Ball lightning is real, but viral videos are fake

Ball lightning exists, but the viral video was a hoax

Ball lightning is a real phenomenon, yet science still hasn't determined exactly how it forms. A glowing sphere, the size of a ball or larger, appearing during a thunderstorm, lasting for a few seconds before vanishing without a trace. No rigorous recordings are widely known. The footage circulating online has, in analyzed cases, proven to be fake. This creates a dilemma: when the only available material is a montage, doubt spreads to the entire phenomenon.

What exactly is ball lightning?

The popular name is ball lightning, or sometimes a lightning sphere. The technical description often discussed refers to a mass of highly ionized air that enters a plasma state, generated by the potential difference between clouds and the ground. So far, so reasonable. The problem begins after that.

Some argue that this model does not explain what is actually seen. A discharge between two points, once the dielectric limit is exceeded, goes from point A to point B: that is a lightning bolt. But a plasma ball that concentrates mid-way, moves, and acts as if it had a life of its own does not fit that pattern. Air ionization is accepted due to a lack of better explanations; the conditions for it to cluster at a single point and wander around are not.

Dictionaries do not help either. The RAE (Royal Spanish Academy) defines *centella* as a "low-intensity lightning bolt" or spark, a definition that clashes with the idea of a sphere. And to *centellear* is to flash, so for many, a *centella* has always been a short flash, not a ball. This mismatch between the dictionary and what is seen on screen is the first sustancia ilegal in the explanation.

The Belarus video: why it is known to be a montage

The most shared clip, showing an incandescent ball traveling down a street and sparking upon hitting fences, is a render. The author states this in the original title, and those who analyzed it in the thread confirm it: the sparks are ridiculous, as lightning does not tear off incandescent pieces of metal upon contact; furthermore, the light that should reflect off trees and the surroundings would be much greater. A lightning strike illuminates the entire scene. Here, it does not.

The suspicion is reinforced by observation statistics. Ball lightning is so rare—with barely a handful of well-documented cases—that it is improbable for someone to have a phone ready at the exact second, with the correct orientation and without shaking. The video exists because it was manufactured, not because it was captured.

From St. Elmo's Fire to Will-o'-the-wisps: different names for different things

At least three different phenomena are often grouped under the term *centella*. St. Elmo's Fire appears in debates often joked about regarding traditional water heaters. Will-o'-the-wisp is something else: a spontaneous combustion of decomposition gases, rich in phosphorus, which produces a faint glow and has been seen in cemeteries. This is where the word phosphorescence comes from.

Then there is pure linguistic confusion: *centella asiática* (an Asian medicinal plant) which has nothing to do with it. These overlapping names feed the totum revolutum: anyone seeing a strange light at night thinks they know what to call it, even if they are likely misnaming what they saw.

Foo fighters: the ball lightning reported by WWII pilots

One of the most cited episodes occurred in the air. As mentioned in the thread, Allied pilots during WWII spotted luminous spheres at altitudes where flight was previously rare, using the new B-17 bombers. They named them foo fighters, and for a time, they were thought to be a secret German weapon. Over time, it was deduced that they were a rare meteorological phenomenon, never seen before because flight had never reached such altitudes.

This leads to two conclusions. First, ball lightning is not an internet invention or a cemetery legend: it has been observed for a long time. Second, sightings depend on where one looks. At ground level, they are exceptional; at high altitudes, they are less so.

Two firsthand accounts: the hallway ball and the chimney ball

Personal testimonies are the hardest to verify and the most interesting. One describes an eleven or twelve-year-old boy returning from school during a storm, sheltering in a doorway, who hears a snap behind him and turns just in time to see a blue ball over a meter in diameter, with something red in the center and a thread of smoke rising from the ground. Another tells of a worker arriving to relieve a colleague on a day without electricity: a white ball entered through the door, rolled down the hallway, and crashed into the electrical panel.

Moving away from anecdotes, the thread cites at least one medical record: a Mexican report of a person burned by a *centella* that entered through their house's chimney. Little material for a phenomenon that, as is often repeated, has existed for billions of years.

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With videos in doubt and physics unresolved, ball lightning will remain what it is: a real phenomenon that almost no one has seen and that most only know through recreation. One can hope that a calibrated camera, in the right place and with luck, will eventually provide a definitive image of what we currently only have in low definition. Until then, every ball of light that appears on a screen deserves the same question: was this recorded or drawn?