Making the headlines: Researchers discover the earliest report of ball lightning in England

A newly published research article on early view in the Royal Meteorological Society's Weather journal uncovers what appears to be the earliest known account of a rare weather phenomenon called ball lightning in England.

The account, by the 12th-century Benedictine monk Gervase of Christ Church Cathedral Priory, Canterbury, pre-dates the previous earliest known description of ball lightning recorded in England by nearly 450 years.

Physicist Emeritus Professor Brian Tanner and historian Professor Giles Gasper from Durham University made the connection to a ball lightning event while exploring a medieval text written some 750 years ago.

Ball lightning, usually associated with thunderstorms, is unexplained and described as a bright spherical object on average 25 centimetres, but sometimes up to several metres in diameter.

In his Chronicle, composed around 1200, Gervase stated that "a marvellous sign descended near London" on 7 June 1195.

Part of the passage in a manuscript of Gervase's Chronicle describes the fiery globe. (Reproduced under Creative Commons licence, courtesy of Trinity College, Cambridge.)

He described a dense and dark cloud, emitting a white substance that grew into a spherical shape under the cloud, from which a fiery globe fell towards the river.

Before Gervase's account, the earliest report of ball lightning from England was during a tremendous thunderstorm in Widecombe, Devon, on 21 October 1638.

Professor Tanner said: “Ball lightning is a rare weather event that is still not understood today.

“Gervase’s description of a white substance coming out of the dark cloud, falling as a spinning fiery sphere and then having some horizontal motion is very similar to historic and contemporary descriptions of ball lightning.”

The story has captured the public interest, making headlines today worldwide. At the last count, we spotted 157 different articles.

Members can read the full research paper in Weather.

Main image: 19th-century engraving depicting ball lightning: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58806