I remember seeing orange ball lightning floating above my house silently before vanishing in thin air, I had no idea what it was at the time until I saw this video.
I saw Some Intracloud Lightning flicker for a solid 30sec before stopping. Then a Giant Spike of Lightning across the sky, moments later, a sprite from the top of the cloud
my friend said that he had seen ball lightning. i said "what, that's not real" and he sent me to this channel (because i also liked to watch tornado vids) and i really liked this youtube channel.
800 Years ago some people thought that Tornados were dark Gods touching thr Earth through the evil of emotions, only being manifested through negative emotions.
Just look up "El Reno tornado" or "multivortex tornado" That's surprisingly pretty common, and a major misconception about tornadoes is that the funnel you see _is_ the entire tornado. In fact, the convective tornadic winds can extend much further out and the funnel is just the center. So it's entirely possible to be "inside" of a tornado and not even immediately realize it because you're focusing on the 50-foot-wide visible funnel despite the tornadic whirlwinds being maybe a mile wide (which is one reason why several storm chasers lost their lives in the El Reno twister). That's usually also when you get multivortex tornadoes, "devils dancing" as they call them.
Ball Lightning is one of those things that used to terrify me as a kid. I'd heard stories about mysterious balls of lightning floating through walls and killing people so It terrified me. So glad to see it brought up in the chapters.
My son and I saw ball lightning; oddly enough, it was also in Queensland in 1987. There were several balls, around 6-10 feet above the ground, travelling at about the speed of a running man. We were out in the open and laid down when it came too close. Yes, there was a smell and yes, there was a strange whizz/buzz noise. As they passed over us, our hair stood on end, pointing at the globes. You could feel your hair move. One of them burst with a noise like a gunshot.
@@SwegleStudios ikr?! I wanna see some ball lightning - so wild! My grandfather way way back in the day was a pilot for the Flying Tiger Van Lines; he said that he encountered ball lightning (BL) on a number of occasions while flying at altitude. Most often, the BL orbs would appear from a nearby cloud and then start flying along side his aircraft, having matched its trajectory and air speed. He said it was strange because their movement was so direct, and they'd be seen at totally different times and places, they would still somehow behave in a similar way like this--dropping in from a cloud to line up and fly in formation with the plane. "Of course we knew better, but you still couldn't shake the feeling that they acted with intention" he said. I remember him telling me that the crew started referring to BLs as their "little buddies" for that behavior of tagging along with a flight for a few minutes, then flying off to who knows where. 😆 There were a couple occasions though when they'd encounter a BL that was apparently a bit more curious than the others. Not content with staying outside, sometimes they would find a way into the aircraft. 😯 He said they would drop in from the top of the fuselage - or pop up from below - a few feet behind the cockpit. He said it was kinda creepy, because they'd come in with a _BANG_ and then just kinda hover there for a bit in one spot, like pushing through the aluminum skin of the plane took it out of them a little bit. Then they would start casually drifting from the front towards the back of the cargo bay. Sometimes they'd pass right through a bulkhead, and whenever they did he said they'd let off a big _BANG_ again, and then buzz like hell - spittering and spattering before drifting along once more. When this happened, he said they would always change color slightly, and let off a pungent sulfur smell. "They'd mosey along the length of the fuselage, stalling here and there as if they were interested in some particular box or another" he said. "And then when they'd seen enough, they'd slip on out the last bulkhead before the tail section, and they'd be gone. No hellos, no goodbyes... they came in when they wanted and left just the same." I was just a kid when I heard these stories, so of course I was absolutely enthralled. I asked him how big they were and he brought his arms up, bent at the elbows, with his palms facing in as if to give an approximate diameter. "About like this, I reckon" he said, eyeing the distance between his hands. "Bigger than a basketball, but not quite the size of a beach-ball." Fascinating. Needless to say, I've been a fan of this phenomena ever since.. 😅
I was watching from a window and got no smell of it but saw a swarm of ball lightning drop from over a building across the quad, travel across the parking lot, then sweep up the face of my barracks. Germany 1985 or 6. Several balls directly across my windows. Being in the open that close would have been terrifying.
Pilot, 17k hours. Ive seen lots of St. Elmos fire. It occurred most often on 727s. I've even seen it enter the cockpit once. Had lightning strike the ac 3 times. THAT gets your attention. Auroras, of course. During my military air evac years, we carried a guy who'd been hit by lightning, it cooked the blood in his arm and legs.
I originally flew DC-9/MD-80 Series Aircrafts. It's funny that you should mention seeing St. Elmo's Fire more in 72's, as you know, they were the Boeing Version of MD-80's when they bought out McDonnell Douglas after They Folded. When all of that went down & The Companies began to retire their MD-80 Series Aircrafts, I Re-Typed in Boeing 737's, later 76's, & I believe that I saw more St. Elmo's Fire in The MD's than in The Boeings. That's Very Interesting! I never really thought about that before. It seemed to be so common of an occurrence when I was Flying The MD's, I began to barely noticed it, but it was there.
