Mysterious orb floats through Alberta sky during lightning storm, ignites UFO speculation
weather phenomena
on Earth,
ball lightning
after a thunderstorm lit up the skies near their home on Wednesday evening.
Ed and Melinda Pardy were watching the storm from their porch in Rich Valley, a rural area about an hour northwest of Edmonton when something strange happened just after a nearby lightning strike.
'Once the lightning bolt kind of disappeared, the ball of light kind of got bigger, intensified, like, really bright,' Ed recalled. Hovering roughly seven meters above the ground, the glowing orb appeared to drift silently across their field. He grabbed his wife's phone and began recording. They captured 23 seconds of the glowing sphere before it vanished with a faint 'pop.'
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'I've never seen this before,' Melinda said. 'It was pretty neat.'
The phenomenon, described by the couple as about one to two meters wide, has drawn attention from both scientists and weather experts. While still unconfirmed, many are calling it a possible sighting of ball lightning, a highly mysterious, poorly understood natural occurrence often associated with thunderstorms.
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Ball lightning has been described for centuries as glowing, floating orbs that can pass through walls or appear during storms, sometimes lasting several seconds or more. But despite many historical reports, scientific proof remains rare, especially on video.
'This is one of the best ball lightning videos I've ever seen,' said veteran storm chaser George Kourounis, though he cautioned it might have been something else.
He noted a lightning strike hitting a nearby power line could create an electrical arc, flashing with orange and blue light, before disappearing in a spark. 'That's exactly what we're seeing here,' Kourounis said while admitting he couldn't be certain without being on site.
The Pardys disagree. 'Definitely not,' Ed said. 'It's a long way from a power line,' Melinda added.
Since sharing the video, the couple says they've been contacted by researchers at the
University of Calgary
and even someone from a
UFO investigation
program.
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