Possible Ball Lightning Event Recorded in a Wildlife Preserve - April 30, 2016

  • Thread starter Thread starter astroscout
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Ball Lightning
AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around a recorded event from April 30, 2016, which the poster speculates could be a case of ball lightning due to the presence of a storm with significant lightning activity. The location is a wildlife preserve, devoid of power lines or roads, raising questions about the nature of the light observed. Observers note that typical ball lightning is characterized by a fast-moving light, unlike the flash captured in the video, which appears stationary and resembles an electrical arc. Despite the initial skepticism regarding the identification of the phenomenon, the poster provides additional footage showing slight movement of the light source, suggesting it may not be a conventional ball lightning event but rather an anomalous electrostatic discharge.
astroscout
Messages
62
Reaction score
4
Hi...I was wondering if you guys can take a look at an event I recorded back on April 30, 2016. The approaching storm with plenty of lightning led me to think this could be a Ball Lightning event. Those mountains are a wildlife preserve and there are no power lines or roads there. It was about 2am when this was taken so I doubt hikers were roaming around with a flashlight but who knows. I monitor the skies for Transient Luminous Events and meteors with my Watec B&W cameras and this is the only time I have ever captured anything like this. Please let me know what you think. Here is the link:
 
Earth sciences news on Phys.org
I don't think that is what is normally called "ball lightning", but it could be some other anomalous electrostatic discharge from the storm.

The videos I have seen which purport to show ball lighting show a small spot of light that moves very fast between clouds or from the clouds to the ground. The flash in your video doesn't appear to be moving. In fact it looks a lot like an arc from an electrical wire. Are you sure there are no power lines over there?

This is of course just my own speculative opinion, which is really the best anyone can give for something like this.
 
  • Like
Likes astroscout
Thanx NFuller...There are definitely no power lines there. I played it back frame by frame and the light source does move down the slope a little bit. Here is a stacked version to show the two locations.
compile1.jpg
 

Attachments

  • compile1.jpg
    compile1.jpg
    22.7 KB · Views: 1,851
Here is a new slowed down version to show how the light source moved from one location to another.
 
These last days, there is a seemingly endless cluster of rather powerful earthquakes close to the islands of Santorini, Amorgos, Anafi, and Ios. Remember, this is a highly volcanically active region, Santorini especially being famous for the supervolcanic eruption which is conjectured to have led to the decline of the Minoan civilization: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_eruption To grasp the scale of what is happening, between the 26th of January and the 9th of February, 12000...
Cataclysmic 1831 Eruption Traced to Quadruple Volcano on Abandoned Soviet Island https://gizmodo.com/cataclysmic-1831-eruption-traced-to-quadruple-volcano-on-abandoned-soviet-island-2000608193 The 1831 CE mystery eruption identified as Zavaritskii caldera, Simushir Island (Kurils) https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2416699122 Zavaritski Caldera https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=290180 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zavaritski_Caldera - the Zavaritsi Caldera (Russian: Вулкан...
Back
Top