I had a Great Uncle that was an Avid Golfer, He Even Played In The PGA Senior's Pro Tours. But He was struck & survived Three Direct Lightning Strikes in his lifetime! (I used to call him "Uncle Lightning Rod!" ⚡️😂) But once upon a time, I was a Paramedic! (That's how I worked my way through Flight School & University, where I studied & earned my Ph.D. in Meteorology. The Lightning Strike Victim that you Transported,,,did He Lose His Arms & Legs? I've treated Lightning Strikes, & I know that Electricity Burns The Body Like Fire. It Dehydrates The Effected Tissue, so it stands to reason that it would Remove The Plasma from the blood in the veins of The Tissue in The Route that The Lightning Charge Took to The Ground! The Dude must have had his hands & feet on the ground, usually Electricity takes The Most Direct Route To The Ground, Unless there are multiple grounds. I was in The A.F. Reserves. I couldn't fly for The AF bc I developed Glaucoma when I was 17. I have taken a little drop in my eyes for almost 50 years. I was already a Civilian Jet-Rated Pilot, but I couldn't fly for The Air Force, so I elected to be an ATC. OH! IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG BEFORE MY NERVES WERE SHOT! I went to My Col. & told him that I needed a change of MOS! He told me about a New Group of True Combatants that was being formed THE AF COMMANDOS! They needed ATC'ers to be Combat Controllers. I said "I'll Take It!" I was sent for rigorous PT & Combat Training. I liked it! I have great memories from my time with Other Spec. Ops. Teams. I was mostly attached to The Army Special Forces Units. We replaced The Pilot Forward Observers. Ops. Since I was needing Money For College, (Not To Mention I Was Already Married With Two Kids by then.) I got a nice Bonus, & some amazing experience. But I was Airline Bound, & I said Farewell To My Service Time when my time was up. Thanks For Your Service! May G-d Bless You!
@@extragoogleaccount6061 It certainly is,,,& as long as it stays in the clouds, which it most commonly does, it is just kind of pretty, & Sprites, The Lightning that Strikes Above A Storm is amazing! But, Cloud To Ground & Ground To Cloud Lightning can definitely be Fatal if Someone Is Struck By It! A Marked Increase In Cloud To Ground Lightning, CAN Also Signal The Formation Of A Tornado. I was in Washington when Mt. St. Helen's erupted, it produced several Lightning Strikes. I was in México City when Popocatépetl Erupted. But I didn't see it. That was when I was flying Airliners. I was in The Pilot's Lounge. But we couldn't fly for several days.
I can see a new horizon underneath the blazin' sky I'll be where the eagle's flying higher and higher Gonna be your man in motion, all I need's this pair of wheels Take me where my future's lyin', St. Elmo's fire
As an Airline Pilot, I've seen St. Elmos Fire especially along The Nose Cone of The Planes I've flown many times. Sometimes it appears as a Bluish Glow, other times it Flashes like little bolts of lightning. We're all aware of it & we seem to see it more often in the warmer months. But where we're flying, at over 30,000 feet, the temperature at those Altitudes is in the in The Minus 60°F range. To my knowledge, it's never been visible to passengers. It seems to only occur off of The Nose Cone at Cruising Altitudes! They teach us that it's due to Static Caused By Us Moving Through The Atmosphere.
@@Brandon_YT560 I haven't ever flown into Volcanic Ash, most Pilots never do. Normally, ATC &/or Airline Companies often ground flights if Volcanic Ash is known to be present anywhere along an Airliner's planned Flight Path. But in Flight School, I was taught that Volcanic Ash Clouds Can Lead To Aircraft Lightning Strikes Which In & Of Itself Is Harmless! Contemporary Airliners Are Equipped With "Lightning Dampers," (It's Thought That Every Commercial Aircraft Flying Today Are Struck By Lightning On An Average Of Once Per Year without any damage or injury!) Likewise, St. Elmo's Fire Is Harmless To Airliners & Flying Into Volcanic Ash Can Cause Increased Occurrence Of St. Elmo's Fire! I've Read Of Pilots Witnessing Some Very Interesting "Light Shows" when They were Inadvertently Caught In Volcanic Ash. The Atmosphere Is Highly Electrically Charged In Volcanic Ash! There Have Been Reports Of Pilots Seeing Some Amazing Light Shows In Ash Clouds. However, Volcanic Ash Can Cause Jet Engines to Flame Out, It Can Cause A Lot Of Serious Damage To Jet Engines. The Fine Ash Can Get Into Electrical Components Causing A Lot Of Dangerous Power Failures & Flight Control System Failures, it can bring visibility down to near zero. My Airline Flights have been canceled when I was near an Eruption. After The Mount St. Helen's last eruption in 2015, I was in Portland Oregon & My Company Canceled Our Departing Flight For Several Days. Another Time, While We were on the ground along, Our Flight & Hundreds of other Flights were canceled & held on The Ground for about a week in México City, (which was okay with me, I'm Puerto Rican by birth & I speak fluent Spanish & even once lived in México.) But just about 60 Miles East of México City there is a very active Volcano called "Popocatépetl." It erupted while we were on The Ground at The International Airport, preparing to fly The Next Leg Of Our Trip To Panamá City, Panamá, when "El Popo" blew it's top. The Méxican National Volcanólogists & Geologists were Forecasting An Emanate Eruption of "El Popo," but my Company Cleared Us to make The Flight, so we went ahead & left L.A. & Landed In Mexico City just before The Eruption! We had to wait until The Upper Air Quality Index reached a certain point & The Visibility Reached Two Miles at 15,000' above The Airport Ground Level & The Airport in México City is a little over 7,000' above Sealevel. Fortunately, since "El Popo" is to The East of The City, The Normal Westerly Winds blew most of The Ash Eastward, away from Us, clearing Our Southerly Course in Just A Few Days. But that's the closest that I ever came to flying into Volcanic Ash aloft. The Company had Aircraft Engineers & Jet Mechanics in México & They did a very thorough inspection of Our Aircraft, just to make sure that everything was operational & that there was no Volcanic Ash on The Plane that could've been sucked into The Jet Engines & caused damage to The Engines when we started up that could've created a dangerous situation for us on The Runway or during our Takeoff and Climb-Out, Our Most Critical Phase Of A Flight. However, just between you & me, I would have loved to have been able to fly into An Ash Cloud SAFELY, Just To See The Amazing Light Shows that "Less Blessed Pilots" have seen & still made it down safely! According to what I've read, the Lights Around The Aircraft looked like something out of a Sci-Fi Movie!
