ball lightning

American  

noun

1. a rare form of lightning, consisting of a bright, luminous ball that moves rapidly along objects or floats in the air.

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ball lightning British  

noun

1. meteorol a luminous electrically charged ball occasionally seen during electrical storms

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ball lightning Scientific  

1. A rare form of lightning in the shape of a glowing red ball, associated with thunderstorms and sometimes accompanied by a loud noise. Ball lightning is thought to consist of ionized gas.

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Etymology

Origin of ball lightning

First recorded in 1855–60

Example Sentences

With all this information at hand, Hughes drew a potential connection between green fireballs—which can be caused by fast-moving meteors—and ball lightning.

From Scientific American

“Ninety to 95% of all UFO sightings,” he said, “can be explained as weather balloons, flares, sky lanterns, planes flying in formation, secret military aircraft, birds reflecting the sun, planes reflecting the sun, blimps, helicopters, the planets Venus or Mars, meteors or meteorite space junk, satellites, swamp gas … ball lightning, ice crystals reflecting light off clouds, lights on the ground or lights reflected on a cockpit window, temperature inversions, punch clouds.”

From Seattle Times

The “Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena” was a weird and obscure tome packed with reports of such freaks of nature as ball lightning, luminescent tornadoes and “rogue waves” coming out of nowhere to swamp ships.

From Seattle Times

After earning enough money from his first published photo of rare ball lightning, Forster bought his first professional camera.

From BBC

The movie is based on a story by Chinese author Cixin Liu — who’s best known for his Three-Body Problem trilogy and last year’s Ball Lightning.

From The Verge