[telgareith]

Lightning has reached down from 10,000ft to strike the ground, do not make the mistake that it cares about anything humanity has built. Even with a lightning rod/abatement system, its probabilities and 'preferred paths.'

Plus, we really don't know all that much about lightning. Things like "ball lightning" (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning) seem insane/impossible, but theres too many reports from everywhere on earth that go back hundreds of years- enough of them from reliable sources that its just "unexplained."

[zikzak]

My father was born in 1930 and shared a bed with two siblings around ages 5-8. The bedroom was a small room at the top of the house and was on the wall where the electrical supply attached to the house from the street.

During a bad storm one night, they heard a buzzing sound at the window by their bed and saw an intense light outside. The ball lightning then entered their room at the window (I have no idea how that would work) and followed the wall out to the hallway. The whole time, they could hear a sizzling noise and the light was blinding.

Where it had entered the room, there was a fire outside where the electrical supply connected the house that entered the room. They took off out the door and down the the stairs. The fire damaged their house but did not spread (they think the rain put it out).

I have also heard that there was a family that had ball lightning enter their house down the wood stove chimney and emerge into their kitchen, followed the wall around the room, and the fizzled out.

Both incidents were a very long time ago. Other than that, I don't know anyone who has seen this phenomenon personally (my father passed away a couple of years ago).

[telgareith]

Nobody knows. It's why it's so interesting, and controversial.

"Two children and fire? Ball lightning... I've never heard matches called that before..."

But then somebody stops and thinks... How would they know about Ball lightning at that age, in that age.

Repeat that with thousands of accounts across cultures, continents, and at least 500 years. It's a real humdinger. Descriptions of Ball lightning are, afaik, more consistent than how people of different cultures handle psych problems.

I find it comforting to know there's so much more about the world to explore.