An Unexpected Science Lesson at Grandma and Grandpa’s
by Suzie Peterson
When we were young, my siblings and I had many sleepovers at our grandparent’s homes. One of our sets of grandparents lived in a big, old, stone house, with lots of windows. It was situated at the foot of a big mountain. Although I adored time with my grandparents, odd things that made me feel uncomfortable often happened at that house.
The house was surrounded by a small yard that seamlessly blended into the deep woods. There was a path that traveled through the woods and up the mountain. We’d only hike and explore so far that path before we’d get nervous and run back to the house.
Behind the house was a small foot bridge that crossed over a stream. On the other side of the stream was a tree swing. We loved to pump that swing as high and as fast as we could, ponytails whipping in the wind. For a second or two we got to hang over the water.
About thirty feet from the swing, the stream was fed by water that trickled over a little dam at the edge of a pond. We had lots of fun in Grandpa’s rowboat on that pond. His dog even loved to hop in and float with us. We didn’t swim much in the pond because there were too many snakes in the area. We had to take turns riding in the rowboat. We didn’t want to take a chance of overloading it and tipping over, for fear of having to swim with the reptiles to get back to shore!
On one particular overnight visit, my sister and I slept upstairs in aunt Sandy’s old bedroom. Her room had a pretty, mirrored vanity. Next to the vanity were flowy curtains which framed the French doors that led to a small, wrought-iron balcony. It overlooked the woods and the road, two stories below.
A powerful thunderstorm slammed through the area that night. During the storm, a glowing ball of orange lightning, the size of a basketball, traveled in through the double dining room windows. It zipped past grandma, who was sitting at the dining room table, missing her head by a literal hair. It traveled up the switchback staircase, and turned one final corner into the bedroom where we were sleeping. We startled awake. The hair on the back of my neck and arms stood straight up. The ball exploded over our heads.The light was blinding.The crack was deafening. Then it disappeared! Just like that! Gone!
We were petrified. Our bodies shook from our head to our toes, and we screamed bloody murder. Our aunts and grandma ran up to check that we were okay. We were fine. No damage, no fire, no extra heat, none of the things that one might imagine.
Was it a nightmare, or did this thing we’d never heard of really happen? It did happen. Everyone in the family talked about it for days, especially grandma and our aunts who had seen it. It was so bizarre that even though it did happen, I still wondered whether we were crazy?
Years later, when I researched ball lightning, I was comforted to find similar stories and information that supported what we had experienced. We weren’t crazy after all!
As of this writing, scientists continue to have a variety of speculations on the physics of ball lightning which has been considered a mysterious phenomenon for hundreds of years. Over the past several decades, as technology has improved and more people, including scientists, have been able to record ball lightning, it is becoming less of a mystery. Scientists are putting more effort into all the questions that surround it – where, when, why, and how does it occur?
There are a few general observations that scientists agree on, so far. Ball lightning usually moves parallel to the earth, and sometimes takes vertical jumps. The one we experienced did both. It traveled parallel to the earth until it reached the stairs, and then vertically floated and bobbed up the stairwell and around the corner.
Ball lightning sometimes comes down from the clouds, and other times for reasons unknown, it can suddenly materialize either indoors or outdoors. It can enter a room through a closed or open window, through nonmetallic thin walls, or even through a chimney. The one we experienced entered the house through the windows. I don’t remember whether the windows were closed, or whether the ball caused a burn mark as it entered.
Scientists have determined that ball lightning is harmless when it is inside structures that have conducting frames, such as houses, submarines and airplanes. We were startled and scared, but we weren’t hurt inside the big old stone house that had lightning rods.
Regardless of whether ball lightning is harmless or not, I don’t want to experience being near it again.That night left the strongest impression I have from my visits to that grandma and grandpa’s home. It sure was one heck of a science lesson!
Copyright©2019Suzann Peterson.All Rights Reserved
GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!: A 1901 engraving depicting ball lightning
Photo source: National Geographic
