# Ball lightning · Concept

> A reported luminous sphere that floats for seconds during thunderstorms, not yet reproduced in the laboratory.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW07S9ZXB/ball-lightning  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Concepts](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts)Ball lightning

Concept · atmospheric physics · in 3 mysteries

# Ball lightning

A reported luminous sphere that floats for seconds during thunderstorms, not yet reproduced in the laboratory.

[Marfa lights](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/marfa-lights)[Ball lightning](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning)[Hessdalen lights](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hessdalen-lights)

Thousands of witnesses over centuries describe a glowing ball, the size of a fist to a football, drifting for seconds and vanishing quietly or with a bang. One has been recorded with a spectrograph, in 2012. No laboratory has made one that behaves as the reports describe, and the competing physical accounts are what the site's ball-lightning mystery tests.

## Where it comes up

**[Marfa lights](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/marfa-lights)**

Ball lightning produced by piezoelectric effects in quartz-bearing bedrock under stress.

[Piezoelectric ball lightning from quartz bedrock](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/marfa-lights/answers/ANS0DCKMYQEPDRZ/piezoelectric-ball-lightning-from-quartz-bedrock)[An electrical plasma with a geological source](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/marfa-lights/answers/ANS0DCKMXRQCM1R/an-electrical-plasma-with-a-geological-source)[Television crews' attempts to triangulate the lights never located them; the lights proved not to be where they…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/marfa-lights/evidence/EVD0DCKQ4SRZSK5/television-crews-attempts-to-triangulate-the-lights-never)

**[Ball lightning](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning)**

It was a related but different phenomenon, such as a long-lived luminous ground-strike remnant, not representative of ball lightning in general.

[Q: Is ball lightning a physical object, distinct from afterimages, hallucinations and misperceived ordinary lightning?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning/questions/QST0D40A5846ZE5/is-ball-lightning-a-physical-object-distinct-from)[Q: Does ball lightning form at the point where lightning strikes, or in the electric field near storms?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning/questions/QST0D40A5ZJ387Q/does-ball-lightning-form-at-the-point-where-lightning)[Q: What forms and powers ball lightning?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning/questions/QST0D40A5FY652V/what-forms-and-powers-ball-lightning)[It was a related but different phenomenon, such as a long-lived luminous ground-strike remnant, not…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning/answers/ANS0D40AD9Y1EQW/it-was-a-related-but-different-phenomenon-such-as-a-long)[Ball lightning is a physical luminous object produced in or near thunderstorms.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning/answers/ANS0D40A67C1C9Q/ball-lightning-is-a-physical-luminous-object-produced-in-or)[Martin Uman called it probably ball lightning, or one type of ball lightning.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/ball-lightning/evidence/EVD0D40ADHR05B2/martin-uman-called-it-probably-ball-lightning-or-one-type-of)

**[Hessdalen lights](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/hessdalen-lights)**

The EMBLA team compared the light profile to the silicon-nanoparticle model of ball lightning .

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Ball lightning [Concept CPT0DECW07S9ZXB]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/CPT0DECW07S9ZXB
```

Key

**CPT** 0DECW07S9ZXB

Record

Concept

Field

Atmospheric physics

Related

[Eyewitness testimony](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW06XVBA5/eyewitness-testimony)

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[Eyewitness testimony](https://mysteriesdept.com/concepts/CPT0DECW06XVBA5/eyewitness-testimony)

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