Storm chasers in Canada are getting excited about a rare phenomenon called ball lightning after a couple in Alberta posted a video of the event. John Vannewley-Raw explains.

Something more than a typical thunderstorm occurred during a severe storm in Alberta.

Ed and Melinda Pardee believe they witnessed a rare phenomenon called ball lightning.

The couple said it happened around 7 p.m. Wednesday near their home in a rural area about an hour northwest of Edmonton. A storm was brewing at the time and a tornado warning was in effect.

Ed Pardee, a longtime weather enthusiast, was on his back porch watching the sky for funnel clouds when lightning suddenly struck less than a kilometer from their home. What he saw next stunned him.

He describes a bright ball of light appearing about 23 feet above the ground and moving slowly across the horizon.

“After the lightning went out, it got bigger and brighter,” he says. “I thought it was probably going to go away, but it didn’t.”

Ed quickly asked his wife for her cell phone and started filming. The ball was visible for about a minute, and they managed to capture 23 seconds of it before it disappeared.

“It made a little pop and then it went away. I was like, ‘What is this? I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.’”

“It was really cool,” Melinda said.

The couple estimated the ball to be between three and six feet in diameter.

Ed Pardee, who had heard about ball lightning since he was a child, immediately thought of it and guessed that this might be the phenomenon.

Ball lightning is usually associated with severe thunderstorms and is one of the most mysterious and controversial weather phenomena. The phenomenon has been reported by witnesses for centuries — including cases of luminous balls moving inside houses and even passing through walls — but reliable photographic evidence of it is almost nonexistent.

An old photo of ball lightning from 1901 also exists in the archives.

George Koronis, a veteran storm chaser who saw Pardee’s video, said:
“If this is indeed ball lightning, it is one of the best videos of the phenomenon ever recorded.”

However, he also suggests another possibility:
“Sometimes when lightning strikes power lines, it creates an arc along the wires that glows with blue and orange light and then dies out in little sparks. Exactly like what we see here in the video.”

But Koronis admits that he can’t say for sure without being there.

The Pardees, on the other hand, insist that the phenomenon had nothing to do with the power lines.

“It wasn’t like that at all,” says Ed.

“It was a long way from the power lines,” adds Melinda.

Since the video was released, they’ve been contacted by several researchers from the University of Calgary and even someone from a UFO research program.

Ultimately, the couple said they were surprised by the sight, but were glad the orb stayed away.

“If it had come near me, I wouldn’t have wanted to go near it at all,” Ed said. “It’s a very dangerous amount of energy.”

“I never thought I’d see anything like it in my lifetime,” he added.

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