

 

 

Hoss im guessing this is why you are the way you are. ???

 

I always thought it was that little blue arc that you get when you don't step high enough crossing the electric fence!

 

[quote author=SolidJunkMM link=board=10;threadid=16331;start=0#153442 date=1056591710]<br>I always thought it was that little blue arc that you get when you don't step high enough crossing the electric fence! <br>[/quote]<br>

 

Or when you **** on the electric fence! :-[ [undecided]

 

[quote author=Srigs link=board=10;threadid=16331;start=0#153502 date=1056600393]<br>Or when you **** on the electric fence! :-[ [undecided] <br>[/quote]<br><br>My uncle did that.