A marvellous sign and a fiery globe: a medieval English report of ball lightning

We describe an entry in a twelfth century monastic chronicle, compiled and composed by Gervase of Canterbury (c. 1145-c. 1210), which gives a credible description of ball lightning. It predates the earliest known report of the phenomenon from England by nearly 450 years. The meteorological descriptions in Gervase's 1195 report are examined in the context of the purpose of the chronicle and we compare them with modern reports of ball lightning. (Image courtesy of Mircea Goia.)