@@harumochizuki That's an interesting question. I think that it's definitely related to Static Electricity, because any object that moves through the atmosphere builds up a Static Electrical Charge. Recent New Research has solved a very old Aviation Mystery. It has recently been released that the Cause Of The Hindenberg Airship Disaster was a Hydrogen Leak, and it's Rain Soaked Dropped Mooring Lines lead to a Ground that Created A Spark Of Electricity that started a Fire that Ignited The Hydrogen & as they say, The Rest Is History. However, I don't believe that Temperature matters, because where we fly, between 35,000' to 40,000' Above Sea Level, The Temperature is around MINUS 60° F. It's generally at (Cruising) Altitude that We see St. Elmo's Fire. I think that it definitely has to do with Microscopic Particulates Passing Over The Aircraft. Too bad that we can't harness it! 😆 I hope that this helps you out.
I once saw a meteorite like a bright white falling star, but it had a rainbow tail. Like a prism with red followed by orange etc, not like a sky rainbow stretched behind it. It was amazing, I wish I had a photo or a video of it. It was also after my cat had gone missing, never to be seen again. It felt like she was saying goodbye.
i saw a meteorite too, not too long ago in fact, early in the summer, i saw the green flickering through the clouds and i also saw a bit of it's tail, quite impressive to be honest
I have witnessed ball lighting but barely anyone believes me cause i saw it within my own room as a kid. It was a very intense storm and i was making ramen downstairs to eat up in my room and when i returned i saw a ord of light hovering over my bed before disappearing. Within that same second the loudest thunder ive ever heard shook the whole appartment. Ill never forget that night cause that was the night when i felt the world slow down for the first time. Like i was seeing something i shouldnt have. It was wild
Damn i know that feeling. Just today we were working on a massive 4000 amp 480volt panel. We have taken all the covers off to see what we needed to do before we turned it off. When we shut it down i felt this crazy wave go through my entire nervous system. It was so cool
I know exactly what you mean, I saw one when I was a kid while playing hide, seek & tag when we probably shouldn't have, freaked the fuck out of me and my friend, we stood in shock and awe at the thing and bolted it out of there, no pun intended.
I saw ball lightning when I was a kid, my grandmother was also there. There was a buzz, but I don’t recall a sulphuric smell, it was also outside, in north texas (not England) I don’t really care if anyone believes me on it but it was one of the coolest things I’ve had the pleasure of seeing, wish I’d have been alittle older to fully appreciate it.
I have seen ball lightning once too. Not at close quarters though. I was watching a storm from an open window at home, when I saw a ball of very bright light dip down from one of the clouds, travel horizontally a little way, and then returned up into the clouds again. I reckon the sighting lasted about 5-6 seconds, which is what made me believe that I wasn't watching regular lightning. It lasted too long. I don't think I would like to see ball lightning too close at hand. I wouldn't get my phone out and record it, I'd be dust.
Great video! My dad who is a retired pilot (and meteorologist) also enjoyed this one a lot, too. I asked him about what he thinks about ball lightning and this was his response: “Probably real. Saw a lightning strike hit the ground about a mile ahead of me one night. I was coming in to land so I would have been pretty low. When it hit the ground, a ball of lightning skipped across the ground, hovered briefly, and then seemed to pop like a soap bubble. Looked like it traveled about a hundred yards or so in three or four bounces. Lasted maybe three or four seconds. “ Just thought it was a cool firsthand account you would be interested in reading 😄
The people on the mountains having fun with the sparks - they are pretty much where lighting if going to hit. That's a strong hint to get down and out of the electrified zone. I've see St Elmo's fire: strong thunderstorm in Northern AZ, and the wires and metal posts of the clothesline were covered in it.
There was a thunderstorm here last year, that was trippy as hell. From my front yard, I could see three distinct pockets of clouds in separate directions. Each of the three clouds were flashing like strobe lights with lightning. It was constant for several hours. I'd never seen anything like it. I kinda thought it was aliens.
You have transitioned from tornado only content perfectly. I remember finding your videos a year ago on a plane and binging them. You quickly became one of my fav channels
@@AllergicFungus Ghosts are likely to exist. There's been too many instances to just shrug it off as "A hocus-pocus mind trick". Magic is also real. Sure, we aren't casting spells like Harry Potter, but magic is very real and it's not that difficult to learn. Just cause things in our world don't match up with what we wrote in fiction doesn't mean it doesn't exist and like i said, when concerning things like Ghosts, Ball Lightning, Bigfoot etc, we don't have hard proof of their existence but that in itself is not hard proof they don't given all the sightings. They can't all be wrong
@@AllergicFungusSomeone who hasn't seen lightning or tornadoes would think they're outside the realm of magic too. "Fire can't come out of the sky, clouds can't touch land. Me no see, then fake"
storms are my favorite thing, please keep making general storm content. tornadoes are awesome but anything storm related is so fascinating. youre really thorough and well spoken, thanks for becoming one of my new favorite channels
I experienced ball lightning during a camping trip last month. It was amazing and terrifying. I was out near the Canadian border and my last night I stayed alone. As dusk set in the wind picked up and clouds moved in all around within minutes. Then things got really still and these orbs started to appear near and within the clouds. I thought I was about to get abducted by aliens or something before I saw the first discharge. They would hover and drift for a second or a few and then they would shoot forked lightning either in the direction of the ground or towards one another and dissolve. Loud bangs like cannon fire followed. This lasted almost the whole night and it barely rained at all. It was the strangest storm I've ever seen.
Many years ago, my great grandmother was sitting in her living room when ball lightning came in thru a window, drifted across the living room, and then went up and out thru the fireplace. I'm not sure exactly what year it was, but it was sometime during the 50s, I believe. She didn't talk about it for a long time bc no one believed ball lightning was a thing. (like many people still today)
i see many people saying plenty of people saw ball lightning, but there's literally none real footage of those lol there was few years ago a fotage of "real" ball lighting but its wasnt what people were saying, there was a lighting for a split second, but it wasnt a ball and it was pretty much invisible
I have seen multi-color lightning in several storms over my lifetime. Red, green, blue, yellow lightning. Probably many different discharge types, but really awesome to see.
