Keul, A.G. (2000). More on a torus ball lightning case. Journal of Meteorology, 25, 49-50.

original text file

MORE ON A TORUS BALL LIGHTNING CASE

By ALEXANDER G. KEUL
Salzburg University, Hellbrunnerstr.34,
A-5020 Salzburg, Austria

Abstract: The field investigation results of a long-time toroid ball lightning case from Gmuend, Austria,
are reported. First case data have been published in J Meteorology 24, 178-179.

An exceptional Austrian BL case of 1996, reported 1998, was field-investigated in the summer
of 1999. On August 21, 1999, the author together with Viennese researcher Oliver Stummer
drove to the site at Gmuend, northern Lower Austria, interviewed the witness, Aurelia Reisinger
(born 1911), and took measurements.

The case location is a housing settlement of the early 1930s between Great Harabruck Pond,
the town centre, and the railroad station. Gmuend lies on a flat granite plateau with scattered
boulders, swamps and lakes, an almost Scandinavian landscape. Among a tree garden and 10
meters north of the old one-family-house, the summer apple tree involved in the BL episode
was planted around 1930. With 3.5 meters, it is not the tallest tree in the garden. Before the
incident, Mrs.Reisinger worked in a garden shed 10 meters from the apple tree. The treetop,
seen from the shed, is exactly in the west (270°). The house has no lightning protection. No
electrical cables cross the garden.

When the BL appeared suddenly from behind the tree, it caught the attention of the witness who
said it looked like it "sat down onto the tree". It had the proportions of "a small truck tire, not a
large tractor one", and definite torus shape. What made the dark object an even stranger sight
was a considerable number of "Xmas candles", all hanging down from its underside 15 to 20
centimeters, "sparkling", which means changing brightness and an emission of sparks at the
same time. A humming and sizzling sound was associated with this optical effect, but no static
electricity. The strange light was not blinding, but irritated the eyes of the witness who looked at
it only intermittently.

Mrs.Reisinger continued her work in the shed, not moving closer to the object, getting more
nervous over the 10 minutes the phenomenon lasted. Her eyes started to water towards the end
of the observation. Another phenomenon she remembers was the irregular extinction of the
"candles" that went out piece by piece. When half of the torus underside had become dark, the
rest went out quickly. After the observation, she heard from her sister, 91, who died in 1999,
that a cat had been getting nervous inside the house. The witness had eye complications for
about a day, seeing "stars" that night, and remained nervous for two or three days so she
received a sedative. The apple tree, according to Mrs.Reisinger, did not only show no visible
damage or loss of leaves, but even seemed to grow better afterwards.

The observer profile of the old lady was excellent. Despite her age of 88 (87 in 1998, not 85 as
previously reported), she was articulate and motivated. Coming from a forester family with eight
siblings, she always took an interest in natural phenomena. She did not give her observation a
non-ordinary meaning.

Radioactivity measured in the garden and near the apple tree was not above the local level (an
increased one due to the granite). The only problem remaining is that the Austrian lightning
detection system ALDIS plots no cloud-ground flashes at Gmuend for June 6, 1996, which
makes the case date unsure.

Toroidal BL is unknown in the first German monograph (Brand, 1923), but torus-shaped BL
glow distributions ("ring", "doughnut") were noticed in 14.3 percent of the US cases collected by
Dewan (1954). Barry (1980) does not mention toroidal BL. The Austrian BL Data Bank contains
a second torus case from Salzburg Province, where a "tire"-shape rolled downhill.

REFERENCES

BARRY, J.D. (1980). Ball lightning and bead lightning. New York: Plenum.
BRAND, W. (1923). Der Kugelblitz. Hamburg: Henri Grand.
DEWAN, E.M. (1954). Eyewitness accounts of kugelblitz. Cambridge, MA: USAF.