Ball Lightning: Weather's Biggest Mystery | Answers With Joe

Get 1 month of CuriosityStream for free when you sign up at www.curiositystream.com/joescott
Ball lightning is a mysterious phenomena that's been seen since the beginning of recorded history, but it's so rare most people put it in the category of folklore or pseudoscience.
However, there's some new studies that seem to show that ball lightning is not only real, but there's possibly many different kinds, and there's a lot we can learn from it.
Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: nebula.tv/videos/joe-scott-ba...
Want to support the channel? Here's some ways to do it!
Patreon: / answerswithjoe
Channel Memberships: / @joescott
Merch: www.answerswithjoe.com/store
Join me on the Our Ludicrous Future Podcast:
/ @ourludicrousfuture
Interested in getting a Tesla? Use my referral link and get discounts and perks:
ts.la/joe74700
Follow me at all my places!
Instagram: / answerswithjoe
Snapchat: / answerswithjoe
Facebook: / answerswithjoe
Twitter: / answerswithjoe
LINKS LINKS LINKS:
phys.org/news/2017-10-lightni...
envronozone.com/science/ozone...
www.nationalgeographic.com/en...
Animation: • How does lightning form?
www.livescience.com/42731-wei...
www.newscientist.com/article/...
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article...
www.nationalgeographic.com/ne...
Spectrograph results
physics.aps.org/articles/v7/5
www.researchgate.net/publicat...

[@secretplayer7640]

When I was little I though that ball lightning, quicksand and the Bermuda Triangle would be huge sources of problems during a person's life

[@angelmartin7310]

LOL

[@avak2101]

i fuckin wish, i'll take ball lightning over corona any time

[@stevenguevara2184]

They have ruined lots of peoples days. We will never hear there storys though. The Bermuda Triangle not so much

[@davidmaximjr7110]

John Mulaney?

[@J.DeLaPoer]

Also aliens, bigfoot, time travellers, etc. I watched way too much "In Search Of..." as a kid.

[@sgtjonmcc]

"Ice particles build up a positive charge... because reasons..." Good enough for me *sips coffee*

[@mathiasa90]

Hahaha thought the same

[@christianheichel]

See that's where you messed up You should have sipped the coffee and then said good enough for me

[@sgtjonmcc]

@@christianheichel Dang it!

[@illogicmath]

It should be very difficult for ice particles build up positive charges

[@marshmallowarkleseizure3742]

*i've always found it presumptive to question the motivations of atmospheric phenomenon and lightning in particular* *just sayin'*

[@GregPappasJr]

About twenty years ago (I was about 36 at that time) I was laying in my bed taking a nap during the day, recovering from a painful back injury. A bad thunderstorm raged outside as I slept and I was stunned awake by the sound of a lightning bolt striking just outside my window. As I sat up, frightened by the loudest sound I've ever heard (even to this day), to my astonishment, I watched as a crystal-ball-sized sphere slowly passed through the bedroom window and very slowly crossed my room, about six feet off the ground. It looked like it was made of a brownish haze within the sphere, and tiny arcs of electricity were all about it. It was silent... not a crackle, not a peep. It crossed my 12' x 12' bedroom in about 10-15 seconds before disappearing into the wall as if it had never been. Some hear this story and assume I dreamt it, but I was wide awake and naturally told everyone about it. Truly incredible to behold.

[@Major003]

Did it cause any damage?

[@hughleyton7269]

You see my comment above, I think I might now know what Ball Lightning is.. . OK, I am not sure how it works, but I thing rotating bals of electrical energy, the current heating the air to Plasma, but as EM energy as we pass in waveguides, it can go through glass and brick walls. . . Not the Plasma, that is physlical hot air, so can't go through glass, but reform as Plasmal inside the aircraft or building and new plasma.

[@lordofthevets7677]

@@hughleyton7269 if its plasma wouldnt it have made her room hot and burned the wall?

[@Godscountry2732]

A peer-reviewed paper in the July 2019 issue of the journal Optik by Vladimir Torchigin from the Russian Academy of Sciences. From the abstract of the paper: We show that the mysterious and intriguing behavior of ball lightning, observed by many eyewitnesses, is explained on the assumption that ball lightning consists only of light and compressed air. In contrast to a soap bubble, the spherical shell of ball lightning consists of highly compressed air, in which ordinary white light rotates in all possible directions. Light compresses the air due to optical electrostrictive pressure. In turn, the shell of compressed air is a two-dimensional light guide that prevents the propagation of light in free space. Thus, ball lightning is a self-confined light in a nonlinear optical medium in the form of the conventional air atmosphere. The hypothesis is a combination of previous assumptions with physical models that pins down the light density and air pressure required to produce such light-focusing bubbles. Is it the complete answer? Not yet. There are some details it doesn’t explain yet, such as a case in China a few years ago where ball lightning was reported after a lightning strike. The event was captured on a spectrograph, so scientists were able to obtain a breakdown of its electromagnetic spectrum. It may also not explain the sulfurous smells sometimes reported. But it could lead to experiments that would either confirm or debunk this latest proposal for how ball lightning works.

[@Pushing_Pixels]

@@Godscountry2732 I imagine a ball of compressed air would not be able to pass through glass, as some ball lightening seems to.

[@SarahGreen523]

I actually saw what had to have been ball lightening, just a couple of months ago. A big blue white ball, so big I mistook it for the moon at first glance. It moved fast just above the tree line of the path I was on. Never saw anything like it before, and I was so glad that my husband was with me and saw it too. Weather is def weird.

[@hughleyton7269]

Had there been any lightning in the area. ? . . Could it be a sort of offshoot from a lightning bolt some distance away. . . . I am beginning to think it might be a rotating ball of EM electrical energy, the current heating the air to Plasma.

[@MyYT62]

Pretty sure that a “hallucination” can’t burn your carpet as it passes through.

[@vincentnguyen3068]

Well he did suggest that there could be different types of ball lightning, because anything solid wouldn't move through windows.

[@tomfly3155]

@@vincentnguyen3068 what if it's like capacitive reactance, and somehow the energy goes through the glass to create a mirror plasma ball. I don't know wtf I'm talking about really🤔

[@rotorblade9508]

Yes it can, if you do things you don’t remember which is likely for someone who has hallucinations

[@kaball6545]

What if the hallucination is so strong that it induces Electrokenesis causeing our minds to burn things with electric charge by changing the charge of Iona in our brains to match and control the same charge ions outside of our bodys😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@brokentombot]

You haven't had good acid then.

[@OlCrunch]

“If it hits you, you explode and die...” Best line ever.

[@honkytonkinson9787]

Gotta add the tornado part lol

[@godsoloved24]

"And voila, potatoes... "

[@gj9157]

Another happy landing

[@susannekeryk5804]

You might not explode. Layers of skin would pop off due to super heated steam generated.

[@patriciacardenas958]

The bfg in a nutshell

[@andrewparker318]

1:18 the way this man just said "voila potatoes" gets me laughing every time

[@johnbogle6475]

My father retired after 20 years as a USAF pilot. He said that he saw ball lightning on occasion and seemed to allude to the fact that it was not uncommon among pilots. That would lend credence to the vortex theory as he told of it wandering & dancing on the wings (which of course work by creating great pressure differences and occasional vortexes). It did come inside the cockpit once but just traveled through. Great video. Thanks

[@SwordOfApollo]

That sounds like St. Elmo's fire to me. That's much better known and well explained.

[@B7BLUE]

Having the UFO get struck by lightning while taking off would have been an excellent touch.

[@DielsonSales]

Such a missed opportunity!

[@lordinquisitor6651]

Was about to comment the same

[@darrenheffner4329]

Maybe the aliens been using this a a source of energy. It certainly can't because they are impressed by humans.

[@Aegis4521]

Would have

[@mixumup1]

*ufo creating lightning

[@ashishpradhan636]

Joe: Ball lightning is very rare, only a few people have experienced it. The entire comment section: I was x years old when I saw ball lightning come into my house

[@maxheadrom3088]

I have never seen one - but I read an article written by a scientist who, with two friends (also scientists), who saw one. Only recently scientists start to study it. Curiosity: in Brazil there's this folk figure "the headless mule" - that, btw, breathes fire out its nostrils. I met a guy who saw one and he described it to me - it probably was a ball lighting. Oh ... I've seen a UFO, though: it was flying and I did not know what it was therefore, an UFO.

[@someone28]

@@maxheadrom3088 My grandmother and I saw one. It started raining and I came into the house and joined my grandma in the kitchen. She was holding a baking pan and was going to push the one window beside her closed when a bright orb appeared, she screamed and threw the pan instantaneously and the orb hit the pan bending it slightly. My cousin still has that pan. I really could not care less if people believe me. Few years after that I was shot by a sniper while in my hometown of Sarajevo. So yeah not the coolest thing that has ever happened to me but its a story I will be telling the grandkids.

