I saw ball lightning tuesday night!

And it was awesome. Me and a couple buddies were riding around at about 11:50 when we saw it shooting out from the clouds. It was overcast that night. I saw it through the drivers window for a split second, but it disappeared into the blind spot between that window and the windshield and flashed out right there. When it flashed out, it filled the inside of the van with a bright, blue light.

Me friend was already staring out the window and saw the entire thing. It hurt both of their eyes pretty bad when it disappeared, and I could pretty much imagine from what I saw lighting up the interior. It was maybe a mile or mile and a half away from us, and judging from that distance it was maybe 15 - 20 feet wide. It had wispy lines coming out of it, and when it flashed out it grew out in every direction like a "wa-womph!" It didn't make any noise.

So I thought that was pretty damn cool.

Now for the part that I wasn't sure belonged in this section. It got me thinking about how our ancestors described stars falling from the heavens. Some people thought that might be a pole shift causing the Earth to move around wildly, and so the stars would look like they were setting into the horizon. I was thinking that they might have been mistaken when they saw ball lightning falling all over the place, scorching the land.

It seems the sun is putting out way more energy these days. We've had these really powerful hurricanes, 400+ tornadoes so far compared to only 90 last year, the weather is going nuts, and comets are breaking way out there around saturn compared to when they usually pass around the sun. Something's gonna give.

[edit on 14-4-2006 by iamjman]

Somebody answered the question I had right here...

[edit on 14-4-2006 by iamjman]