Ball lightning is a well known, but unexplained phenomenon that occurs everywhere, usually prior to or during a thunderstorm. I have had four encounters with ball lightning and each time I had witnesses with me. These are my big four encounters that happened directly to me and the final story is an observation of ball lightning I had from a distance. I have heard stories about this my whole life and it said that it is extremely rare to ever experience ball lightning; let alone I had four direct encounters and saw another from a distance. (I have added two more experiences with lightning strikes which occurred recently. Not Ball Lightning, but Lightning Bolts.)
Summer 1992: Just prior to a major evening thunderstorm I was in the kitchen of my parents house. I placed a mug of water in the microwave to heat up. After I took my cup out of the microwave; I saw a mild flash outside in the yard. A second after the small flash, I was standing in front of the sink when I noticed a glow down the drain pipe. Within a second later, a white-yellowish ball of lightning about the size of a tennis ball came out of the drain pipe of the sink and instantly burst. The entire kitchen lit up and at the same time a massive thunder boom was at the exact time the ball exploded. I got blown back into the wall and my coffee mug on the counter exploded. My father and mother were in the next room and came rushing in. They said they saw the enormous flash and heard the massive boom come from the kitchen. Fortunately, I was not hurt at all; except, my ears were ringing and I could barely hear for a few hours.
Summer 1996: I was playing golf with three friends. Dark clouds were building, but no storm yet, so we were rushing to finish the hole and leave. I was off on the edge of the fairway near a line of tall pine trees. Out of nowhere a glowing, yellowish lightning ball about the size of a golf ball (pardon the pun) appeared next to a tree about 20 ft from me. Within a second it exploded and the thunder boom was exactly at the same time. I felt a static feeling over my entire body and the hair on my arms and legs was standing up. My friends were scattered about 100 ft from me and two of them witnessed it. The described exactly what I saw and we all agreed that it formed and exploded so fast that we had no time to move or even drop to the ground.
Summer 2002: I was in my home office and my wife was in the other room. The office door was open and my wife could see into the room that I was working in. A bad thunderstorm had just started and my wife literally told me that I should turn the computer off. I thought nothing of it and continued working on the computer. About two or three minutes later, I saw a faint flash outside the window about 50 ft away. Within a brief second a whitish-yellow lightning ball about the size of a marble quickly came through the edge of the window sill. It was moving extremely fast and struck the power strip which the computer and other devices were plugged into. There was a quick flash and a thunder boom at the exact second just outside of the window. My wife came running in and said she saw the flash come from the room and asked if I was ok. I was perfectly fine, but kind of stunned. It burned out my printer, DVD player and monitor.
Fall 2006: I had just purchased a new truck and I had gone off roading with my friend Ed. We were in a wildlife refuge near the Outer Banks, NC. A bad thunderstorm developed rather quick so we decided to just hunker down parked on a dirt road not near any trees, but in the open. The rain was extremely heavy, but ended rather quick. We were just relaxing as the rain stopped and were about to get back to ripping up some mud trails. Suddenly, a yellowish lightning ball about the size of a baseball appeared floating slowly downwards towards the ground about 10 ft in front of my truck (in true time this probably was about 2 seconds). As it got near the ground it just exploded in a blinding flash with an instant loud boom. We both looked at each other and basically used a lot of "choice" words in excitement of what we just saw. There was no effect on my truck as it was still running fine.
Summer 2010: This was a distant observation of a lightning ball I had with a co-worker. I was at work, working on a private estate out in the rural countryside. We were working outside all day until a typical, late afternoon thunderstorm developed. We took cover in the house and were watching the field and forest from the kitchen windows. My friend and I were both watching the trees bend in the wind; but, it was not raining yet. As always within a brief second we both saw a yellowish-orange lightning ball that was rather huge form by the edge of the forest roughly 150 yards away. It floated long enough that my friend said, "Holy shit do you see that?" then instantly it flashed and exploded. A massive thunder boom followed just after. The tree is exploded next was damaged. The bark was blown off and the bark around the bald spots left was burnt black. The tree never died and exists today. We shared this story with plenty of people and if they were at the estate we showed them the tree.
March 2016: I bought a Victorian era, large "Green Man" iron knocker at an antique shop. I had in mind a perfect location on a 200+ year old white oak tree directly behind my house. After mounting it on the great tree, two days later, a massive (out of season) thunderstorm rolled through late at night. I was sitting in my living room with clear view of my patio deck and the tree, when a bright lightning bolt struck directly there. My power flashed off for a few seconds. I ran out to check and noticed no fire or obvious damage. A few days later while out on my deck I noticed a bare strip of no bark starting at the green man knocker and twisting straight up the tree beyond sight. The knocker had blackened spots on the edges where prior it was faded green. I assume that the heavens noticed my new offering of respect to nature and gave it the ultimate blessing.
July 2016: When buying a new house that has some age to it, it always comes with surprise repairs. My first major repair was the need of a new well. My new well was drilled, wired, plumbed and finished in early July. The first week after the install a pounding thunderstorm in the early morning hours came rolling through. I awoke to the sound of thunder and lightning getting closer and closer. Suddenly and massive flash and boom lit the whole house up. I could tell it was very close and I ran out to check the tree (with the green man iron knocker on it) to see if it was struck again, but it looked all good. After the storm passed I went back to bed only to woken by an odd faint scent of burning rubber an hour or so later. I walked the whole house and found nothing. Before going back to bed I heard a fizzing sound from the basement. I went down to find the well pump electrical box pouring black smoke out. I tripped the fuse box and it quickly burned out. Upon calling my well installer the next day, he came to repair it and confirmed that my new well was struck by a lightning bolt. He said that it is extremely rare and he has only only seen it once in 35 years. I told my past experiences with lightning and he laughed and agreed that this was yet another strike within feet of me to add to my stories.
Oddly, by writing this series of encounters with ball lightning, I have realized that I have an occurrence just about every four years. Luckily I have not been hurt yet. My many friends and family members that have had these experiences with me always joke me about it when a bad thunderstorm is approaching. I would just figure everyone would want to experience it with me at least once (kidding of course).
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