[@cancelanime1507]

A lot of ball lightning cases probably end up being reported as UFO sightings

[@Daddy_Skeletor]

Silent majority theory

[@misham6547]

A few can be large number when there are 8 billion people

[@Treasureson78RPM]

I've definitely heard of ball of light sightings just prior to a major earthquake or during a volcanic eruption. It's pretty likely that these phenomenons are related to similar conditions that could cause ball lightning (extremely high energy events). I've never witnessed ball lightning myself but I remember my mom telling me a story of her witnessing a ball of light during a thunderstorm in the 1960s. The ball of light came through a window, moved across the house and went out through another window. Really interesting stuff, I hope to witness one one day.

[@IshayuG]

I saw one in Denmark near Nykøbing Sjælland, Denmark in 1995. They can occur without that because Denmark has neither. Ever.

[@mjt11860]

Neither of what, earthquakes, volcanoes, or lightning?

[@femkes3014]

What I find so strange about these ball lightning stories, is that almost everyone says they've seen one when they were young. That totally doesn't make sense

[@scupking]

So true.. My dad said when he was young in elementary school he saw ball lightning in the baseball field. He said it was bouncing around for a little while then blew up.

[@VaraLaFey]

There's a definite majority of youth sightings _being posted_ here, but many of their sightings were also witnessed by adults who were with them, and most of their 2nd-hand stories came from adults. Plus, I saw my first one a few days ago and I'm 60. And a youth majority - if it's actually real - does make sense when the commenters are now middle-aged or more, because we spent more time outside than most adults. TODAY'S youth, inside and glued to their phones, likely won't as much ball lightning, UFOs, sasquatch or anything else as past generations did.

[@usmh]

My grandma said she and her parents saw one. They weren't young.

[@clcsqueejy04]

Yeah I'd imagine that the majority of stories taking place when people were young is a confluence of both false memories and the fact that most people spend a lot more time outside when they're young than as adults.

[@onlygaming69]

@@VaraLaFeyvery valid point

[@CaedenV]

"Keep your plannet" lol, this is what I needed today

[@danielwyld9260]

Agree!

[@noahjx8811]

CaedenV *planet

[@marccolten9801]

If the water didn't deter him why would lightning?

[@SciFiMangaGamesAnime]

Waaait! I havent told you about Australia! Or Yuznoe Butowo! Oh man...

[@MushVPeets]

TBF, most people(s) have seen lightning, certainly by the time a civilization goes interstellar. Gas giants have a bunch, and a lot of star systems have gas giants... And most "conventionally" habitable planets can have it too.

[@johnanita9251]

"Keep your planet"...I laughed my socks off. Might actually be our best chance to survive an alien invasion...

[@deathqzin3795]

What tell them all the shit about this world cause if so Great Idea👍

[@Ryukai-san]

Rename the Earth to 'Death World' and then just take them to Australia where even the plants will kill you if you stand too close to them... They'll never come back :P

[@viddork]

I'm curious to know which planet he's talking about? You know, the one with two suns, casting two shadows from the departing spaceship.

[@residentgrey]

Aliens can't be here. The life here will brutally kill them all unless they have compatible bodies.

[@residentgrey]

@@Ryukai-san just show them the huntsman housecat, err...spider. And marathon Steve Irwin.

[@MsNooneinparticular]

My aunt & uncle got hit by lightning recently. Said there was a metallic taste right before. It wasn't even that stormy (like, not raining at all) so they weren't expecting it. There was something like this that came through our TV when I was a kid. Like a fireball. We ran tf out of that room so fast.

[@isak5263]

I had a similar experience while driving once we're two balls of fire fell out of the sky and lingered a bit before disappearing. It didn't look like ball lightning so I have no idea what that was.

[@dennisbruh2383]

Right and we supposed to believe you. Seems like everyone in the comment section has experienced this rare phenomenon. Your aunt and uncle probably some mental couple

[@johngivens2115]

@@isak5263 Maybe a meteoroid?

[@isak5263]

@@johngivens2115 but there was no visible remains. I know that while they fall they loose significant mass but there should have been some physical remains or evidence.

[@johngivens2115]

@@isak5263 But not every meteoroid/meteor makes it to the ground…. Those are called meteorites, the ones that reach the ground. The meteoroids that enter our atmosphere but disintegrate before reaching the ground are just meteors…. Maybe it was just a meteor is what I’m saying, it leaves no evidence unless captured on video (fully disintegrates before impact).

[@humanfromconception1195]

Joe Scott! Your channel is flying; about 2.5% more subscribers in one day! Your content is golden, right down to the intro drum - tap & the chair swivel. Bleeping dig your humor. More!

[@keyholes]

"And voilà, potatoes" is a line I need to steal immediately and use in wildly inappropriate situations.

[@mikefelber5129]

keyholes Necessarily it would only be voila potatoes if potatoes were already planted where the lightning stikes

[@cwtrain]

Preprocess this data. Transform this column. Load that into here and...Viola! Potatoes!

[@SofaKingShit]

I live in a place where almost no one speaks English so yeah I'll be doing that and it should work.

[@murraycrichton2001]

Explaining lighting to an alien. "dude, you have just traveled across the cosmos. How bout you tell me how that works".

[@levilandes1719]

Lightning doesn't happen on all planets....so....

[@davehallett3128]

L ig h t n i n g. It s amazing when you add or subtract letters you make different words. The rest of us learned this in grade one

[@Andrew-13579]

Alien: "I got a ball lightning generator for my 6th birthday. They are so much fun! But the veebrat (cat) never liked it."

[@levilandes1719]

@@davehallett3128 C'mon man, that's obviously just a typo, he even used proper punctuation... mostly. Give dude a break.

[@viscache1]

This is not an uncommon phenomenon for mountain climbers. Three times in 22 years of rock and mountain climbings I was caught up in what we referred to lovingly as ‘tumbleweeds of death’. I always happened near the top of the peak and during a storm. We got on our frameless packs and hunkered down and waited to die. They would mostly fade with rare ones bursting with the sound of a gunshot (inside your head) It was the most ferociously beautiful thing I have ever seen…worth the ruined undershorts.

[@Behold_I_am_Egg]

I saw ball lightning earlier today, during a thunderstorm. I could feel a charge in the air and a change in the air pressure, so I walked over to my window, and within seconds a flash of white light happened and a ball of blue light appeared midway up the treeline just a few yards from my house. The thunder almost immediately followed it's appearance, and it just kind of hovered for a second before drifting upward lazily for another couple of seconds or so, with a little trail of lightning behind it before disappearing. It made my day!

[@RelativelyBest]

My theory: Wizard duels. They turn invisible and throw fireballs at each other.

[@alphagt62]

That is every bit as valid as the hallucination theory!

[@izaakfewton7536]

Nailed it mate :D

[@littlegravitas9898]

#SeemsLegit

[@jarlesleglerg9064]

Mugello Confusio!

[@ErinShellyMason]

Magic missile

[@JoshuaOdionson]

Joe to Alien "Oh! Wait until you see Thunder Snow!" Alien: "Thunder what? What the hell is wrong with this place?" Joe: "Oh, then there's Australia!" Alien: "Nope. We're out"

[@zvpunry1971]

Maybe the aliens have discovered all these things a very long time ago. And before they left, they put up warning signs all around the galaxy. Maybe this is also a solution for the Fermi paradox. ;)

[@deanasaurs]

Lighting snowstorm over Lake Michigan was the best Saturday night of my life.

[@WCM1945]

Dude. I live in Alabama, and even *_I_* have witnessed "thundersnow". Lightning doesn't require clammy summer afternoons.

[@SadisticSenpai61]

We have thundersnow occasionally here in Iowa. In the past month, we've had both Sun Showers and Sun Flurries - where there's no visible clouds in the sky but it's raining/snowing anyway. Then it rained ice. Again. Then we got an Easter blizzard - the same weekend Florida hit record highs. So that was fun.

[@jb76489]

Milo Novik ah yes, Australia, because no where else on earth has dangerous animals

[@TheGrinningViking]

My uncle saw ball lightning once, it floated through a window and into his guest room - he'd never even heard of it before. The entire fuse for the room ended up permanently fried so he just used it for storage from then on. I think it's because there's too much positive charge in the clouds and no negatively changed spot on the ground for it to jump to. Maybe because the ground has been hit with too much lightning already in a small time period and is positively charged itself.

[@hughleyton7269]

Yes, it was the understanding quite recently about it apparently floting through a glass window where the penny dropped. .. EM Energy, as in Radio and wave guides can get through glass. . But the white light, I beliebe is hot Plasma, as in normal lightning. . So I now suspect it is a rapidly rotating ball of EM energy, which heats the air to Plasma. . The Plasma can not get through a glass window, but it can reform ont he other side.

