Latest news with #balllightning
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'Ball Lightning' Caught on Film After Storm in Canada
During a recent lightning storm, a couple from Canada caught a rare weather mystery on camera. Right from their porch, Ed and Melinda Pardy watched as a lightning bolt struck the land less than a kilometer from their home. In the bolt's wake, a brilliant ball of blue light was left hovering above the ground. The couple managed to capture a 23-second video of the strange apparition. "It looks like a firebolt, but not really, it's the wrong color," Melinda Pardy can be heard saying in the background of the footage, which was provided to several Canadian broadcasters. According to an interview with Canada's CTV News, the bizarre globe of bright light was about one to two meters in diameter, and it hovered above the ground for about a minute before it went out with a 'pop'. Related: Ed Pardy thinks it may have been a rare glimpse of ball lightning, a hypothetical weather phenomenon defined by thousands of eyewitness accounts collected over the centuries. Some have even reported fiery orbs flying through their windows. Despite all the anecdotes, there's no real scientific explanation for the claimed events. The size of the observed light sphere, its color, and behavior can vary quite a lot, so it's hard to confirm if all the stories are due to the same physics. In recent decades, scientists have tried to generate models of plasma balls in the lab, to understand how orbs of light could move around and last for so long. But because of their random and rare nature, real-world examples are much harder to study. In 2014, scientists in China got lucky. They filmed what they argue is the first video of ball lightning, capturing the incident by accident. Upon further analysis, they found evidence that ball lightning is composed of tiny bits of soil, which could be vaporized by lightning and set a-glow. Their observations and measurements were published in a peer-reviewed paper, but some scientists disagree on the physics. Instead, they suspect ball lightning is the result of light, trapped within a sphere of highly compressed air. No scientist has yet confirmed the short video from Alberta is footage of ball lightning, but the Pardy couple says they have been approached by researchers. "If it is ball lightning," veteran storm chaser George Kourounis told CTV News, "then this is one of the best ball lightning videos I've ever seen." But there are plenty of online skeptics. Some have suggested the curious ball of electricity could be the result of a power flash on a high voltage line, which can't be seen in the video, although the Pardy's say there are no powerlines close by. Frank Florian, senior manager of planetarium and space sciences at the TELUS World of Science, told Global News that whatever the couple saw, it was a very strange weather phenomenon. "It could be ball lightning or it could be something that's more of an artifact of a lightning strike itself," he said. This may be one of those mysteries we never get an answer to. Expired Cans of Salmon From Decades Ago Contained a Huge Surprise Melting Glaciers Could Reawaken Hundreds of Earth's Volcanoes Blue Sharks May Be Secret Chameleons, Scientists Discover
CTV News
05-07-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
‘Never seen this before': Mysterious orb of light filmed in Alberta
Storm chasers are buzzing after a video taken by an Alberta couple appeared to show a rare phenomenon called 'ball lightning.' John Vennavally-Rao explains. An intense thunderstorm in Alberta has produced more than just the usual bolts from the sky. Ed and Melinda Pardy believe they may have witnessed a rare and elusive phenomenon known as ball lightning. The couple says it happened around 7 p.m. Wednesday near their rural property, about an hour outside Edmonton. A thunderstorm was underway and a tornado watch had been issued. Ed Pardy, a longtime weather enthusiast, was on the back porch scanning the sky for funnel clouds when lightning struck just under a kilometre from their home. What he saw next stunned him. He described a glowing ball of light appearing to float about seven metres above the ground and moving across the horizon. 'Once the lightning bolt kind of disappeared, the ball of light kind of got bigger, intensified, like, really bright,' he said. 'Then I was like, 'Oh, that'll go away really soon,' and it didn't.' Ed and Melinda Pardy Ed & Melinda Pardy live in Rich Valley, Alta. (Ed and Melinda Pardy) He quickly asked his wife for her phone and began filming. The glowing orb was visible for about a minute and the couple managed to capture 23 seconds of video before it vanished. 'There was a little bit of pop and then it just kind of disintegrated,' recalls Ed. 'I was like, 'what is this? I've never seen this before,' It was pretty neat,' said Melinda. According to the couple, the glowing ball appeared to be a metre or two in diameter. Pardy says he remembered reading about ball lightning as a kid and immediately wondered if that was what he was seeing. Ball lightning is usually associated with thunderstorms and is one of the most mysterious and disputed phenomena in atmospheric science. Though it has been described by witnesses for centuries—including reports of glowing orbs floating through homes or passing through walls—credible video evidence is almost non-existent. Ball lightning Depiction of ball lightning from 1901. (Public domain) 'It's just so incredibly rare that some people don't even think it exists,' said veteran storm chaser George Kourounis, who viewed the Pardy video and called it 'pretty amazing.' 'If this is indeed ball lightning, then this is one of the best ball lightning videos I've ever seen.' But Kourounis offered another explanation: a lightning strike on a nearby power line. Still, he acknowledged he can't be sure. 'Without me having been there to see it firsthand, I can't say with 100 per cent certainty.' The Pardys don't believe it was an arcing power line. 'Definitely not,' said Ed. 'It's a long way from a power line,' adds Melinda. Since sharing their footage, the Pardys say they've been contacted by scientists at the University of Calgary and someone from a UFO program. While the couple says they were fascinated by what they saw, they're glad it kept its distance. 'If I saw one of those fairly close to me, I don't think I would want to get near it, because that's a lot of energy. It's a lot of power,' said Ed. 'I never thought I'd see anything like that in my lifetime.'
CTV News
05-07-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
CTV National News: Buzz over video of a rare phenomenon taken by Alberta couple
Watch Storm chasers are buzzing after a video taken by an Alberta couple appeared to show a rare phenomenon called 'ball lightning.' John Vennavally-Rao explains.
