Most people assume that ball lightning occurs during or after a thunderstorm. In some cases that is correct, but ball lightning has also been known to spontaneously transpire without the appearance of a thunderstorm. Nearly seventy percent of all ball lightning eyewitness accounts have been seen right after a lightning strike. There have also been several reports stating that ball lighting emanated from tornadoes and hurricanes. Let it be noted that during tornadoes and hurricanes, the electric fields are exceedingly high . Without any information on the occurrences of ball lighting, people would naturally assume that ball lighting would occur from the appearance of an electrical storm. But what throws their assumption off is the fact that ball lighting has been noted to occur without the detection of an electri

There have been countless eyewitness accounts of ball lightning. One of the first recorded was in 1754, when Dr. Richmann of Russia was trying to replicate the Ben Franklin experiment. Lightning struck the rod, then a bluish-white sphere appeared, striking Richmann in the head, killing him immediately. All that was left was a red spot on the forehead and two small burns on his shoes. Makes you wonder doesn't it? In another account, that ball landed in a bucket of water and then the water started to boil . There are numerous accounts where ball lightning came through the chimney, appeared in submarines, burnt walls, etc1. One of the most famous encounters was in 1963 on an airplane with a bunch of scientists (including Professor Roger Jennison). As a twenty centimeter bluish-white ball emerged from the pilots cabin, it traveled in a straight line in the center aisle about a yard off the ground, then it disappeared out of the plane .

There are also a few diverse ways the ball lightning terminates and they are branched into two categories, silent and explosive. For the silent ones the ball lighting could either slowly diminish or break up into other little balls. The explosive one takes place rapidly and is accompanied with a loud noise. A residue/mist and smell are sometimes left behind after the demise of a ball; the smell is like a sharp, repugnant ozone type smell.

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