[@lorriewatson7423]

I actually saw ball lightning once; it happened during a thunder snow event, the lightning pulsed out of those clouds as bright orbs hitting an electrical substation directly in front of me. They all exploded on contact, totally destroying the entire substation. The electrical discharge from that shorted out the electrical system of my van, melting several fuses in their sockets.

[@ryanlydon3403]

Joe: they actually caught the ball lightning on camera Me: sits through the rest of the video expecting to see it

[@stevesloan7132]

Hello. There is video of ball lightning here on the tube. Amazing clips.

[@kathrynmasters6854]

ran my mouse along the time line didn't see what was in the thumbnail...after him speaking just a few seconds I knew to stop vid' come check comments see if this is wasting ppl's time....Thank You Ryan...You Are Awesome...!! I was saved from another click bait vid...!

[@Lethgar_Smith]

The little white dot with the stretched color spectrum seen at 10:47 is the ball of lighting. The image was captured for scientific measurement and not for spectacular viewing.

[@scottstokes822]

Don’t give up your day job

[@patricialee76]

@@stevesloan7132 most of the "ball lightning" clips on KZbin are faked (and therefore quite spectacular ;)

[@DarthStone]

I had the opportunity to experience ball lightning, when I was 7 yeas old. There was a big thunderstorm, and I was watching The Incredible Hulk on TV (yes, I’m old) and when it ended, I went for the knob that turned my TV off, and as soon as I touched it, there was a big blast, I caught a melon sized white spark that flew across the hallway outside my room, I saw it maybe for half a second, my sister screamed from the bathroom (she was taking a bath) and we all came out of our rooms, my dad thought the stove exploded or something, and when my mom went to see if my sister was ok, my sister (she was 6) was crying next to the toilet, she said she saw a bright light come through the bathroom door, it spun very fast in the ceiling before disappearing through a vent. The only “proof” we ever got of our experience, was an electric burnt smell left all over the house, and a pin-sized black hole left in the metal of the vent on the bathroom’s ceiling. To this day it is the single most unexplainable thing I’ve ever seen, weather wise. I have never experienced anything even remotely like that ever again.

[@dragonfury1565]

Daniel Almada You sure your not a wizard? Lol

[@marleyex2695]

I seen that in my dads country in Haiti. Except it was a clear ball with purple and orange lightening strikes inside of it. And it seemed to follow me and cousins as we ran away in terror. But your story is crazy because it came into your house. 😱

[@louf7178]

Incredible story!

[@BeeHatGuy]

@@marleyex2695 holy crap! My grandpa told me about how a ball of lightning followed his family at one point during a bad storm. He was from Indiana tho

[@bassraja1978]

Electric fire caused by lightning probably travelling along all house wires

[@joyl7842]

The weirdest lightning I have ever seen was a big thunderstorm moving over where I lived with flashes of lightning going on multiple times every second, but no thunder at all. It was so freaky.

[@benleah4783]

We've seen those in the South of England a few times, as you say, many flashes per second for 5-10 minutes with absolutely no noise; it's a very eerie experience, almost apocalyptic feeling!

[@Aw-ns1qx]

It's from a big storm that's far away. I have seen it multiple times as well. Was like a strobe light but no thunder.

[@joyl7842]

@@Aw-ns1qx Except in my case it was directly over my head. So it doesn't explain it.

[@monhi64]

@@joyl7842I suppose if it was high enough in the air it would look deceptively close. Or the lightning being high up in general can cause you to not hear anything. Idk, I know I’ve seen silent lightning all the time but never rapid fire like that. It’s particularly spooky when it’s one of those so bright it momentarily looks like day and then you hear nothing

[@kasperlarsen4060]

This phenomena is called "heat lightning". In Denmark we call it "korn-mod" or "corn-ripe" since it usually happens around harvest season, late of summer. It's lightning hundreds of kilometers away which are somewhat visible but the sound doesnt reach for us to hear them

[@TohmaYuu]

I just happened to search lightning ball and clicked your video first. I didn't know I'd be fully entertained by the way you present and by your humor. I'm subscribing.

[@scubasteve2169]

Alien: "keep your planet.." Joe: "is that a no on the probing thing then?? " 😂😂

[@mark-dietz]

Funniest comment of the week!

[@Farvaman423]

Scuba Steve I wonder if it’s planets that have gas like planets with ozone layers and gas planets that have lightning even planets without surfaces like Venus and Jupiter have lightning and I’m not completely sure but I don’t think rocky planets like mercury would have lightning idk just a theory who knows a scientist might go more in depth on it if they already haven’t lol

[@Andrew-13579]

@@Farvaman423 I'm not sure I know what I'm talking about, but I think a planet would need to be covered with a dielectric fluid (like air), in order to have lightning...Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn...and Uranus, Neptune, Titan, Io, and Mars? So, the Moon, Mercury, icy moons and asteroids would probably not have it. Although, they might have some other ion phenomenon at the surface. There are claims of strange glowing clouds on the Moon...transient lunar phenomenon.

[@polychoron]

@@Farvaman423 Venus has a rocky surface, under the greenhouse blanket of clouds. Love your name, btw.

[@Biomechanoid29ah]

Would have worked better 4 planets away.

[@MBkufel]

"Documentary Filmmaker Richard Hammond" A lot has changed it seems

[@keyholes]

The Hamster has evolved 🐹

[@A_Salted_Fishe]

@@keyholes Now he's the gerbil

[@robertmoore3982]

Wonder what he'll crash now?

[@seppstarthebest]

maybe trump will have a ted talk on flat hierarchies after his presidency ... who knows ;)

[@muhammadbinfaisalalkhalifa1604]

“Min min lights” in Australia have been discovered to be distant lights (or fire) and the phenomenon has been reproduced. It because of cold air pockets close to the ground that refract sometimes far away headlights / light sources.

[@WhiskersMctabby]

I've seen it once, right before a relatively tame thunder storm started. A little purple/white ball of electricity shooting through the air, a few hundred feet up. It didn't look very big, maybe two feet at the most, and it fizzled out in just a few seconds without any noise. I'd say it was moving maybe 60km-80km. It wasn't raining at the time, but it was cloudy and there was the occasional flicker of sheet lightning. I happened to be looking up at a very open area at my in-law's old place, on their balcony. It took me a long time to figure out what it could've been because it clearly wasn't a meteor and only lasted several seconds. The weirdest part was that when it fizzled out, the light that was being emitted by the outer shell of electricity looked like it got sucked into the middle of the ball. Almost like a little electric event horizon being swallowed by a tiny black hole that became unstable and then destroyed itself. I tried to contact a couple local universities to ask them, but nobody returned any emails. :(

[@reconnaissance7372]

I've experienced one massive positive cloud to ground lightning strike in my life when I was in school painting hehe.

[@robertaylor9218]

“Becomes positively charged ice particles because reasons.” Love that line

[@nunyabisnass1141]

Didn't want to extend the video for another 10 minutes just to deviate from the subject. The emphasis on "reasons" seems like an fu on furious commenters.

[@robertaylor9218]

nunya bisnass I think it was brilliant. You have to draw the line somewhere.

[@FlexBeanbag]

@@robertaylor9218 kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJ7GaoF8m82rbZY

[@Jig_Artist]

I had to replay it because I thought I misheard!!

[@Summernightsandneonlights]

Because he don't know , they don't know .

[@tara5742]

Even though it was a failure, thank goodness first contact was with Joe. Because of his mind and heart, Joe is THE perfect person to speak for us.

[@josephdavis9204]

I know, right?

[@pauljames5826]

AND he’s so handsome 😉

[@erickmagana353]

I saw one years ago. I was alone on the roof of my house when I was 15, and it suddenly appeared above the house of my neighbors. It was shining and color green. It lasted like 5 seconds and it moved as it was dancing. I didn't know what could it be until I learned about ball lightnings. There's a hypothesis where hill become electrically charged and release that energy in the form of plasma, and that seemed reasonable to me because my house was actually on the top of a hill.