I've always used to see sprites in the sky but I never knew what they were until a few years ago. Now I don't see them anymore when I'm looking for them
That's a bugger ain't it. That's happened to me too, I used to see Ball Lightning and Lightning Streams all the time and now I've only seen a single Sprite in like 9 Years ever since I found out what they were.
I’ve actually seen ball lightning, beyond any doubt I have. It would have been about 7 years ago when I was just finishing school. It was a thunderstorm and I was watching out my window at around 11pm when I saw the orb fly down into my backyard, and it seemed to bounce off the ground next to my garden and then disappear after about 1 and a half seconds total. I dont remember any sounds or senses other than seeing it, I dont know if ball lightning even makes noise. Either way, definitely one of the coolest things I’ve seen.
I used to be an electronics tech on a ship. One time when I was the on-call tech, I got woken up in the middle of the night by one of the watchstanders, "Hey ET2, the antennas are, uh, glowing..." Went outside to check it out and everything on the mast had a weird crackly blue halo surrounding them. Found out later that it's called St Elmo's Fire. It was one of the wildest things I've ever seen, I'll never forget it.
Seen that when i was a radio IT on the New York at night when we were pushing through a storm front in the med. Didnt do any damage, but HF was super noisey that night.
my grandpa always tells me stories about how scared he is of lightning cause back in the days nothing in his house was grounded and when lightning would hit the home sometimes they had ball lightning inside their home destroying things and setting things on fire. and the fact that he is still scared of lightning 70 years later tells me that really happend.
Huh, I wonder if that's the missing key. The wireing in an ungrounded house. That would explain why it often came through a wall, or shows up in airplanes. It might also explain why it has become less commonly reported in modern day.
I saw a clear example of ball lightning a while back. By the time I grabbed my phone, it kind of exploded and was gone. I think this is part of why their existence is questioned. They are so rare, unpredictable, and ephemeral that capturing proof is extremely difficult.
@@orochi_slayer.5422Are you speaking about Naga fireballs? That phenomena has always fascinated me but I am very very far away from anywhere it’s known to happen. I’ve never spoken to anyone that could’ve witnessed it directly - very cool story, thanks for sharing.
super informative and well-presented. Just one adjustment: When a space rock is flying through our atmosphere, it is a METEOR. After it hits earth, it becomes "meteorite."
I remember when I was a kid, being told the story of a ball lightning event that happened to my grand-parents, in the middle of France probably sometime around the 1930s. The ball came through the window moved around the room for a while and disappeared, I think it was in the sink. I was always puzzled by that story, especially the part where it came through a glass window.
I have a lot of family from Eastern Kentucky. Many of my family members claim to have seen ball lightning at an event. The claim is that ball lightning came through a window during a thunderstorm. The window shattered and the orb buzzed and smelled like sulphur. It went through the family room in front of everyone, and crashed out the back window and exploded about a minute later.
The tree in front of my parents' house got assaulted by lightning, it was so loud. It left a wound-like mark deep into the trunk. A casualty was a collared dove that was sitting on the main split of the trunk into branches. It was dead, but was in rigor mortis long enough to look like it was still alive. Its eyes were still open, but it's face and neck were stuck turning in the direction from where the lightning struck the tree.
I lived in St. Cloud, Fla. when Hurricane Charlie passed over at 3am. There was no rain left, just a lot of wind. We walked out during the eye and power was out in the whole town. It was pitch black except for the strange light. Tree branches were all over but what I noticed right away was a pulsing of light everywhere and it was coming from the sky. Bluish, low pulsing light. Everywhere. The eye was passing over us but it wasn't defined. We could see the entire sky turning anti clockwise. I looked closer and saw a network of billions of horizontal tiny lightning bolts threaded and woven and stacked up higher and higher into the system spinning throughout the entire storm lighting up everything around. It looked like a great round blue/white electric carpet spinning in the black sky! I was awestruck. I grew up in Fla. Never saw anything resembling that. May be a condensed kind of sheet or heat lightning maybe, I don't know. They made the whole sky and ground pulse with dim light. I told everyone around to, "remember this because you'll never see anything like it again."
When I was 9 years old I saw what appeared to be a bright glowing ball float through my closed bedroom window during a thunder storm. I went screaming to my mother and she convinced me that it only appeared to come through the glass. That was 64 years ago, decades before I heard of ball lightning. It looked real to me.
I was in St Cloud, Fla. during Hurricane Charlie. The non defined eye passed over around 3am. Everything was pitch black from no power and there was no rain, just wind. I was outside with my friends during the respite and first thing I noticed was the faint glowing light pulsing everywhere and when I looked up into the storm there were billions of "tiny" bright lightning bolts threading horizontally through the entire storm (resembling the pattern of varicose veins) that was slowly rotating counter clockwise and they were causing everything on the ground to be lit with blue/white pulses. I could see way up into the storm layers of lightning threads making all the clouds in the storm glow too. As you would expect it was brighter up there, too. Amazing! From your descriptions, they may be some type of anvil lightnings? IDK. I do know I've been through many hurricanes and had never seen anything like that. Probably b/c of rain and/or daylight usually obscuring it. Great presentation. Cheers.
