Reacting to Ball Lightning

Watch in Awe or Run in Terror?

What Does It Look Like?

Ball lightning looks like a roughly spherical, translucent blob of light. It can come in all colors, but it’s usually white, red, orange, or yellow (Smirnov). It isn’t blindingly bright; you don’t need to worry about your eyes if you look directly at it. But it’s bright enough that it could be seen during the day. The outline might look a little fuzzy, or you might see tiny sparks coming off (Charman). It can come in various sizes, at times being no larger than a golf ball and at others being more than five meters across (Cen et al, Handwerk). 

Natural ball lightning; picture taken by Joe Thomissen in Maastricht, Netherlands; link

What Does It Do?

In general, ball lightning floats around seemingly randomly. However, it may just roll along the ground. It can throw off sparks and make hissing noises (Handwerk). It can bounce and deform against solid surfaces, but may burn through the surface instead. Sometimes it passes through objects with no interaction, and other times it sets fire to whatever it touches, despite reports that it doesn’t seem to radiate heat (Charman).

A team of scientists attempts to create artificial ball lightning, producing small, white orbs that bounce, spin, spark, and hiss; pictures taken by Antonio Pavão; link

Where Does It Come From?

There are plenty of theories about this, but none have been conclusively proven. Going off of witness accounts dating back several centuries, ball lightning tends to arise from heavy lightning and thunderstorms, but the exact cause hasn’t been pinpointed. One supported theory by scientists John Abrahamson and James Dinniss postulates that ball lightning is a plume of super-heated gas that forms when lightning strikes vaporize silicon compounds in soil. But this may not immediately help explain reports of ball lightning on a plane and at sea, where there wouldn’t be much soil to vaporize.

Will I See It Any Time Soon?

Probably not. That’s part of what makes it so difficult to study. Sources and reports show fairly consistently that ball lightning comes out of heavy thunderstorms, but it certainly isn’t a common occurrence. Its appearance can’t currently be predicted, so every observation of ball lightning to date has been predominantly by chance. The only scientific recording of ball lightning happened in 2014, and like every other observation, it was by chance. A team of storm-chasing researchers were taping a storm and the fiery electrical phenomenon just happened to show up (Cen et al).

How Does It End?

This part is still a bit tricky. At the end of its short life span (about ten seconds), ball lightning does one of a few things. It can quietly, steadily fade away until nothing is left. It may instead vanish suddenly, seemingly without a trace. Reports also indicate a ‘pop’ that is loud but not necessarily dangerous. However, the ball could very well explode violently and with great force (Charman). The explosion itself varies in magnitude between reports. It may only be a relatively small shock, causing light damage to nearby surroundings. At this level, you wouldn’t have to worry much about any risk of significant, irreversible destruction. But the explosion can also be deadly, as in the case of the Great Thunderstorm of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, where a “great ball of fire” entered and destroyed a church, killing four and injuring sixty worshippers inside (Rowe).

Woodcut depicting the Widecombe-in-the-Moor incident; link

What Do I Do About It?

Better safe than sorry: if you see ball lightning, stay away from it. There’s a fair chance that it’ll be harmless to its surroundings, but the consequences of the contrary are great. The ball itself can cause burns and shocks, break relatively fragile objects (e.g. windows), and ruin electronic devices. If it happens to explode, there’s a much greater risk to anything in the vicinity. If you’re caught in a ball lightning explosion, you may come away with only minor burns, but you may also end up with damaged eardrums and potentially fatal injuries. Probably best not to risk it. While the phenomenon would be really cool to look at, only after you’re safe should you start thinking about whipping out your smartphone and getting a video.

Unknown photographer; link

Sources

Abrahamson, John, and James Dinniss. “Ball Lightning Caused by Oxidation of Nanoparticle Networks from Normal Lightning Strikes on Soil.” Nature 403 (2000): 519-521. Web. 5 Oct. 2014.

Cen, Jianyong, Ping Yuan, and Simin Xue. "Observation of the Optical and Spectral Characteristics of Ball Lightning." Physical Review Letters 112.3 (2014). Web.

Charman, Neil. “The enigma of ball Lightning.” New Scientist 56 (1972): 632–635. 5 Oct. 2014.

Handwerk, Brian. “Ball Lightning Mystery Solved? Electrical Phenomenon Created in Lab.” National Geographic News. National Geographic, 22 Jan. 2007. Web. 5 Oct. 2014.

J. Brooking Rowe, ed. (1905). The Two Widecombe Tracts, 1638, giving a Contemporary Account of the great Storm, reprinted with an Introduction. Exeter: James G Commin. 5 Oct. 2014.

Smirnov, B. M. “Physics of Ball Lightning.” Physics Reports 224.4 (1993): 151-236. Web. 5 Oct. 2014.