[@GV5]

@@georgethomas5109this would explain the common explanation of it ‘chasing people’ and going towards wall outlets, instead of the ground

[@williambryant5946]

I witnessed ball lighting once when I was around 10 or 12 yrs old at my grandparents house. There was a thunderstorm moving towards the house and I was in their kitchen. The house had very large single pane cast iron windows with a fairly large pane of glass in the center and three 12" square pains on either side connected together that had a screen and a hand crank so they could open. Only the three panel small side windows opened. Anyway standing in the kitchen looking toward the other end of the house to the right is the dining room and past it the living room. The dining room is separated from the rear of the house with a wall which formed a hallway when looking toward the left from the kitchen. In the hall to the left there is a bedroom, a bathroom, and a second bedroom at the end of the hall but where the hall starts to enter the second bedroom it narrows at an angle and a there is a doorway here on the angled part of the hallway wall into the living room. Again I was in the kitchen sitting at the table which I could look left and see down the hall into the living room through the doorway in the angled part of the hallway wall. There is a recliner there facing the TV at the end of the room with a couch and table between them. The table between the chair and a couch is where the cordless phone's charging base sits. A flash of lighting outside of course caught my attention and as I turned my head to the right to look out the window a ball of lightning was coming through the center pane of the three small panes of glass to the right of the window, it was about the size of a softball including the glow area around the denser, much brighter center. As it was passing behind me I turned to the left and watched it as it floated down the hallway at a average walking pace into the living room and struck the cordless phone charging on the base. I almost crapped my pants. The next day my grandmother was opening the curtains, and raising the blinds to open the window. As she started to crank open the window she called my grandfather into the kitchen and showed him and me, as I had followed along from the excited way she sounded when she called him; the window pane which had a ripple in it like when a rain drop hits water. There were two raised rings one inside the other with the largest being about halfway between the size of a golf ball and a baseball with a small bump inward in the center about the size of an eraser on a pencil. It's still there to this day. Im 38 yrs old now and its still got to be one of the weirdest things I've witnessed with my own two eyes. That's the one and only time I've ever seen ball lighting. Now you know exactly how my grandparents house is laid out inside too. LOL!

[@aitchvee]

Back in 2017 I was travelling in rural Texas and spent a night at an Airbnb.. I was woken by a constant super loud arcing sound and light coming through the blinds.. I looked out the window to see a huge ball of lightning travelling slowly horizontally about 10m off the ground in a field behind the houses across the road. I saw it for about 20 secs before it dropped toward the ground going behind a house and then shutting off.. In the morning I drove past where I saw it and thought it might have followed the line of a wire cattle fence. Was an incredible sight.. An unplanned tick on the bucket list!

[@victormuckleston]

about 44 years ago i saw ball lightning land in the football field outside my classroom, i was suprised it hovered above the ground then moved up and fizzled out, maybe for about 10 secs.

[@KSparks80]

A friend and I saw a ball while driving to work in Florida around '83 or '84. There was an extremely large, very bright lightning strike about 1 1/2 to 2 miles ahead of us. It had forked and appeared to hit a couple hundred yards on either side of the road, with the road right in the middle. As the lightning flashed vanished, it's like it left a small, bright blue electric-looking ball hovering straight above the road, maybe 150' up or so. It didn't seem to be moving around, but it did look like it had movement "in" it. As we watched, it was growing in diameter, getting much brighter, and getting a hotter, more blue/white color to it. It then grew really quick, got very "intense" looking, and was a bright, mostly white color. Like a welders arc. Then it went out. It didn't just wink out, and didn't explode. It was like those huge power line switches that open up and drag a big arc with it that kinda dissipates away. From the time the bolt hit until the ball went out was probably 6 or 7 seconds. Neither of us said a word until it went out. Then we both looked at each other, and at the same time hollered "Did you see that f'ing thing!!" I can still picture it like it was an hour ago. Hard to describe, but it was damn impressive!

[@DavidHRyall]

I snort laughed at the guy peeing on the wire “ball lightning” 😆😆

[@morganrobinson8042]

Watch Tommy Boy. It is so stupid and so good, like every movie with Chris Farley and David Spade.

[@TheEVEInspiration]

I wonder how often the actor could be persuaded to do another shot :)

[@hopeafterdope3473]

I know myth busters said you can't get electrocuted by peeing on the third rail on subway tracks, but I sure know it's possible to get electrocuted by peeing on an electric fence... And it does knock you back on your ass! Not flying though the air, but you end up in your ass all the same! Oh the childhood memories you're bring back Joe! Thanks!

[@philippesantini2425]

Don't ever pee on a fence.. At 10 or so years old, I peed on an old farm fence but didn't know it was electrified...very unpleasant. LOL

[@superitgel1]

It is almost as good as the guy peed on the metro railway and got electrocuted to death.

[@robynsmith4164]

When I was a child in the early 1980’s, I lived wayyy up in the Northern United States. On a warm July night, my parents and two siblings were sitting in our HUGE kitchen (built in the 1880’s) with two big windows open with screens. An electric ball, about the size of a basketball, shot in through a window. It just floated there for about 5-10 seconds and shot right back out. It was about the color of an LED light with a hint of purple… My parents were totally cool about it and said, “that was ball lightning!” to me and my siblings. They had both seen ball lightening before at some point and knew what it was! I can still see it in my head like it just happened yesterday! I have never seen ball lightening ever again but it’s been a cool story to tell my kids! Living wayyy down South, we have LOW - E, double paned, windows with the A/C blasting about 10 months out of the year. I believe that is the reason why I have never witnessed it again. So… BALL LIGHTENING IS REAL! 😁 ⚡️ 🟣

[@justinnazario5380]

I’ve seen one when I was young and didn’t know about how rare it was. I was looking outside when it was raining and out of nowhere a car sized ball of lighting momentarily stopped near the driveway and then just exploded with a huge thunderous sound. I will never forget it.

[@logictechratlab8787]

I have actually seen a lighting ball when I was younger, I remember it well. It was storming outside and I was sitting in the living room alone (my parents where upstairs doing whatever). Suddenly the electricity went out so my mom and dad where using portable lights. I was just staring out of the window admiring the the raging storm when suddenly out of no where a basketball size white, light blue color ball was going through the garden and hit the window right in front of me, this all happened in like 2-3 seconds after that I didn't see it again but was scared of out my mind, my parents rushed downstairs because they heard a big bang (the sound of the ball hitting the window) and their portable lights went out(EMP effect idk?). needless to say I was scared for the rest of the evening and it's a memory I will never forget.

[@marksparks8852]

"shat" may or may not have been a typo.

[@logictechratlab8787]

@John Barber Yea sorry English is not my native language

[@mybluemars]

Dude, it was aliens!

[@t00by00zer]

You witnessed a fundamental structure of nature. That was a plasmoid, a quasi-stable state of plasma. Scale that up a trillion times and you have a quasar.

[@oscarjones9989]

I swear I experienced either this or something similar a few years ago. I was sat at my laptop with a small window open during a small storm and a thin line of electricity appeared in front of my eyes across my vision before disappearing shortly later. I also felt a build-up of electricity around me and a very high pitched sound almost like tuning a radio or tv or something. weird

[@justnoah2073]

It's just Yoda taking Palpatine's lightning and throwing it back at him.

[@coolcube111]

How long have they been fighting? I guess Palpatine wasnt wrong about infinite POWAH

[@gabbykanu9514]

Possibly experienced this as a kid. Saw two balls of light floating near my glass patio doors and it floated around the room. It was a light green color. My siblings and I always thought it was an alien or ghost but now this makes more sense.

[@isaacpahl690]

If it had no smell or sounds I would think it's a ghost too lol

[@ky41411]

Lol when joe showed the video of mega lighting just as it struck KZbin gave me an ad for life insurance that was good timing

[@happymack6605]

So glad to see this! While my friend and I were watching television, a baseball sized ball lightning came in through the far window, traveled the length of the house, hit the kitchen wall where it made the clock fall to the floor. My grandmother, who was in the kitchen, screamed and immediately ran in to see if we were still alive. It also melted the sub panel and all the wiring in the garage. We all saw the lightning. It moved about as fast as you’d roll a ball to a child. I didn’t realize we must have all been insane until I took college physics 😳

[@textech4056]

I observed something similar. My ball lightening came through a window. It was about the size of a golf ball. It traveled downward at about 45 degrees and no further than 3 feet. It impacted the floor and disappeared. The time it existed was milliseconds. I knew of ball lightening incidents so I knew what it was. It's difficult to rationalize how anything with a charge or containing electrons can travel through glass.

[@TheGB1950]

My friend and I were walking down the street and 2 or 3 Balls of light the size of a baseball seemed to come down from the sky and hoovered over our heads (They made a crackling sound) we freaked out and started running down the street and they seemed to follow us crackling the entire time, then they broke up with a loud popping sound. It was a clear night.

[@MrJdsenior]

@@textech4056 Everything exists for milliseconds, even the universe.

[@textech4056]

@@MrJdsenior That sounds good to me. I like the axiom.." Time is nature's way to keep everything from happening at once."

[@zethloveless7238]

Yo me and my brother had this shit happen and it was the craziest shit I thought we were both fucking tripping. I am the most skeptical science based person and I still can’t fuckin explain that shit.

[@MeritaKing1]

I saw one in my mother’s living room. It came through the patio door glass, scared the dog shitless, then fizzled out.

[@ionebrown481]

I had one in my living room! Sooo cool!

