A 'Multiple Ball Lightning' Storm.

'On Thursday the 24th of February this year the Island experienced an unusual event. Apparently there were several Ball Lightning events at an elevation of about 500-1000 metres, along with 7 recorded Ball lightning events entering peoples homes'.

'I am a member of TORRO (Tornado and Storm Research Organisation) which you may have heard of and am conducting an investigation along with Peter van Doorn of TORRO into the event. An aircraft was also struck by Ball lightning (or similar) at the same time. (I still have some more information to gather.)

At 1037 GMT I was sitting at my computer monitoring the weather situation in the area, a TORRO member had issued a thunderstorm warning for the region. Both my wife and myself heard a moderately loud bang, like, but not like thunder, I was quite pleased that the TORRO warning had proved correct. I must state that I am only an amateur meteoroligist with a keen interest. About 10 minutes later I heard an aircraft landing, this is fairly unusual as the airport normally closes at about 9pm, but in certain instances will remain open for delayed flights. The next morning the front page of the local newspaper carried a full page article about a Dash 8 aircraft having to make an emergency return after being struck by lightning twice. Later in the day I happened to hear about a gentleman who had seen a "thunderball" falling from the sky. I was unable to trace this person so managed to get a small article in the newspaper requesting information. I gave a brief description of what Ball Lightning could look like and thought I would be lucky if I got any replies.

Over the next two days I had over 50 replies from people who had seen "a tremendous exploding flash in the air", "a white dot that got bigger then exploded", "an enormous explosion followed by a second sounding like an echo" etc etc.

I also had four responses where the witnesses were indoors and Ball Lightning entered their houses. One case the ball entered via two closed windows, came up to the television and then exited by the same route, a husband and wife both witnessed this. Another was at his computer when a "circular ball the size of a small football containing blue sparks rose from behind the desk to about 1.2m then disappeared, there was a flash outside and a huge bang". In the other case an elderly gentleman saw a ball of light come through the window, hit his television set by the aerial connector and disappeared, the television was ruined.
I have arranged for an article to appear in the Geurnsey Press, which I hope to include an appeal for more witnesses.

I obtained directions from the witnesses as to where they saw the above events, plotting them on a map it appears there were at least two and possibly four (BL), more witnesses would clarify this.

Ern, I haven't posted this on UKWW, just been too busy, there are some posts on TORRO. Feel free to post if you wish also on the Australian Weather zone'.

Kind regards
Paul Domaille (Guernsey)

Guernsey is a "Crown Dependancy" self governed, english speaking, closer to France than England with strong historical French links. Situated in the Bay of St Malo, the closest large French town is Cherbourg and UK City, Southampton or Plymouth. Channel Islands map - worldatlas.com

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Passenger flight hit twice by lightning
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by Jane Corbet

....A full emergency was called at 10.40pm after a distress call from the captain of the Dash 8 en route from Guernsey to Exeter. He said the aircraft had been struck twice.
The plane, with 52 passengers on board, landed safely in Guernsey 15 minutes later.
Passengers emerged shaken, but unhurt, after the emergency landing in snowy conditions.
"There was a little flash initially and then there was one very, very large lightning strike", said Andrew Cotton, from Exeter. He said that was followed by a strong smell of burning.
Another passenger, Brad Richecoeur, had been sitting in the front of the plane.
It was quite shocking, he said. They said they had to turn back. It wasn't safe to continue. We landed with two fire engines on the runway.
Mr Cotton said that he had been told that a Guernsey fireman had witnessed the incident.
The fire brigade saw the flash and bang in the sky and thought the plane had blown up, he said.
The aircraft would not normally have been flying on that route but, because of severe weather conditions in the UK and technical problems with other aircraft, the flight had been delayed.
The plane flew from Jersey to Guernsey and on to Exeter, said Flybe Channel Islands manager Ian Taylor today.
It took off from Guernsey at about 10.35 last night.
"It had a double strike, which meant it was not safe for the aircraft to continue", he said.
He praised the captain and the crew for the way they handled the situation.
"It is a very regrettable incident but one over which we had no control. Safety is our paramount concern", he said.
On arrival in Guernsey, the plane was checked and found not to be serviceable.
"It was looked at overnight and repaired", said Mr Taylor...  

Excerpt of article published 25/2/2005 'This Is Guernsey' News.

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UKWeatherworld Forum discussion and news/updates :

http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/viewthread - Guernsey Ball Lightning of 24th Feb 2005.

More Guernsey Press articles:

'Lightning Strike Wrecked My TV.'

'Ball of Lightning Shot Across Room.'

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8 March 2005.

I am in the process of investigating a multiple BL event in Guernsey some 10 days ago, some of the eyewitness accounts I would have confined to the realms of Harry Potter had I not spoken to the people involved. I will never again shrug something off into fantasy land. I can see where a lot of ghost stories may have come from now.

....Further responses now include a woman who was apparently "shrouded" by some sort of electrical (or whatever) field after it rolled up her arm, I have to check his one out further

....There were between 2 and 4 aerial events, plotting of all the data should tell how many. On the ground I have had about 5 different sightings confirmed. Some people do recognise it, but a number don't. In at least 2 of the ground events, nothing would have come to light if it hadn't been for the article, or a third party calling me. If you take into account the probable number of people who haven't called me and the number of events which would have gone unseen it makes for a sizeable number ! I'll keep you posted, at the moment I am grabbing as much data as possible and making site visits when time allows.

....No cases of multiple balls in houses, colours range from blue/blue white/white/yellow and one case of an aerial event being red.

Regards Paul D. Guernsey.

One of the unusual aspects of this case is that out of 32 witnesses I only have one who saw "normal" lightning and one who says there was a "normal" strike but it was very straight and vertical. One of the questions I have been asking witnesses is for a sequence of events from start to finish of what they observed, including asking about normal lightning. All 32 people saw an aerial BL type event (which I regrettably only heard, quite differnt from conventional lightning). Now up to 8 reliable sightings on/near ground level (7 of which were inside houses) and a possible 4 or 5 more.

West Kilbride (Scotland / UK) is regionally near Derry (Ireland).