There was a strange occurrence near the city of London on June 1195. A dark cloud appeared to give birth to a white orb of light, which fell towards the river.
The observation recorded by the Benedictine monk Gervase of Christ Church Cathedral Priory is light on detail and unlikely to be a first-hand account. It might be the earliest mention of a meteorological phenomenon in English history.
Ball lightning seems like it's not a real thing. They are more like small, glowing spots that disappear for a few seconds before blinking out of existence, and less like massive, explosive flashes.
There is a lot of speculation over the physical nature of these bright spheres, from the more mundane explanation of blobs of plasma accumulating on insulated surfaces, to the more wild suggestions of refractive bubbles of trapped photons.
The appearance and behavior of these balls vary greatly, making it difficult for those who want to understand them to do so. Some appear larger than a handspan, for example, up to the size of a truck tire.
Most are silent and disappear with a popped soap bubble. Some explode. There are stories of damage and injuries being sustained by making contact with ball lightning.
Being so rare and unpredictable, researchers rely heavily on anecdotes across different cultures and from throughout history to scratch together the necessary amounts of data to form hypotheses on what causes ball lightning in the first place.
With most reliable accounts taking place just in the past century or so, uncovering clear descriptions of ball lightning occurrences in times gone by becomes all the more valuable. There are old descriptions, but they're hard to distinguish from old flashes of lightning.
The findings of a relatively unambiguous recording were recently published by two Durham University researchers.
The monk's Chronicle was written around the start of the 13th century and has been preserved in the collections of the British Library and Cambridge.
The Latin text edited in 1879 by Bishop William Stubbs was translated into the following English by Gasper.
"On the 7th of the ides of June [1195], around the sixth hour, a marvellous sign descended near London. For the densest and darkest cloud appeared in the air growing strongly with the sun shining brightly all around. In the middle of this, growing from an uncovered opening, like the opening of a mill, I know not what [was the] white colour [that] ran out. That, growing into a spherical shape under the black cloud, remained suspended between the Thames and the lodgings of the bishop of Norwich. From there a sort-of fiery globe threw itself down into the river; with a spinning motion it dropped time and again below the walls of the previously mentioned bishop's household."
The monk is unlikely to be the observer. He was a chronicler of around 50 years of age by the year 1200. Based on previous writings, we can assume that his reporting is unembellished.
Many modern reports are accepted as authentic and reliable because of the description.
The 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 lightning ball.
The current world record for earliest reported report of ball lightning was written 500 years ago by the 6th century French historian Gregory of Tours in his book Historia Francorum.
He wrote that a great ball of fire fell from the sky and moved a considerable distance through the air, shining so brightly that visibility was as clear as high noon.
Gregory notes that the event occurred just as the bell had rung for matins, which indicates it happened early in the morning. It is one of the more unusual examples of ball lightning, which accounts tend to describe as occurring later in the day.
We can only guess how big it is, whether it moved vertically or horizontally, or how bright it was. It was a fiery ball that appeared in the rain, moved a distance, and then vanished behind a cloud.
There are a few more data points that can clarify the circumstances under which strange phenomena can appear.
Weather published this research.
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