[@Alextheairbender]

Faker

[@mayimmermaidacademymermaid2700]

I had one yesterday literally as a clap of thunder happened it was tight in front of my face... I was working taking calls at the time.. Was the strangest thing I have ever seen and because I was taking calls on my lap top at the time, I count myself lucky .. yikes!!!

[@VaughanMcCue]

No more barker's' eggs'? What does your dog lay now it is s'less? :)

[@imperialstardestroyer712]

It's so rare only a few people have proven to experience it, but I found like 50 comments saying they saw it. Like it's so fucken rare that I think that only like 100 people from the whole world saw it.

[@mysticmae12]

A few years ago I decided to binge a bunch of Unsolved Mysteries episodes because I used to watch it as a small child and off and on through the years growing up. When I binged it all at once, I totally realized where all of my interest and belief in the paranormal came from lol. Unsolved Mysteries planted lots of curiosity seeds in my brain and turned me into a nerd 😂 I don’t mind though. I still love all of those kinds of topics and theories. Without curiosity, my life would be super boring.

[@gustavosantos106]

0:49 and "Keep your planet" are so much comedy gold I immediately had to suscribe!

[@NicholasA231]

"Documentary filmmaker Richard Hammond..." 😂 Oh man, now The Hamster is a "documentary filmmaker". I think a couple of his mates might have a good laugh at that. (I mean, sure, that is kind of his job, but for some reason that made me laugh out loud)

[@PiousMoltar]

Oh cock

[@Dylan_Sterling]

CLARKSON!

[@BrandonCase]

He’s got a couple of really cool series already

[@stiimuli]

yeah that jumped out at me too. That's as far off as calling him a "race car driver"

[@DetroitNerd]

Gotta do something between car wrecks lol

[@itsjustneo7199]

My mom experienced this when she was a kid, it followed her and her brothers throughout the house. I never knew it was this rare

[@royzala631]

I know same with my grandma

[@9razzler9]

did they freak out? how did they react? also did she get a little electrocuted when it came close to her?

[@isisganz8796]

I experienced this ball lighting when I was a kid, it floated above me for a few seconds and when I reached out to touch it, it floated away. It was very bright, I’ll never forget it. This happened about 30 years ago. It was just bright however, it didn’t have any noticeable typical lightning features, just a big basketball size light floating above me. I’m so glad I finally know what it was. I should add that it didn’t have a rim, it was just light and more warm hued than blue.

[@itsjustneo7199]

isis ganz were you scared when you saw it?

[@tonrah9109]

@@isisganz8796 I saw one like this a few years ago. About the size of a volleyball,

[@synthyawylder3297]

My mother would relate the story of her father who happened to be sitting on the toilet when ball lightning came down the metal fan exhaust vent, bouncing all around the bathroom before suddenly exploding. I imagine that my grandfather really had the shit scared out of him! Literally!

[@rjh6111]

I loved the intro, but also found the notion that lightning is unique to earth even more hilarious

[@TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

0:48 Best intro ever, this was hilarious

[@hopeafterdope3473]

I loved the 👽! How'd you do it?! No, seriously!?

[@davidschneide5422]

"I love the smell of ozone in the morning..."

[@SadisticAssassin321]

Me too🤙🏼

[@foxtoxic9722]

And napalm. Lol

[@well-nighmonochrome871]

oh how I wish I were immune to ozone...

[@davidschneide5422]

That's why they called it a "stimulus" check.

[@electricbooga1oo617]

You'll only love it for a while then you'll be dead

[@keyserswift5077]

Ball lightning as fusion? I never would have thought of that! Now I am obsessed with ball lightning joe! LOL

[@coralmurakami-fester1146]

This was my first time hearing about ball lightening! Reminds me of will-o-the-wisps that could also be the inspiration behind the fairies/sprites. The same phenomenon in Japan is called onibi. Would LOVE to see a video about that too.

[@barbaralowe4875]

My grandfather Dilley worked for the railroad in different capacities. One time when he was working in a railroad tower, ball lightning came in the window, rolled around the room, hit him on the arm, and then went out the door. I don't know if the window and door were open or closed. I don't know the affect of being hit did to him. But he worked many years at the railroad station in town. He was a telegrapher, and later as the station agent for a number of years. Wish I had asked him more questions about it.

[@krisscecil]

When I was in middle school, during an evening thunderstorm, my mother and I both witnessed what has only ever been accurately described as ball lightning. From opposite sides of our house, we both saw the bluish white orb of light hover through our home at about 5 feet above the floor. As the orb had turned right instead of left toward her room, she only saw it for the few seconds it had moved through our living room and into the hallway. It then proceeded down the hallway to my room, at a slow walking pace, unaffected by my box fan directed at the hallway. It was the same hue as an arc welder, where it's so white that it seems blue. It continued across my room in a straight line, moving directly over my head while still in my bed, passing through the room's opposite door, turned right into the next room and vanished. Initially, I thought I had dreamt it. It wasn't until I saw my mom enter the hallway that I realized she hadn't been asleep either. We both compared our perspectives, she saw a different color than I did, as well as remembering it being larger than I did, though this last detail could possibly be explained due to the decay of the phenomenon. As we do not subscribe to beliefs of visible disembodied spirits, we knew there must be an empirical explanation, but with the internet not yet being invented by Al Gore, there was no recourse to research it. I still remember the day I stumbled on an early website, thanks to Jeeves, exploring stories on ball lightning. I showed the articles to my mom, and she immediately acknowledged many of the stories were accurate to her memory of that night. Still to this day, though, the strangest part to me--again likely explained by our lack of superstition--was that after we compared notes on the event, we both in effect shrugged and went back to bed and fell asleep. Thanks for the video! Very thorough and entertaining!

[@eamartig]

PreachRN Blue is not as hot as white you know?

[@billcat1840]

my wife and I saw the same thing in our house. glowing orb about the size of a soft ball...happened right after a strike hit the back of the house. It floated through the living room right between us. Hit the wall and popped in a shower of sparks..I was scared to move for awhile....what if it had hit me? Would I have been hit by lightning?

[@karlomoonblade]

Really? Wow my dad had the same experience too, it was during lightning storm when he saw pingpong ball size bright glowing orb bouncing in our terrace after a lightning strike and then vanished by it self. He was so sure he definitely witness it but i did not believe it because it doesnt make sense

[@kaysidegamer5996]

Wait who did you say invented the internet 😂

[@eamartig]

TheFirst Sidegamer Al Gore? Never heard of him? He was so famous they named the KZbin algorithm after him

[@adampdx]

"Documentary filmmaker Richard Hammond". Technically the truth.

[@Major003]

LOL! I absolutely loved the "Space Australia" moment at the beginning of the video. First time viewer here. Great job with explaining the theories present of what ball lightning physically is without my eyes glazing over. I'm pretty scientifically literate, but there are still many terms I don't know! To me, the post-lightning fireball/lightning ball/plasma ball theory (composed of charged calcium, silicon, and whatnot) actually makes a whole lot of sense, and seems like the most viable theory to me, especially since there were readings done on lightning to back it up.

[@ViraL_FootprinT.ex.e]

I spent an entire childhood absolutely terrified of lightening after seeing it strike a tractor and set it in first once. While every now and then it catches me off guard because of ptsd related issues to unrelated stuff, I'm definitely a lot better off with lightening than I was as a kid.

[@jeanettewest]

My dad was an aviator in the Coast Guard between 1959 and 1974. He saw all kinds of weather phenomena. He described ball lightning to me when I was little, and many times since over the years he has told the same story: "that on his grandfathers farm in New Hampshire in the 1940's, his grandfather was in barn while my dad was in the yard watching an approaching thunderstorm. He saw a lightning bolt hit a tree on the property and a ball, not too big, but about like a basketball, slowly bounce across a cleared area of the yard and into the barn where there was another thunderclap. His grandfather came out of the barn, deafened by this, and one of the cows that was in the barn was dead. The point where the ball touched the cow, looked burned." He described the ball looking "very bright, acting like it had almost no mass to it". There was no reason for my dad to lie, he wasn't much for jokes, was a pretty serious man, so I believe what he saw and experienced, especially since this was during the War years, a cow was worth a great deal to a small farmer.

[@Aw-ns1qx]

I am from NH as well and know of multiple stories where people have experienced ball lightning. I wonder if it has something to do with the area? Like the granite or radon or what?

[@jeanettewest]

@@Aw-ns1qx I wish I had the answer.

[@StrangeScaryNewEngland]

@@Aw-ns1qx Same here. Raised in NH and actually knew someone who's house and dog was supposedly hit by ball lightning near Rumney.

[@whoshotdk]

I've been lucky enough to see this in real life. I'm a complete pessimistic skeptic and even I thought it was aliens at first.

