An account in Marne, France

On February 24, 2017 at around 7:25 p.m., a motorist and his son, front passenger, were driving on a small country road surrounded by woods. Suddenly, the driver spotted on his right a whitish-colored ball moving parallel to their path and in the same direction. This phenomenon then positioned itself in front of the car and seemed to lose intensity. This opaque ball was seen for one minute and thirty seconds before disappearing instantly without leaving a trail. No particular noise was noticed. The description of the observation made by the two witnesses corresponds to a case of ball lightning of the "globular lightning" type. This hypothesis is very consistent in terms of visual appearance, apparent trajectory, and altitude. This type of phenomenon occurs in stormy weather, but not necessarily with an active storm on site. The testimonies were submitted to the Lightning Research Laboratory, which unambiguously recognizes a ball lightning phenomenon. GEIPAN classifies this case as "A": observation of ball lightning of the "globular lightning" type.