Abstract
ON December 6 about 4.30 p.m., a ball of lightning was seen falling at an angle of about 30° to the horizon near Ardglass, Co. Down. It was accompanied by a glare and a loud noise, and on striking the ground there was a burst of flame from the point of impact, followed by a loud explosion. The spot where it fell was examined by Mr. J. A. S. Stendall, of the Belfast Municipal Museum, Miss M. Gaffikin, and Mr. F. Addey, who has kindly supplied all information collected from those who saw the phenomenon. The stem of a hawthorn tree ten inches in diameter had been cut through, and branches had been scattered around, one being thrown 100 yards away from the tree. The bank of a dry ditch had been struck, the point of impact showing clearly from the crushed soil, and fragments of clay were found forty yards away. Excavations were made, as it was believed at first that a meteorite had fallen, but no trace of. such could be found at a depth of five feet. At the time of the appearance of the lightning a similar phenomenon was seen at a place six miles away in a north-north-west direction. People described this as accompanied by “a shattering blast which shook the whole countryside”. A large crater was found in the mud of a river bank near the scene, but this was quickly covered by the tide and could not be seen when the spot was visited later. The portion covered by the impact could not have been localized to the area of the crater because one person, hearing the explosion, went out and saw sparks jumping off the macadam of the roadway. Mr. Addey suspected a meteorite which had disintegrated, as two balls of globular lightning, separated by six miles, occurring at the same instant, would be rather a rare phenomenon. The fact that a thunderstorm was in progress at the time near Belfast and Lisburn, combined with the fact that there was a partial failure of the electric light in the district, is almost conclusive evidence that the phenomenon was globular lightning.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Curious Effects of Globular Lightning. Nature 141, 722 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141722b0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141722b0