[@mysigt_]

whoshotdk do tell us more, please

[@jaimealvarado4421]

Same here. Girlfriend and I were in my car late on a cloudy night when suddenly I see lightning flashes with no thunder. I look up and see a ball of lightning flashing on and off

[@Nikp117]

How do you know it wasn't?

[@Skylancer727]

@@Nikp117 logically we would see aliens in space long before we see them on Earth. We have telescopes aimed at the sky 24/7 so the odds they can't be seen there but can be here is unlikely. Plus we have yet to find a Dyson in our galaxy so the idea of interstellar aliens coming here of all places seems unlikely. Plus, why would you come here just to look? Seems like an incredible waste of time and resources especially with how far even the nearest stars are. Plus with FTL seeming basically impossible by the laws of physics, that basically means aliens need to come at sub light speed so no way in hell would anyone bother. If anything they'd just send a probe to just scan other planets and stars.

[@niltomperimneto]

I saw too, but i couldnt understand, It just kinda stayed and the very fast flied very high. I'm atheist but seeing that I thought it was some kind of spirit then.

[@doclewis8927]

"Because reasons" had me choking on my water. LOL.

[@xpndblhero5170]

In the house my family has had since 1896 my great great grandparents and great grandmother all seen ball lighting multiple times, it came in the house and blew up the fridge once and another time it just went straight through and did nothing..... She told me about it a lot and I always wanted to see it but she said she'd be happy to never see it again because it was so terrifying to watch it slowly move through the first floor then it touched the fridge and boom.

[@1KJRoberts]

* Bead Lightning * Thanks, Joe! I saw this type 25 years ago and my attempts to describe it were met with derision, mocking & scorning. And the expectation I was stoned.

[@davidgolden6068]

I feel so validated by this! While I was flying in the Army, I flew by a storm at night wearing NVG's and I saw multiple of these. Also, if you ever have a chance to see a storm wearing night vision, DO IT. It's pretty neat.

[@aaronc8057]

NVG also help to see UAP.

[@rrb396]

Watching the stars with nvg's is absolutely mind blowing.

[@Bramble20322]

@@aaronc8057 WTF is an UAP?

[@aaronc8057]

@@Bramble20322 Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, it’s the US Government’s new word for UFO and it encompasses the meaning better.

[@philblanco3608]

hi Joe, my buddy and i were in thailand about june 1967 , serving in the air force at a base there, many nights there was , what i call , heat lightning, the sky , after sundown and no twilight , we had huge cloud formations that actually had a great big hole above the base and town, we could 'clearly ' see a sky full of stars, now the phenomena starts , with the heat lightning commencing , one night we witnessed , 'ring lightning' , the lightning actually traveled along the perimeter of the cloud at the edge where the cloud ended and the open area in the cloud started , i hope i described that properly, think of a roulette wheel and when the ball is spun onto the wheel , it first travels at the outermost part of the wheel well, before dropping onto the slots of the wheel , that action of the ball at the perimeter, is the best description i can use, this action by the lightning sometimes happened a few times in the course of the evening, but we had ' heat lightning ' almost every nite, some nites we had lots of rain , so no ' show' , well , i thought i would share that, ciao 4 now

[@unofficialjuicewrldunrelea2580]

Bro that intro deserves appraise i can not stress that. That was gold! And for a KZbin video man, deserves more credit.

[@emilyfrigge]

One time during marching band practice we all started kinda laughing when noticing our peers hair was standing up. Then we realized our own was standing up, as was litterally everyone's on the field we were practicing on. (While holding metal instruments in the air.) When we pointed this out to our instructor she insisted it was fine and had us keep practicing :E Thankfully no one was hurt.

[@GV5]

sounds like there wasn’t enough electrical energy to instigate a strike but holy shit that sounds close

[@emilyfrigge]

@@GV5 yeah iirc there were some small cloud to cloud lightning and a bit of thunder, so not a huge storm, thank goodness lol

[@user-lv6rn9cf8m]

Had a ball lightning go trough my hallway years ago when I was on the phone. Didn't dare going close and it disappeared into the kitchen. Just a few years ago I learned that some even dispute their existence... huh.. what..

[@donkeybutt3239]

I have had ball lighting come through my living room when I was very little. We, my family, had the front door open during the summer and only had a screen door to let in cool air our window ac went out in that part so it was a very hot summer. Anyways a very strong thunderstorm moved in and we always loved thunderstorms and not afraid of them so we never shut the door when they move over the area. Well this one was a very strong one which lightning hit a nearby tree and then ball lighting came through the screen door in our living room and just disappeared. Well the noise from the lighting to seeing a ball of lighting in the living left us stunned and shocked, pun intended, my sister wet herself. Don't blame her it almost made do the same thing. We couldn't hear anything for a few mins except a loud ringing from the lighting hitting the tree and making a loud boom sounds that made us have hearing loss. About 5 minutes we got it back. But that was a day we will never forget. We still are not afraid of having our front door open when a thunderstorm moves in. We each have our own family now and every once in a while I will turn the ac off and have natural cool air come from the front door, open the windows when a storm rolls by and enjoy a cool breeze from it. Hoping I dont see ball lighting again, but not afraid though..well maybe just a tad but not enough to close my door or windows!

[@HaydenX]

When I was in elementary school, there were a bunch of us kids waiting to get in (we had all arrived slightly early for class and the doors weren't open yet), and there was a surprise tstorm. After all of 10 seconds of high wind and showering, there was the brightest and loudest lighting bolt I have ever seen or heard, which struck a tree across the street. It didn't explode...instead, the leaves on the tree started on fire and were slowly breaking off...then there was an additional loud crack noise before the top half of the tree separated off and crushed a tool shed, with glowing, flaming liquid pouring out of the remaining half of the tree for just a few moments before the whole lower half of the tree essentially incinerated from inside out. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen at the time (no one was hurt except the tree and a tool shed), and I still don't know exactly what conditions were required for this to happen. The tree in question was an elm I think (it was definitely a deciduous tree), so none of that ridiculously flammable pine resin was at play here. I don't know if heartwood can melt or not, but that's pretty much what it looked like. The whole lower half of the tree was completely reduced to ashes over the course of about 5 minutes...so whatever the continuing fuel was, it was pretty potent. My mostly (I have done some chemistry stuff) uninformed guess is that the heat, charge, and pressure converted some of the cellulose into nitro-cellulose (gun cotton) via nitration, which is both highly flammable, and quick to melt as it is a plastic.

[@Hogstrictors]

"The meteorological world can acronym like a bawse" 😂. I love the learning and objective information but this stuff is the icing on the cake!

[@DeDraconis]

I've seen ball lightning once in my life, about twelve or eleven years ago. I was driving home from work, rural road, and I was going down a dip in the road (I guess you could say a hill, but rather shallow). It came into being about twenty meters ahead of me, and I hit the break so I didn't drive into it. It wasn't a single ball but like.. I guess a ribbon of spheres? It kind of had a vague tapered rhombus shape, more and larger balls in the center/top bottom, fewer and smaller ones towards the left and right tails. It lasted like five seconds and then disappeared. The left side of the road had power lines on it and it was an overcast day, but no rain or lightning/thunder. Just for context, I don't know if any of those facts matter. Was pretty cool after the fact but I don't know if I would have got zapped if I didn't break and drove into it; fortunately I was already breaking because I was going downhill.

[@kulpritblk1578]

Yeah I know I saw some little ones like two balls whizzing around and I didn't think there was any lighting at the time but It was overcast, that would have been amazing to see what you did though, but I don't doubt that it can happen after what I've seen though.

[@jamesross160]

You need to be grounded for electricity to zap you

[@kulpritblk1578]

@Stopthewar Taylor I was inside my sharehouse while I was at uni. It was in town, but I think we had underground power cables in that area. I saw them as I walked out into the hallway of my room one-day when I went to get a drink like a million times before. They seemed to be following each other. My door was on the end of the hallway, and when I turned back around after shutting my door, One came flying out of an air vent on the floor to the left next of me, and there was a wall opposite as it's a hallway, so it shot out took a hard swooping left & went down the hallway the way I was going but then decided to take a hard swooping right into my housemates locked room as he was out. My first reaction was to touch the spot on the door where I had seen it pass through, it just felt like nothing. Then I went back to check the vent and poked into it and it too had like a mesh on it so it must have passed through that aswell. But as I was doing that another one came flying out right in front of my face and did the exact same thing as the other one but in a slightly different spot in a slightly different way as if it had somehow known where the other one had been and which way it went. After that I went and put a tinfoil hat on coz I was like whoah wtf was that what the hell are those things. It was like a flying pinpoint of light that emanated into a sphere that was a bit bigger than a golf ball but smaller than a tennis ball. I was just worried they'd try to fly into my head so I was on the lookout for a little before I decided to accept the enivitability of posession. But I don't get why they didn't wanna just go straight through the gyprock aswell. Maybe they don't like it, maybe I should make a gyprock hat lol.