I grew up in tornado alley too 😂 I remember mowing the lawn 70+ mph winds with the tornado siren and my dads out mowing the lawn still and me and my brothers still playing when I was a baby it was scary we’d go into the shelter by the time I was 12 unless we saw it we didn’t care we’d continue our yard work 😂
St. Elmo's fire can also be done using a blanket that's good at producing static electricity. I remember when i was just playing around with it. I covered myself with the blanket and held one side upward in tension and rubbed my forearm in perpendicular to the direction of motion, then closing the hands into a fist after which I lowered it of the surface of the blanket. And when I opened one of my fingers, it produced a static discharge which was audible and visible(thanks to the dark). But in some cases it produced a buzz sound along with a faint glow at the finger tips, and would last a few seconds before it stopped. I assume that it is a coronal discharge because it is very similar to it Sorry for any horrendous mistakes i made in grammar
@@barrymichael8713 i'd tried before but it was extremely difficult, since one hand was holding the blanket up, the other was rubbing against it, there was no way to record, also the sparks aren't visible when the light is on. And i'm in collage hostel right now and that blanket is at home. so yeah
I had a very strange “lightning” event (for a lack of a better term) in my kitchen in Florida about 20yrs ago. It made such an impact on me that since then I’ve always tried to do as much reading and gain as much knowledge on lightning phenomenon as I can. Enjoyed the video, good job and thank you. I lived in Altamonte Springs Florida. I was looking out the kitchen window watching the storm. I had turned everything off, including the lights while the storm was coming in. The back door was off to my right with a wooden deck on the outside that was approximately 14 feet off the ground. An incredible bright flash come through the door and bounced around my kitchen. It almost put you in the mind of sparklers. It was about the size of a soccer ball, but a little smaller. It Come through the glass door, bounced off the floor up into the refrigerator, off of my cabinets, and slow down in an odd manner and just disappeared. It truly changed the way I thought mother nature, and our planet worked.
Back in 2018 there was a dust storm in phoenix, not super uncommon. However this one was in the early AM, roughly around 5-6am which is fairly uncommon. There was no major wind with it when I saw it. I was on a porch that had a metal/fiberglass roof. All along it there was buzzing, and the wind chimes were buzzing extremely loud. I could not see sparks but I knew instantly I was experiencing some form of st elmos fire. It lasted a good 15-20 mins.
When I was a kid, I used to be really fascinated by thunderstorms (and pretty much all natural phenomenas). I remember a story my grandmother told me about seeing a ball lighting on her younger years. It left burn marks on the walls and she tried to hide from it. I couldn't get enough of that story. Always wanted to see one by myself, but haven't seen yet.
I've got a ball-lightning story! There was a storm clouds outside, but nothing was happening yet. Suddenly my lights started to blink slowly off with a loud electrical sound before they went out completely. However, light was coming from outside, when I looked outside the window I saw two bright balls light about the size of basketballs rotating around each other slowly moving away from the ground before then shooting off into the sky. The sky then lit up with an extremely loud thunder clap and then it began to downpour rain. My lights then turned back on.
About half a year ago, lightning hit my school while i was in it. It hit a different building, but it cut most of the power and some teachers suffered slight electric shocks (no one was killed thankfully). It also caused the loudest thunder i ever heard, made everyone jump and flashed the entire room white for about a second. Weirdly, it was the only bolt in the entire storm and theres taller buildings aeound the school, one like 500 m away. Anyway, the school went into lockdown and we went home only. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Great video! I really enjoy, watching things like this, ive been here since pre 100k subs and its great to see you grow. Edit: this happend in the south of England btw.
I saw ball lightening as a kid. It looked like a small beach ball surfing across the bean field east of our house. It was during a wicked electrical storm. Only lasted a few seconds. I told my dad about it, and he just said 'ball lightening '. I was like, "whaaaaat?" I was glued to that window waiting to see it again, and still LOVE watching storms. (Not yet!)
My grandma has said that she once saw a UFO while driving home at night one time. She had an actual video of it, but looking at it now, it could’ve been ball lighting.
Back around '91, my gf and I were at home listening to the radio when they announced a huge electrical storm was coming over and saying everyone should stay indoors. We looked at each other and grabbed the car keys. We lived about 20 minutes from the coast and a lighthouse, so we headed there. By the time we parked the car, the storm was in full swing. We watched the storm through the windshield, as the storm moved up the coast. At first we were getting the normal blue/white lightning, but soon a strong purple colored lightning from the electrical storm. But it must have started to hail out over the ocean, because we started to see vivid green lighting. We were seeing sheet lighting between the clouds, and forked lightning striking the ocean. And an all three colors. I still wish we had a camera with us that afternoon. This was before mobile phones were remotely common, let alone smartphones with built in cameras. We did have a camera at home, but no film. Again, well before digital cameras. Even now I can still see it in my minds eye. I'll almost never get another chance to see something like that again, so that 60 some minute just watching the storm and being continuously amazed remains a fond memory.
i’ve witnessed ball lightning personally. i was driving down the highway in ohio when i saw a glowing white ball floating about 100 ft above the trees. i initially thought it was something paranormal. i drove past a wall, blocking the view, and as soon as i got to the other side the glowing orb was gone. i was very spooked, and it wasn’t until a few months later that i found out what it was. i’m still spooked thinking about it, it didn’t even make a sound.
My late great grandfather swore he saw a ball lightning come down his chimney, slowly entering the room and then disappearing with a bang. Always fascinated me that others have had similar experiences.
Here in brazil old countryside people has the ball lightining for a fact. From North to South it has different names and reasons to occur. Some say its a Ghost, some say it follows people and my own grandpa says it shows up in places that has gold or diamonds, so its called "mãe do ouro" and its not really a far fetched name, our state is literaly named "general mines" as its history is formed by gold mining and all kinds of minerals and gemstones, most recent discoveries are lithium and niobium.
When I was in the Navy, I was flight crew on P-3 Orion Sub Hunters. I had the opportunity to see Saint Elmo's Fire on several occasions. Flashing across the windshield, as in your video, but also our prop tips glowed in the dark. It was a little unnerving the first time, but as in all things, I got used to it.
I saw ball lighting as a 5 year old kid in northern Germany... it's very flat land there and it was a thunderstorm without any rain. Was standing at a window in the upper floor when this bluish white bright ball was rolling over the street and along our hedge. Then disappeared into the ground. The hedge was burned above the ground and had this mark for many years until it was grown out. My Dad was a Sailor and very familiar with St. ELMOS FIRE.
