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Brecon, United Kingdom, 26 April 2004.
From UKWeatherWorld Forum :
Date: Monday April 26th 2004
Time: approx. 16:00
During the afternoon I had been observing from time to time, a storm develop towards the East. I had noticed that between 14:00 & 16:00 the cloud around the edge of the storm was rotating, instead of moving in any general direction like storm clouds generally do. When there is chance of a convective storm I have the opportunity of a mostly good panoramic view of the clouds and watch the general direction of convective cells to ascertain/predict whether or not they will pass over me. At around 14:30 I became puzzled when the clouds on the edge of the storm had not moved off in the direction I had anticipated, which would have been further away from me and heading North East. This is because, originally at around 14:00 I had discounted any chance of seeing precipitation etc as the cloud appeared to have been travelling SW to NE. At 14:30 it was raining about a mile to my W and the cloud was travelling N to S when looking N, but more interestingly I noticed at the point most Northerly of the storm, the cloud seemed to be heading towards me. The cloud had actually advanced a mile closer to me and it’s globby and a bit messy boundary with blue sky and higher cloud was almost directly overhead. This was unusual but not uncommon. The wind here was not strong during the PM and averaged around 8 knots.
I did watch the storm with more interest from this point and looking towards Brecon I noticed how the cloud appeared to intensify and it base lower to give misty conditions on the ground starting from about 8 miles away. The cloud did have a misty appearance and another unusual feature I observed was its hue and brightness. Normally I expect to see really dark conditions with a large convective storm yet because it seemed quite a bright misty glow near its base with a lovely, but slight orange tint, I concluded that this was not a convective storm or that it had any possibility of becoming one really, because I assumed that it had no substance. I know now that it was very dark in Brecon itself. I did feel the cloud had an evocative atmospheric quality about it however. I was inside the house when I heard and felt the Blast from the thunder. The ground shock and trinkets rattled slightly. I remarked about this with my wife yet she had her head engrossed in a novel and didn’t do anymore than acknowledge that I had spoken.
I had to drive 4 miles towards the storm, shortly afterwards…probably about 16:10. The cloud was still in an almost identical position as it was at 14:30. But much darker in appearance but still seeming to connect with the ground a few miles to my east. It was raining about 4 miles away too.
Witness 1 >>
This eyewitness was stood undercover in the entrance of Safeway supermarket looking in the general direction of Mount St. and about 350m distant. This eyewitness did not see the sphere and it was the noise of the Blast that alerted him, he then saw lightning came and strike the ground near the trolley Bay about 70m in front of his position. I was also told that the tills and computers had been damaged in Safeway supermarket, and that power had also been cut for a short time. The supermarkets Lift had also been badly damaged and was inoperative. This witness also said the ground shock violently and the sound of the thunder was different to any thunder they had heard before and was like a Bomb exploding. This witness also felt that Safeway had also received a direct hit.
Witness 1 also said directly after the strike the rain intensified.
Witness 2
Witness 2 is a keen thunderstorm watcher who runs his own business in Brecon yet lives on a mountain where he often attempts to photograph the lightning during a Thunderstorm. He is a particularly good witness because of his experience and interest with lightning. He observed the Ball lightning and was adamant that it was in no way any form of lightning that he had seen before, like sheet or forked lightning for example. He made this clear to me by explaining that with a forked lightning strike the energy goes up to the cloud which makes contact with the ground, yet the sphere of lightning he observed actually came down from the sky with its own force and no contact with the ground whatsoever.
He was sat in his van waiting at traffic lights looking straight ahead. The photograph shows his view, as it was when he observed the sphere appear from the cloud base moving from Right to Left. His initial observation was that this sphere was heading for a direct hit on his business premises, which, although out of his view, were only about 200M away from his position in the traffic queue. This made him think that the Ball was about 15 – 20m in diameter. However, upon learning that Mount Street was hit he concluded that the Ball must have been 2 or 3 times larger than he originally thought, as it would have had to have been further away.
This must be investigated further as it may be the ball lightning bounced before it struck Mount Street
His view of the Ball lightning was uninterrupted and he observed it from the sphere appearing out of the cloud until it was obscured. The blast of the thunder happened moments later.
The sphere appeared concentric and with a defined circumference. Its colour was white. It illuminated the surrounding cloud very visibly.
This witness estimated the cloud base to be 300 to 400’ with misty kind of conditions below.
Further witnesses have provided the following information
So far I have spoken with about 50 individuals who experienced the event yet did not observe the Ball itself.
What happened, as I understand is that the Ball lightning ‘discharged’ when it made contact with a building, probably with the building in Mount Street. The force of the strike seemed to explode the chimney as bricks from the chimney damaged cars 30+m away.
When the Ball discharged it sent out many forks of lightning, which struck a considerable number of buildings within a quarter of a mile of it.
Buildings/Locations, which received a direct hit, include:
The Police Station
The Church
Safeway’s supermarket ( 2 strikes )
Council offices in the Watton ( 2 strikes )
Retail premises in Town centre ( 4 strikes )
I feel confident that many more buildings received a direct hit.
Several witnesses tell of the strike on the Church that was accompanied by a red hue in the air and a sound that was crackling. One witness who was sheltering in a doorway 20m from the church who saw the red glow in the air along with the strike commented that the sound that accompanied it for several seconds afterwards was similar to that made by Bacon frying. I must also note that some witnesses did not observe the red hue in the air.
The strike on the Church resulted from a horizontal fork of lightning that passed below roof level along a street and which struck the church ‘low down’. I believe the rod on top of the church tower was bent, but I have yet to confirm this.
A CCTV system was being installed in the town centre at the time and a workman was up a mast at the Police station cabling. The mast received a direct hit from the lightning and very fortunately the workman was uninjured.
At my wife’s offices, a third type of lightning occurred. Following the ‘blast’ from the thunder a blue light came fizzing and crackling into the office where 3 people were at work. It appears this light followed a straight line when it entered the building. It ‘discharged’ somewhat on a heating pipe in the far corner, but then the blue light crackled back in the direction it had come in from but about 3’ lower, before dissipating. At this time the light did not resemble a ball, but streakier in appearance and as it made its way through the air a few inches above some cabling conduit it crackled loudly.
Every person I have spoken too has told me that the noise from the discharge of the Ball lightning was extremely frightening, and many have said that the sound will never be forgotten. Every single person has told me that they cowered or took cover, some hiding under desks, others throwing themselves across rooms for protection, and some ducking. Witness 2 told me of two men who were stood talking on the pavement and when the discharge occurred one ducked while the other ended up on all fours on the ground. Every witness has also told of how the ground shock. The single explanation was that of a bomb detonating. Many witnesses described to me how they had experienced lightning strikes overhead with direct hits to places close to them, and all these people say that sound and intensity of this blast was totally different to any overhead lightning strikes they had experienced, being much louder and more powerful.
A man who was working in a 1st floor office with an open window told me how his hair on his head stood upright when a streak of lightning passed down the street.
Some structural damage elsewhere in the town occurred, but I have yet to document this.
Electronics, such as computers and TV’s also received damage. On some Cathode Ray Tubes, the colour was dissipated and lost. Computers suffered, and it wasn’t just their Modems either, Motherboards were also destroyed. Just one computer repairer reported that over 70 computers he was repairing, was as a direct result of the strike. Many shops also had computers fail, some terminally. More information needed.
Data was also lost from computer hardrives in businesses about town.
This is an interim report. More to follow'
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