I think this is the right place to post this...if not, I'm sure a mod will move it.

When I was about 11 or 12 years old, my sister and I were visiting a neighbor a few houses away from our house. They had three foster children, and one of the girls was my age while the other was my sister's age (8 or 9, at that time). The four of us were standing near the front door; the screen door was closed, but the main door was open (it was summertime). I'm not sure why we were standing there, but given that it was a summer day I think we were probably talking about what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go (ride bikes down the street, swim in their pool, etc.).

While we were talking, this big white ball of energy came right in through the front door -- I don't know where it came from, because we didn't see it until it came inside. It went right in between us, with my sister and I on one side of it and our two friends on the other. We couldn't see our friends faces through it, and they later told us they couldn't see our faces through it either (it passed by in the air, at approximately our face-level).

Luckily, we didn't try to touch it -- we didn't know what it was, and to be honest I'm still not sure, but ball lightning seems the most likely explanation. I got no feeling from the ball, as I might have if it were a spirit. I'm glad we didn't touch it, because from what I've read and heard, if it was ball lightning, we could have gotten one hell of a shock. It did seem to sort of have intention or direction -- once it passed us, it moved through the living room, through the kitchen, through the small laundry room, and then out through the back door (located in the laundry room). I've read that ball lightning often seems to have intent. None of us said anything until it was gone, then it was "What the heck was THAT??!?".

Does ball lighting come in various sizes? This one was maybe about the size of a bowling ball, and was definitely spherical in shape.

Has anyone else ever had ball lightning pass by so close? Also, it wasn't storming the day this happened, but being summer I'm wondering if ball lightning can come from or be a form of heat lightning? It may have stormed later in the day, but I don't remember....but I've remembered the experience for over 20 years!

Hi Seahorse. Ball Lightning does come in various sizes. Here's a link that explains it all along with some pictures..

Sha-Zam!

Falco, your article describes ball loghting but hardly explains it. I have read that experiment to reproduce ball lightning under laboratory conditions have been failures. And the article clearly states that even theories fall apart under scrutiny.

Falco -- Thanks for posting that link, the info provided on the site was quite a lot more than I knew before.


Nick -- true, that the article doesn't actually explain definitively what ball lightning is, but I still found it intriguing. Didn't you?

Hey isn't it also called "St. Elmo's fire" or is that a totally different subject. I know my grandparents have seen it over at my great aunt's house in Kentucky.

I think St. Elmos' Fire is ball lightning that happens on the ocean. Same thing but different name based on the location..

I just saw something on my security camera in front of my barn. It looked like what you are describing. It was a gray ball...about as big a ball that kids play with. It hovered and bounced around sort of erratically and then flew out of sight.

Swagger & Falco,

I thought St. Elmo's fire was the same thing as "will o' the wisp" -- basically a more feathery looking sort of electrical discharge or anomaly, occuring over marshy areas. I could be wrong, though.

Yeah we saw a couple of balls of lightning when we were flying over a corner of the bermuda triangle going to Puerto Rico. Very cool stuff. Everyone on the plane ran over to the side to see it out the windows. The pilot got on the radio and told us that he didn't know what it was but that we were not seeing things. This was about 15 yrs ago. I did as much research as I could and found out that it happens over swampy areas (balls of gas) and lightning.

I posted this already, so I hope it doesn't show up twice, but I didn't see it anywhere, so here I go again.
Does anyone know if there is anything that ball lightning 'can't' permeate or go through. I mean, any material that we know of that it won't burn through?

Here is another informative BallLightningLINK

In Turner's model, ball lightning is a reactor, but not a fusion reactor. It is a floating, self-sustaining chemical reactor, in which certain chemical reactions between the plasma and the surrounding air release heat and others absorb it. As a result, instead of simply dissipating into the air, the initial heat of the plasma gets recycled back into the blazing interior of the ball, while the outside of the ball becomes a cool, watery skin.

St. Elmo's fire is kind of like a green haze that is seen on the ocean around ships and such.

I had an experience with ball lightning once. Saw it fly towards our car, flew thru the front windshield and out the back.. Mom and I didn't say anything for like 5 minutes until I spoke, because we both thought we were crazy!

My dad was telling me about going to a cabin near Yosamite Park (off season) and that there was a ball of this green gas ball light. It was like 6 cabins all next to each other and this light ball went thru each one's walls until the last one, and then disappeared into the darkness. At no time did it explode or burn a hole thru any of these 7 walls it went thru.
Now doing my own research I have heard about these balls after awhile the chemical/gas/static lightning in it breaks down and does explode. But it must take a long time for something like this to happen. Way cool stuff!!