Baffling Ball Lightning
Ball lighting has long been one of the most curious natural phenomena, having the ability to sometimes pass harmlessly through walls and windows - and at other times burn a hole through them. Those who have seen it say it seems to behave with a kind of intelligence. Many strange cases have been documented, including:
- Dozens of glowing balls of light preceded an earthquake in Bologna, France in 1779.
- Mr. Matts of Coventry, England had an encounter with ball lightning in 1940 that was a bit too close for comfort. While working in his garden, he at once seemed to be enveloped in an "intense blackness." At his feet was a two-foot wide ball of blue-green light that "seemed made of a mass of writhing strings of light." It then sailed into the air and landed about a quarter of a mile away where it exploded, damaging a pub.
For more amazing stories, see the article "The Mystery of Ball Lightning"
Wacky Whirlwinds
No one can discount the awesome, destructive force of hurricanes and tornadoes, but there are many fascinating cases that inspire wonder:
- A tornado's winds are destructive enough - but what about a whirlwind of fire! A whirling pillar of fire of Old Testament fury was reported to pass through Cheatham County, Tennessee in 1869. Farmer Ed Sharp testified that it picked up small branches and leaves as it went, "burning them in a sort of flaming cylinder." As it passed over some of his horses, it singed their manes and tails. It set hay stacks on fire. When it reached the river, it sucked up water that instantly turned to steam and rose up to the clouds. Then it died out.
Tornado Oddities tells of these amazing examples of tornadoes carrying away people and animals:
- "Canadian weather historian David Phillips tells of a tornado that picked up a baby girl from the buggy of an Uren, Saskatchewan, family in 1923. After a 10-hour search, the girl was found asleep in a shack two miles from the point where the buggy had been upset."
- If you thought the flying cow in the movie Twister was just over-the-top Hollywood special effects imagination, read this amazing story: During an 1899 F4 tornado in Missouri, "three people, Miss Moorehouse, Mrs. Webster, and her son were caught up in the storm and carried nearly one-quarter mile. They were let down so gently that none of the three was seriously injured. Moorehouse described her incredible flight: 'I was conscious all the time I was flying through the air, and it seemed a long time. I seemed to be lifted up and whirled round and round, going up to a great height, at one time far above the church steeples, and seemed to be carried a long distance... As I was going through the air being whirled about at the sport of the storm, I saw a horse soaring and rotating about with me. It was a white horse and had a harness on. By the way it kicked and struggled as it was hurled about I knew it was alive. I prayed God that the horse might not come in contact with me, and it did not. I was mercifully landed upon the Earth unharmed, saved by a miracle."