[@toriacharro8654]

I’ve seen something that might be ball lightening when I was 5-6yo. It was a red & orange “lava bubble” that slowly floated passed me outside and floated up to the top of the neighbors house and “popped”. It had a humming sound and radiated light/warmth. Idk about any actual storms during this but it obviously stuck with me.

[@aaron51155115]

Never seen your videos, just here to learn about ball lightning. I'm just coming to the comments to say that intro was fantastic and hilarious. I appreciate the effort. :)

[@anavaldivia4669]

“Keep your planet” hahaha I needed a good laugh like that today.

[@Adventures2U]

Lol throw COVID 19 while we’re at it lol 😂

[@Alloveck]

I saw ball lightning once when I was a kid. For what it's worth, it happened during a very strong thunderstorm and before I had ever heard of ball lightning. And before my parents or anyone else I told about it had heard of it either, leading to a lot of incredulous responses. It was a real "told you so" moment when I randomly found an article about it in a magazine years later. Anyway, the ball itself was pretty typical of other stories - a mostly white sphere with some very light blue, maybe a little bigger than a basketball. It slowly and silently arced up through a nearby section of the floor then went back down through the floor a few feet to the left, with zero effect on the carpeted surfaces it passed through. Unlike most accounts I've heard though, it also had a "tail" of lighting that trailed behind it. It also cast very little illumination on surrounding surfaces despite being a mass of bright white light. While nothing about it makes sense exactly, it's always seemed particularly weird in retrospect that it seemed so bright to my eyes yet lit up its surroundings so little. That detail would point to the hallucination theory I suppose, but I also wasn't the only witness at the time so that explanation would require simultaneous identical hallucinations. Ultimately, I don't blame people for being skeptical of something so strange and rare with no truly definitive hard proof, but having witnessed it myself, I'm definitely a believer in ball lightning.

[@Major003]

The whole "hallucination" theory stops adding up when there's reported incidents of ball lightning where _visible physical damage_ is reported.

[@artemisgaming7625]

I don't believe the hallucination theory for a single second. I've never seen ball lightning personally, however I've heard a story from both my uncle when I was young and my grandparents that my uncle was struck by ball lightning as a young teen. Unfortunately he's passed on so I can't ask about his personal experience with it, but I've asked them many times over the years and the story stays consistent, the ball came through the wall, and struck him leading to him yelling out in pain. He was always tough, but they said he didn't act like it caused extensive damage like a bolt of lightening would've, just that it was a painful burn/shock.

[@johndeaux8815]

For what it's worth (probably not much) I had shared hallucinations with someone before (under the influence, but still) we BOTH saw the same cars driving past, we could both hear them coming from the distance, and see them pass by, and there was about 40 of them going through a residential area at 2am. They were all black with underlights so I'm pretty sure most of them weren't real😂 I get that this is drug induced, but we are all using the same neurotransmitters in sober life, so a group hallucination under the influence of serotonin, gaba, dopamine, adrenaline, etc. shouldn't be ruled out either.

[@lrn_news9171]

@@artemisgaming7625My mom has seen one passed through the window as a kid. My dad I think has talked about a similar experience, I'll have to ask him about it again.

[@mjt11860]

Read my reply to GregaPappasJr.

[@6teezkid]

When I was a kid, my mom & Dad told me about a big ball of lightning that came into their bedroom. A thunderstorm was happening. Suddenly, they saw a perfectly round ball of lightning (they had never seen one before but had heard of them throughout their lives). They said it was definitely much larger than a bowling ball. And maybe the size of a basketball. They watched calmly as it rolled. Then that's when their minds were blown up! 🤯🤯🤯 The bedroom window was closed! The ball came right through the window (without one bit of damage to the glass or any part of frame). It rolled along the solid wood floor and disappeared as they watched it. There were no burn marks on the wood floor. Their bedroom door was directly across the room from the window. They said it disappeared when it got near the door. The only thing I can think of is that it either "grounded" itself before door or it had ability to go under or through the door. I mean, if it went through glass as if it didn't exist, why not the door? That whole story had to be told to us kids many, many times over the years because we loved hearing. It was never a "fish story"...meaning it never got told in a bigger or more elaborate way. It was the same for decades. Just wow!

[@edwarddejong8025]

My mother in law saw ball lightning. It's a very strange thing that occurs so rarely that we can't study it. One of the great remaining physics mysteries.

[@gubzs]

I saw this one afternoon as a kid and I remember it so vividly. Myself, my parents, and our neighbor's mother, five of us, were all standing on our recently built back deck in Warner Robins, Georgia. There was a really rough storm rolling in but it wasn't raining yet. The four of them were sort of standing by this L-shaped area of the house, where they couldn't see the storm rolling in because the wall they were next to was between them and that side of the sky. It was that awful beige vinyl paneling people used to do in the 90s. I was watching lightning streak through the clouds, mesmerized, and honestly kind of upset that none of them seemed to think it was worth looking at. Then suddenly there was a bright orb just between two clouds. It was yellowish, but so close to white that it might have just been white. It sat there for a solid five seconds or longer while I was just speechless, then four streaks shot out of it in an asymmetrical "x" pattern - at least that's how it looked from my angle - and then it was gone. To this day, they don't believe me.

[@kulpritblk1578]

No I believe you, I saw some littles ones, they looked like it does when you look at a street lamp with your eyes a bit squinted and the light streaks out in different directions, but that wasn't happening, the light just seem to be doing it on its own not just on your eye, it just looks like that itself but instead of the streaks going off somewhere they curl back into themselves to make the orb shape but you can still see the arms of light emanating from the core. I didn't see it blow up, but I'd have imagined it would have looked something like you described.

[@notsocommie]

smash irl smash irl

[@Kevinegan1]

Sitting in my office one day I was looking out the window while a thunderstorm was blowing through. It wasn't a very big storm but it produce some lightning. A few hundred yards away was another warehouse-type building across the street. It was a single-story building with copper gutters and downspouts. Instantly three large green balls appeared on the roof of the building right on the front edge along the gutter. They glowed brightly and sort of pulsated with a ethereal green light. These balls, taking into account their distance away, were approximately four feet in diameter. They moved back and forth across the gutter like they were looking for something. This lasted about 30 to 40 seconds and then they found what they were looking for. They came to the downspout at the far end of the building. This was the farthest they had traveled down that side (Right Side) of the building. When they reached the downspout they each, maintained their same distance apart at about 6 feet, and seemed to jump down the spout and with a small pop of green and white light, disappeared into the ground. It was of the most astounding things that I had ever witnessed. Driving to work one morning, on a perfectly clear day, a power pole transformer exploded directly over my car while I was driving. The explosion blew the power lines off the pole and they fell across my car as I was driving. They simply slid off the car as I driving without doing any damage. Sitting at a traffic light one morning, again on my way to work in the same car, a large vulture, roosting on the power pole decided to dry his wings. I was watching him and I was thinking, "Buddy I wouldn't stretch too far" and as soon as I thought it, there was a loud explosion and a brilliant white flash of light. When my vision cleared a split second later I got to see the smoking, nearly featherless vulture, fall to the ground right next to my car. Those are two other strange experiences that I've had.

[@clintdavis9511]

I was pulling out of a store in a storm and lightning hit the transformer on a telephone pole above me. Sparks flew all over the car but didnt damage it. So it happens.

[@napoleonwilson2249]

WARPHEAD your car acts as a faraday cage so you would be quite safe in it.

[@meesalikeu]

one time i was driving to work on a calm morning across a flat countryside highway and the sunrise sun was an hourglass shape that filled the sky. strangest thing i ever saw. i could never find any info about that effect except that it might be related to a temperature inversion.

[@jacobcreech4415]

One time I was taking a piss in my back yard and the pole power transformer in my neighbors yard just exploded. It wasn’t raining or anything. Sparks flew everywhere. Scared the shit out of me.

[@MOTO809]

When I was in college, my roommate and I were sitting out on the front porch one evening when a transformer directly across the street exploded. The flash temporarily blinded both of us, as we were adjusted to the dark, and the concussion shook the porch. I legitimately thought a bomb went off for a few seconds.

[@thefloridaman6527]

I have been wondering about this since I was a preschooler and my mom told me about a friend of hers who claimed to see one and i could not believe it 😁 thank you for the video

[@camhyde9701]

I have seen ball lightning during an electrical storm. It was also seen by our neighbours and moved between where I and they saw it. The electrical storm was directly overhead and the most intense I have observed. That was around the late 60s / early 70s and I have not experienced it since despite having seen many electrical storms since, and having been very close to a lightning strike in 2012. The most remarkable attribute was how it continued to glow incredibly brightly and remain relatively still for several seconds.

[@maxk4324]

Ball lightning: Hey, listen!

