The Lanzhou researchers' paper supports the theory that ball lightning results from a ground strike that creates a reaction between oxygen and vaporized elements from the soil. EDITOR'S NOTE: Along with his son, Paul, and storm chaser Carl Young-his longtime collaborators-National Geographic explorer and storm chaser Tim Samaras died in a tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma, on May 31, 2013.

Using one of the world's fastest cameras, a National Geographic explorer attempts to capture the birth of a lightning bolt. The spectrometer detected silicon, iron, and calcium in the ball, all of which were also present in the local soil. The ball appeared just after a lightning strike and traveled horizontally for about 10 meters (33 feet). Researchers from Lanzhou, China's Northwest Normal University inadvertently recorded a ball lightning event while studying a 2012 thunderstorm using video cameras and spectrometers. That said, scientists seem to agree ball lightning is real, even if they don't yet fully understand what causes it. That and other early accounts suggest that ball lightning can be deadly.Īt least one study has theorized that about half of all ball lightning sightings are hallucinations caused by the magnetic fields during storms. One of the first recorded sightings of ball lightning occurred in 1638, when a ' great ball of fire' came through the window of an English church. The heat causes surrounding air to rapidly expand and vibrate, which creates thunder.

A lightning flash can heat the air around it to temperatures five times hotter than the sun’s surface. Lightning in general is an electrical discharge caused by positive and negative imbalances within clouds themselves, or between storm clouds and the ground. It's sometimes accompanied by a hissing sound and an acrid odor. The bizarre phenomenon, also known as globe lightning, usually appears during thunderstorms as a floating sphere that can range in color from blue to orange to yellow, disappearing within a few seconds. Instances of ball lightning-glowing, electric orbs in the sky-have captivated and mystified us for centuries.

Blue lightning