I once went out into a lightning storm, like a derm derm, and everything tasted like lime cordial as I went deaf for a second. I realised what had happened when I heard the thunder bounce off the cloud above. And that's my superhero origin story.
My grandma recalls peeling potatoes in her recliner in a big pot, when ball lightning came creeping thru her back door, thru the livingroom and the moment it touched her pot it 'popped' then the lightning 'crashed' with a loud boom as it immediately flew back out from where it came. She was not a bullshitter, she recalled the event for years and years and it was always the same. She definitely saw something that day.. RIP grandma ❤
I was "chased" by a ball of lightning as a child. My aunt was babysitting so she saw it too. It was a tennis ball sized lightning ball that came out of the wall socket. It "followed" us slowly and the room smelled like lit matches (sort of). We left the room and closed the door and after a while, it was gone. This happened over 40 years ago.
I was reading this book about this F-16 pilot who fought in Desert Storm, and there was this one chapter where they were flying across the Atlantic in a thunder storm, during it they had St Elmo's Fire creeping up and around their canopies, I think he said it looked like little colorful lightning.
What a coincidence that you uploaded. Last night, I was out trying to spot Draconid meteors and telling my husband about when I saw a bolide in Louisiana in 1978. It was a huge green one that came through low cloud cover, and appeared to travel parallel to the ground. Loved this vid.
Please keep making any content that sparks your interest. Of course about tornados - that's a fan favorite but you are also quickly becoming one of the best youtubers I've seen cover rare weather phenomena. Keep getting rarer! Anything obscure or borderline myth should definitely go into your future videos! I think it'll work out great if you cover the tornado and storm stuff as you always have, and combine that with videos like this one! This is my go-to channel where I show my friends some of the weirdest and coolest weather info I've ever heard of. Thanks for keeping at it for as long as you have. I can't wait to see your uploads man.
Me and my dad saw a green lightning a few years ago. It made a ball where it touched the ground. We've never forgotten it and will bring it up in conversation every once in a while, lol.
I suspect earthquake lights are most likely caused by the electrical discharge. After all, the amount of force applied by grinding tectonic plates is probably loads greater than the static buildup that causes lightning. If that turns out to be the case later on, I’ll be surprised if they aren’t observed more often when people know more about their nature. Awesome video, Swegle!
My grandma once saw ball lightning roll down her chimney and onto her floor before it dispersed. She tried to tell people about it, but they just thought she was crazy. I'm not sure exactly when this was because my mom told me about it, but it was likely when she was living in her home country, Northern Ireland.
My Great Uncle (RIP) witnessed ball lightning in the 90's. He said it phased through the walls of his house. My Great Aunt is still alive in her 90's, and healthy as an Ox. I'd really like to ask her about her memory of it, but she lives in the other side of the country and is doing her own thing away from her extended family. She's an awesome lady.
Oh so a ball lightning can be only quarter sized? When I was a kid, probably something like 10 years old, I saw a glowing light that was about the size of a quarter hovering near our bathroom floor.. there were no lights on in there and I stopped at the door to watch. I called my mom and sure enough she saw it too and we watched it kinda circle around slowly hovering near the flooring and near our washing machine. I then remember putting the lights on and not seeing it anymore. Turned lights off, saw it again. Turned lights off to try and see it in light, but no, nothing... then as I turned the lights off again, it was gone. Had my mother not seen it too, I'd probably doubt my memory by now I guess but she still remembers that and often says it's the only unexplainable thing she has ever seen. It was blueish, moved kinda like a circling bug over water and left a bit of a trail in the pitch black dark bathroom, as the room has no windows. We never got closer than like 5 feet so no idea of heat. We don't remember there having been a storm at all, but the washing machine was on I think.... some electric surge from that? no idea.. thanks for the interesting video!
I witnessed what looked like ball lightening outside during one of the most intense electrical storms I have ever seen. It seemed to come down out of the sky and only lasted a couple of seconds. It was probably just a weird lightening bolt but wow. I still remember it 25 years later.
Re: heat lightning I told this story on Reddit not long ago so I'll just repost it: I remember back when I was a kid, I'd see heat lightning flashes in the sky and desperately hope that meant we'd get a thunderstorm passing through, since rain at night was oddly relaxing (pre-empting my current pluviophilia) Occasionally I could even see the storm clouds in the distance, sort of like this. Then I'd flip the TV over to the Weather Channel to see when that rain'd arrive and get disappointed when the Local on the 8's came up and showed that the nearest cell was something like 50 miles away at nearest and moving in the opposite direction or dying out entirely. Then I'd run back outside and think, "But the storm's right there!" and try to convince myself it was getting closer until I gave up. I had to have done that more than a few times. Turns out cumulonimbi are actually really huge and you can see them as far as a hundred miles away even if they "look" like they're right on the horizon. People don't realize this, because the idea of being able to see something _that_ far away doesn't really register to our brains and we assume it's much closer.
I've always imagined ball lightning kinda like those plasma balls you can make in the microwave by using a grape sliced in half or a candle. They would 100% be possible under some very very specific circumstances but extremely rare
my mother once sent me a video of an orb like light floating around my grandfather’s property, the way she described was exactly the same as everyone in the video, it was really strange looking as it had no predictable movement and it seemed very random and erratic
Ball lighting sounds a lot like those will-o'-the-wisp stories. My grandmother has told me she once had one such encounter many years ago, but I find it super hard to believe.
Same, thousand and thousands of people, especially nowadays say they saw ball lightning, but there rarely is any proof or anything of that. Especially in times of phones and CCTV cameras, i would think we should see much more of those, just like we did with STEVES, Red Auroras and Elves etc.