[@davetimmer5149]

Seen it twice. Once me and my dad was watching tv, lightning struck the transformer in our back yard. Immediately a orange ball came out of a hallway outlet, a little smaller than a hard ball, hovered around the hallway up to the ceiling then back down. then it went back into outlet then the bang, sparks and then the main breaker blew. The second time was when I was in my bed, a lightning struck the neighbors house and also hit my window( steel frame) and an orange ball formed.. Size of a softball. I threw my sheet over my head and I could see the ball float around my room through it. It floated about a foot down from the ceiling and circled the room then stopped and came straight at me. It hit my tv antennae that was extended over my bed. Slowly went down it and then exploded when it came to the tv (3' from my head) it blew/melted the entire bottom of the tv and burn a 2' circle in the carpet. It melted the cord but did not blow the circuit breaker.

[@dancingfirefly7761]

I believe you, too!

[@adjuster57]

You and your dad need to stop drinking malt liquor. LOL Just kidding!!

[@asmodiusjones9563]

Your account is specific, thorough, and not sensational, and you have nothing to gain by recounting it. Also, thousands of people have seen similar phenomenon, supporting the idea that you observed what you claim. However, I do not have a robust scientific theory to explain your story, so I’ll just disbelieve you because that’s easier for me, you absolute liar.

[@Zoo-Wee-Mama-Sq]

@@asmodiusjones9563 Fuckin pinnochio over here spinning stories to make fools of us all

[@faith9196]

my grandfather has a story about ball lightening entering his house as a kid when they left a window open during a storm! he’d always tell us about how strange it was

[@OneJey]

I saw ball lightning when I was young. I loved to observe the weather from my bedroom window. One day I saw a fuzzy bright ball float and move erratically before falling then I assume fizzle out. If course little me was like " :0 what was THAT" And so my parents explained ball lightning. My parents must have explained it wall because I understood it despite being like 6 or 7. I was also great at my self taught weather science class, which I took my senior year instead of chemistry because my prep school required another science class for a replacement. I can still name clouds and know what they do. Coulda went into meteorology but I don't wanna work in a news station. Plus that class was the worst since I didn't get to choose. Almost didn't graduate. Don't put an autistic adhd student in a PACE class. Weather is still cool.

[@jbirdmax]

I was hit by lightning when I was nine years old. I still have scars on my feet and pretty bad memory issues.

[@dansbrown1313]

As a kid I was playing soccer at lunch break. A lightning bolt hit about 3 feet from me and I was more than a foot in the air trying to kick a ball. I woke up on the ground dazed and no one noticed so I brushed it off. Good news is I didn't die and because of that event, I feel I understand Joe a bit better. :)

[@WCM1945]

@@dansbrown1313 If you had had both feet on the ground at the time, you might not be telling us about it.

[@quasiic]

Bill Martin Can’t the lightning still jump through the air?

[@cv4809]

It must've been a shocking event

[@nicholaswong179]

That must've been an electrifying experience.

[@Kaelygon]

My grandmother and her sister told that one of these lightning balls exploded front of my grandmother. At the time she was in elementary school and had to spend the whole summer in hospital. Her other eye was almost fully blinded but she didn't get any other long term.

[@E.K.1969]

I am watching this because I saw it today . It was about a mile away. Ahead of a incoming thunderstorm. It was a really bright flash , brighter than regular lightening. The sound It made started off like regular thunder but had a huge bomb noise, louder than any lightening I had ever heard. I covered my ears. It was so wierd. It immediately stood out to me as wtf was that !

[@Alaryicjude]

My grandma had lightning strike her house, go through the TV and form a ball of electricity that zipped through the room for maybe 15ft before it dissipated. She wasn't any kind of liar and I always believed her.

[@JohnJohansen2]

1:04 is lightning producing ozone a new thing? I wonder about the fresh smells thunderstorms always produced, when I was young. Actually smells a lot like ozone.

[@StevoSwiss]

I learned that 25 years ago...would call it old info.

[@dr.robertjohnson6953]

Arcing electricity has been known to create O3, as long as I can remember. I started my adventure into electricity when I was about 7 or 8 when I was given an erector set for Christmas. It came with motors, and a battery holder. Four D cells in series was never before so fun. I was arc-welding parts of my set together using nothing but what came in the kit. Not saying that the parts held really well, but my dad was impressed that I built some of the things I did that way. Have you ever been in a room with a lot of modern photocopiers/printing presses? They usually use the xerographic method, which uses a corona wire that carries about 5,000 volts (varies from machine) and if you could bypass the machines built in safeties, you can see the corona glowing on that wire passing its charge to the photo drum or to the paper. And when the machine requires its carbon filter replaced, if you just remove the filter you get a very strong Ozone smell. The O3 is strong enough to cause chemical reactions with the exterior plastics of some of the machines. Certain Xerox products come to mind. An orange gunk, almost like jelly, builds up on exposed surfaces to the ozone. Little known fact... Ozone has a short half life. IIRC... from workiing at Xerox, the O3 half-life was something like 8 minutes, in a confined office environment with no ventilation. When exposed to large amounts you begin to get headaches, and then begin to feel very ill. All the while smelling like a fresh morning after a heavy thunderstorm. Which also explains the Ozone hole in our atmosphere. Ozone is created when UV light hits oxygen. It forces O2 to bind with another O atom creating O3 (too simplified, but good enough). The entirety of that Ozone layer has a half-life of 8 minutes. Once that polar region is going dark (its winter time) it begins losing Ozone, at its natural half-life. It doesn't have to wait decades for Brownian motion to force the small amount of CFC's, heavier than air compounds, dozens of miles in the atmosphere to create the hole. Its just the natural reduction of Ozone. Which is why we saw the ozone hole with the first satellite that was able to see it. Its always been there. Sorry to get side tracked like that, but knowing that has bugged me since I was a kid in the 1970's.

[@CharlesCorbett]

most of the smell you are thinking of is petrichor, not the same as ozone but often mixed up because they usually happen around the same time

[@Rocky-oq9cy]

The smell is from plant oils and ozone among other things. I actually am really fond of the smell, and I love the rain too.

[@GumaroRVillamil]

@@dr.robertjohnson6953 No, the hole in the ozone layer is real and man-made. Since the global ban and phase out of CFCs, the hole has slowly recovered. It's expected to be at least another 50 years to reach pre-CFC usage levels. Mario Molina, Sherwood Rowland, and Paul Crutzen won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for it, as s result of nearly 30 years of research. It's not some wild fringe hypothesis. If you or whatever source you use is right, well publish your research that refutes theirs, and collect your Nobel Prize.

[@stevendavidhair]

"ball lightning isn't what happens when a guy pees on an electrical fence" 😂 Good show old chap, good show!

[@peggykirby2377]

I have seen ball lightening at least once. I am so glad to finally put a name to it.

[@CmdrCorn]

Lol that clip at the beginning when those dudes were super close to that tree strike, And that guy is just like praise Thor war cry the whole time 🤣🤣

[@a.castree4010]

When I was in 14, I witnessed how a ball lighting formed in the street outside of our house. It started as a small point of light about the size of a tennis ball and over the next few minutes grew to the size of a large beach ball floating around 2,5 meters above the road. It "exploded" and shook all the front windows from 8 houses. No damage was done but it scared the 💩 out of me.

[@flagmichael]

Those are the most interesting accounts, when it appears the ball gains energy from somewhere. Since they are usually associated with lightning storms it is certainly possible.

[@NitinMurthy]

"Voila, potatoes" The Martian in a nutshell

[@GauravKumar87]

My mom has seen one... ~10-15 years back, One afternoon, monsoon time.... She described its as a round light that first crawled from a fence that was near our house, then it jumped the fence and came into the enclosure where she was standing. The lightning ball then started bouncing all over inside the enclosure and then exploded with a loud noise. She was unhurt...but had fainted.

[@Yezpahr]

6:11 one of those hit our apartment complex once. It blew out several of my electrical appliances, some were already disconnected from the extension cord, and the cord was disconnected from the wall, but the lightning didn't care and just EMP-roasted "stuff" ad random. Luckily my only important device that I lost was my router and one of my monitors cannot be turned off anymore (or it will take 3 days for it to turn on again), but neighbors reported a looot of damage and losses. I always disconnect the most important things like my pc and fridge and the monitors and that day it proved useful. I could have lost a lot more if I didn't already disconnect most things when the storm started. But I could really tell that bolt roasted stuff throughout the house, there was a burnt silicon smell throughout the house for the next 10 minutes and 4 more appliances died within a few months, like the vacuumcleaner, mobile phone chargers, lightbulbs and I probably forgot a few things or didn't correlate them to the lightning strike at the time. 10:25 oh holy moly, so I wasn't just imagining the smell of burnt silicon xD