Sources

Pages were cached and checked on 14 November 2026. We quote the article body of the Encyclopaedia Britannica page, not any "Ask Anything" or "Top Questions" boxes. Wikipedia is not used as a source. The 2014 Physical Review Letters paper was read in full; the 2000 Nature letter is cited from its abstract.

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, ball lightning (article body, checked 14 November 2026)
• Royal Meteorological Society, Ball Lightning (checked 14 November 2026)
• Met Office, How the Met Office monitors lightning, 12 May 2025 (checked 14 November 2026)
• Cen, Yuan and Xue, Observation of the Optical and Spectral Characteristics of Ball Lightning, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 035001 (17 January 2014)
• Abrahamson and Dinniss, Ball lightning caused by oxidation of nanoparticle networks from normal lightning strikes on soil, Nature 403, 519–521 (3 February 2000), abstract
• Keul, A brief history of ball lightning observations by scientists and trained professionals, Hist. Geo- and Space Sci. 12, 43–56 (2021)
• Keul, A brief history of ball lightning observations by scientists and trained professionals, Hist. Geo- and Space Sci. 12, 43–56 (2021), Richmann paragraph

Where sources disagree -- on typical size and lifetime, on which idea is "leading," on how sure anyone should be that ball lightning exists, on how many written accounts there are, and on the 1753 Richmann death -- the fact-check log sets the wordings side by side.