I seen one about 20 years ago, not sure if it was ball lightning or what it was, I got so close to it for a good minute or so and it was a ball of fire burning in on itself, it looked like a lot of lighters flickering around a ball, like staring at a camp fire, no noise, no smell, no heat that I felt and it didn’t brighten everything around like u think it would of. Still one of the most memorable thing in my life to this day. I can replay the whole experience like it was yesterday, there is more to the story but that’s a quick snippet of what I seen
@@meloneyThe thing about capturing lightning phenomena on camera is they happen _extremely_ fast, so you either need to get very lucky or be looking for them. It took over a decade of trying & two trips to space with high-speed cameras to get video evidence of sprites & blue jets... so capturing a phenomena that's over in less than a second or two on a phone or camera is down to pure luck, regardless of how prevalent cameras are these days. Keep in mind that aurora & STEVEs are longer lasting so easier to photograph, and other phenomena are often captured as part of another event being filmed (eg. volcanic lighting).
Ball lightning is real andJust last year I had ball lightning in my house (in the kitchen) , it was the size of a basketball and appeared for a second or to and blew most of the breakers. I didn't notice a smell but still crazy
Back in 2003 I saw blue lightning. It was a year of wild and weird storms where I live in Texas. This same year I also had seen a blue meteorite fall and it lit up the sky almost as bright as daytime and this was at the pitch dark after midnight. I have never the likes before that year or ever since then.
11:29 I have not witnessed St Elmos fire but there is a case of it occurring during a flight! It messed with the plane so bad all their engines went out and there are interesting pictures of the plane after it landed. It was due to them flying through the volcanic ash in the eruption of Mount Galunggung. It was British Airways flight 009. Would recommend looking it up!
My dad got hit by ball lightning when he was in my great uncle's farmhouse as a kid. It appeared in the living room and jumped from the landline to my dad who was sitting a few feet away watching the storm. It knocked him out for a half hour, and the telephone line had to be replaced.
The phenomenon I’m most curious about will always be ball lightning. It’s so mysterious, I wonder what it could be caused by. My guess has always been a floating particle or atom undergoing fusion or something in atmosphere, something crazy like that is bound to be rare.
My neighbor's house was hit by a ball of lightning two and a half decades ago. It literally went through the wall and nonchalantly continued floating through the living room and went out through the other wall. No need to say the entire neighborhood was shocked to see the holes in the walls. It was on the news the next day, but no one managed to take any photos of it. She and her mom panicked and ran outside until it disappeared. The friend explained it dispersed in the air in her backyard, but the house was left damaged and reeking of rotten eggs.
I saw my first instance of Sprites this summer. Unlike what I had been tood by everybody, i saw clear red jellyfish-like tendrils extend into the sky at least 5 separate times while looking through the light dome of a major city! At least two more times sprites appeared as a faint white glow. Truly phenomenal to see and I felt like I was going insane until I caught some on photos! Still I only knew some of the phenomena you listed today and I very much enjoyed watching! Can't wait to see more content as it continuously amazes me
Great video as always, Jake - love this kind of stuff! Thank you for the intelligent discussion on "heat" lightning, and what it actually is - so many storm fans insist it doesn't exist, but it does, just like you say it's just a storm too far away for the thunder to travel to where you are. My friends and I would watch it for hours when I was a kid in Ohio and the storms were passing too far away to hit us but close enough to see the lightning high up in the towering clouds, it was a blast, and utterly beautiful too! Keep up the great work, dude!
Can you do a vid of New England severe weather? Ik we have gotten like an F4 and EF3 in the past and would like to know what happened to make that possible(if that makes any sense)
@@SwegleStudios Yay! Also, my mom used to live near where the 2011 Springfield tornado hit and she has some pictures of the destruction, if you ever wanted to see them.
Something similar happened to my grandmother many years ago: she was in her kitchen, next to an open window as a storm was rolling in. She was holding a glass of water when a finger of lightning shattered the glass in her hand.
This is anecdotal, but my grandma perfectly described seeing ball lightning in her attic room in 1953, and neither of us knew what hall lightning was and she perfectly described what aligns with other ball lightning examples. I’m like 80% convinced ball lightning, as anything can be a coincidence or biased.
Nikola Tesla claimed that ball lighting were often produced at his Colorado Springs experiments, and he was just annoyed by them, and never studied them. If true its such a pity.
I think a Ball lightning is literally like a bubble made of a gas that acts like a leidenfrost effect but only works electro-magnetically (so it can pass trough objects). That gas is probably created due to very rare circumstances
Another fascinating video. This one is exceptionally good. I'm glad you mentioned Hank. He makes some excellent videos of lightning and sprites. Keep up the good work.
This ball lighting phenomenon is 100% real. I saw it with my own eyes around years 7 ago. It looked exactly like the one in 6:42 . It was in the evening me and my father just got home, I was closing the garage door when I suddenly saw this ball of light flying over our house at very low altitude. It was like double the size of a basketball, I would estimate flying some 40 meters above the street level. It move relatively slow like the speed of someone jogging. It all happened so fast, just a few seconds and it dissapeared from my view as it slowly flew away. That's one of the most amazing and strangest things I've ever whiteness but not surprised at all, because I already hear about it many many times where I live. From friends, family, neighbors, many have seen these balls of light. Even a recent acquaintance I met told me how common this phenomenon is here. My hometown is Chimalhuacán México, I've lived hear my whole life and heard this story of "balls of fire" since always. It's a well know phenomenon here in Chimalhuacán, but the funny part is that everyone says they are "witches". This isn't just where I live, I've heard the same story all over Mexico and many other Latin American countries and they all say it's witches or even shape shifters (here we call them nahual). I don't believe in that, I just share what people say about those balls of light. I don't know if bodies of water or humidity influences in their manifestation? Heard many stories around the world where similar spheres of energies manifesting around rivers and lakes. My hometown use to be an extinct giant lake called "texcoco" lake, now it's all dried up and built the city on top of it. The water we use still comes from the remaining aquifers under our homes from that ancient lake, dig over 2 meters and water will start to come out of the ground. I am determined to capture this elusive phenomenon. I'm gonna have to investigate some weather chaser techniques and tips. This needs answers
Not sure if anyone else has brought this up but Saint Elmo's fire was witnessed on British Airways flight 9 after if went through a volcanic ash cloud. It had stripped the paint off the plane and did a bit of damage. There is a video about it, going into more detail and I would recommend anyone who finds this stuff interesting to watch it
8:57 I’ve never smelled it, nor heard it, but I have definitely once seen what I’d call “ball lightning.” It appeared a couple of houses away, as I was in my backyard, floated around a bit, then shot upwards (disappeared after an upward jerk?). It was a pale blue, almost white, round light, that moved slowly until right before it vanished. The entire event took maybe 20 seconds. No storm, not cloudless either. I don’t know what to believe on that one, but it is an event I witnessed.
