A couple have been left astounded after a thunderstorm produced a glowing orb of light thought to be mysterious ‘ball lightning’.
Ed and Melinda Pardy were watching a storm from their porch in Alberta, Canada, on June 2 when lightning struck.
After a tornado warning had been issued Ed, a weather enthusiast, saw a ball of light moving across the horizon in the lightning bolt’s wake.
He said it was floating about seven metres above the ground, a little under a kilometre from their home outside Edmonton.
‘Once the lightning bolt kind of disappeared, the ball of light kind of got bigger, intensified, like, really bright,’ he said, according to broadcaster CTV News.
‘Then I was like, “Oh, that’ll go away really soon,” and it didn’t.’
He started recording the phenomenon on Melinda’s phone, capturing about 23 seconds of video before the ball of light disappeared.
‘There was a little bit of pop and then it just kind of disintegrated,’ Ed said.
‘I was like, “what is this? I’ve never seen this before.” It was pretty neat,’ added Melinda.
Ball lightning is a disputed weather phenomenon that has been described by eye-witnesses for centuries but still has no widely accepted explanation among scientists.
They have usually been associated with thunderstorms and conventional lightning strikes.
Ball lightning, a mysterious and rare atmospheric electrical phenomenon, has inspired numerous legends, myths, and folklore over the centuries due to its strange appearance.
In medieval Europe, strange glowing orbs seen hovering near swamps or in the air were often explained as “will-o’-the-wisps”—ghostly lights said to trick travellers.
During a church service in Widecombe-in-the-Moor, a ball of fire reportedly entered the church, killing four people and injuring other worshippers. This was at the time explained as a manifestation of the devil himself but could have easily been ball lightning.
During the Siege of Leningrad in the Second World War, soldiers reported seeing strange glowing orbs that moved erratically, sometimes entering bunkers or tanks.
These were interpreted as experimental weapons, divine intervention, or even UFOs.
Storm chasers, people who pursue and study thunderstorms, have speculated that ball lightning could travel along power lines, but the Pardys said it was not in this case.
‘Definitely not,’ said Ed.
Melinda added that it was ‘a long way’ from any power lines.
The couple said they have since been contacted by scientists from the University of Calgary.
‘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.’
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