I saw blue red and green lightning during hurricane Rita in Houston. We only caught the edge of the storm but the lightning was insane. In the souther part of the sky there was red lightning and in the northern sky it was alternating between blue and green lightning.
My grandma likes to tell us about the time she saw ball lightning. Sometimes I’m not sure I believe it but at the time my grandma had no idea about lightning as she never had access to the meteorological sciences in school as she was taking care of my uncle who had autism. The story she tells is during a pretty average storm she was sitting at the kitchen table. The power was flickering which was decently common. She recalls smelling something a little nasty which she describes as like something burning but very unpleasant to the nose. I chalked it up to suffer. She then recalls seeing a lightning strike not too far from the house. It was loud just like any close strike but she then saw a strange ball of light outside the house. She told me she was confused but immediately became horrified as it “phased through the window and slowly made its way to the dinner table” the table was a good 10-15 feet from the window. About halfway through its trip is fizzled out. My grandma recalls hearing a low bassy buzz. Something you’d hear from a modern day speaker. Like I said I’m not too sure if she saw it or not. But hearing this story from someone who knew nothing about ball lightning accurately pinpointing certain aspects of it is pretty interesting. My grandma does not suffer from any mental inflection nor was she sleeping. Quite interesting. I’ll always listen to her tell that story. I’ll never get tired of it
Here in brazil old countryside people has the ball lightining for a fact. From North to South it has different names and reasons to occur. Some say its a Ghost, some say it follows people and my own grandpa says it shows up in places that has gold or diamonds, so its called "mãe do ouro" and its not really a far fetched name, our state is literaly named "general mines" as its history is formed by gold mining and all kinds of minerals and gemstones, most recent discoveries are lithium and niobium.
It seems to be consistently reported enough, across a lot of time, id love to know what it could be. Times like this I wish I could pick Tesla's brain.
The BALL LIGHTNING clip you used @ 6:44 is CONFIRMED FAKE ... I know you said "unconfirmed" but I saw an interview of the man who made this video. If you watch carefully, you can tell. The others I believe are real - BUT - id argue that many if them are not "ball lightning" at all, but another common phenomenon altogether... One that I dont believe your channel is much interested in.. But the fact that most of these sightings are in England would be a hat tip to what im talking about as England's known for its impressive geomagnetic anomalies (believed to be the primary reason for Stonehenge's location as well as other ancient stone structures) Enjoyed the video man. Thanks. EDIT: the "DUNE AURORAS" are ABSOLUTELY related to "gravity waves" and I was SO GLAD TO HEAR YOU SAY IT. Ive been more than frustrated with a similar topic for a few years now but NOBODY will discuss it. More often than not, clouds will form in the night sky over my suburban NJ town (10 miles or so West of Manhattan) that have PERFECTLY SPACED, PERFECTLY SYMMETRICAL, gravity waves of all sizes carved into them. Ive been a "sky watcher" all my life and have lived in this region ALL MY LIFE. There are plenty of things (like this) happening in our skies daily today that DEFINITELY NEVER HAPPENED IN THE PAST. So, I began documenting it and looking into a cause. What I found is that "gravity waves" in clouds are "MOST COMMON" nearest the Earth's magnetic poles, and should be a RARITY in my region. So why have I documented so many of these instances and WHY does it seem to only happen late at night?? Like above, im not sure you or your channel would discuss this subject openly, but this can only be caused by a heavy presence of magnetism or perhaps ELF/EMF/RF/etc... IM CERTAIN that this "NEW DISCOVERY" in 2016 is nothing natural at all. I believe something is being broadcast at night (sometimes during the day too) that has the power to carve up the clouds this way, and im certain it's nothing good or beneficial to society or we would know exactly whats happening. If youd like to see my photos, LMK!
Your "earthquake lights" commentary @ 14:02 sorta fell short by mentioning that it could just be destruction or power lines blowing when the ground is shaking... Ive been down this rabbit hole before, and I can recall learning that there were reports of "earthquake lights" BEFORE/DURING/AFTER quakes that go back CENTURIES.... Long before electric transformers or lines were a thing... Just thought I should add this while I was on a roll. 😂
6:10 i think it's the origin of the Filipino myth Santelmo. They say Santelmo is a glowing floating skull thats on fire and i forgot what it does but it hey say its deadly.
So apparently ball lightning went through the town/city my granddad lived in, and he told me how it travelled through the main shopping street past the houses and shops and eventually hit a church, and he saw it happening from his apartment. It was in the news, and to give credit to the story, the church had strange damage despite no lightening coming from the sky itself and striking the church, and many eyewitnesses to the story.
I can absolutely confirm ball lightning. I was with a friend in a home in the hills near Byron Bay Australia. There was a storm and a huge clap of lightning which was very close to the house. A bright ball of lightning appeared outside on the deck and moved effortlessly through the glass door into the room and hovered hissing and sizzling in the air between me and my friend. We both witnessed it. After about 10 seconds there was a loud 'pop' and it vanished. :) 💕
Very recently I saw ball lightning at first when I saw it I didn’t know what it was until I saw this video it was crazy. I saw it at school too! I was outside doing P.E it was a few seconds, and we weren’t out there too long so no one got hurt
