PLAYING WITH (ST. ELMO'S) FIRE - When St. Elmo made an appearance, we could sometimes reach out to the front windshield and create what looked like miniature lightning bolts between the tips of our fingers and the windshields and then "play" with them — moving them around by manipulating our fingers (kind of like those spark-filled globes you see at children's science museums) - the sensation was something like what you feel when an extremity has gone to sleep and tingles as it wakes up again - it didn't feel like a shock, but just kind of tickled - This phenomenon is an extremely rare electrical/chemical occurrence and associated with thunderstorms, although what causes it and what it actually is remains somewhat of a mystery. Reports that describe this occurrence have placed it in a variety of locations, such as wandering through rooms in a house or, as this questioner identifies, shooting down the aisle of an airplane. The cause of this mysterious and intriguing glowing sphere puts out the approximate lighting of a 100-watt bulb and generally occurs during stormy weather. Its average lifetime seems to be around 10 seconds after which it either just fades away or sometimes ends more dramatically, dissipating with a small "explosion." When it appears inside a glass tube, we know it as a neon sign. When it occurs in nature, we call it "St. Elmo's Fire." It's a continuous electric spark and lasts anywhere from a second or two to several minutes at a time.

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Playing with (St. Elmo's) fire

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When St. Elmo made an appearance, we could sometimes reach out to the front windshield and create what looked like miniature lightning bolts between the tips of our fingers and the windshields and then "play" with them — moving them around by manipulating our fingers (kind of like those spark-filled globes you see at children's science museums) - the sensation was something like what you feel when an extremity has gone to sleep and tingles as it wakes up again - it didn't feel like a shock, but just kind of tickled

Meryl Getline

Ask the Captain

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Question: My husband was on a night flight years ago where he swears a "fireball" streaked down the aisle. No one was hurt, no damage was done and thankfully it didn't scare the majority of passengers, as most were asleep. We don't think this could have been lightning, as I imagine the static wicks on the wings would dissipate that, but can static electricity build up inside a plane causing something like this? — Linda Kelly, Arlington, Va.

Answer: What your husband has described is a phenomenon known as "ball lightning."

I've heard it described by several flight attendants and a few passengers over the years as a glowing "ball of fire that went zooming down the aisle" but never witnessed it myself.

It is thought that this phenomenon is an extremely rare electrical/chemical occurrence and associated with thunderstorms, although what causes it and what it actually is remains somewhat of a mystery.

Reports that describe this occurrence have placed it in a variety of locations, such as wandering through rooms in a house or, as this questioner identifies, shooting down the aisle of an airplane.

There is a mention of it in Laura Ingall Wilder's On the Banks of Plum Creek (the fourth book of the Little House series) where it appeared near a stovepipe, then rolled across the floor.

When I first heard the description of what I later discovered was called "ball lightning," frankly I dismissed it as the product of people's overactive imaginations, but I've had several readers say they've witnessed it and so I decided to do some research.

A simple online search of the words "ball lightning" yielded a surprising number of eyewitness accounts, and even some sites documenting scientific attempts to create this glowing sphere.

Although apparently scientists no longer treat it as a myth, they're not able to explain it fully.

Some statistics say that as much as 5% of the population has witnessed the phenomenon known as ball lightning.

So, what is it? Apparently, there are lots of theories, but nobody seems to know for sure.

Some have described ball lightning as glowing balls of plasma.

Others describe it as "St. Elmo's Fire" that "got loose." (See the next question and answer for an explanation of St. Elmo's Fire.)

In any case, the cause of this mysterious and intriguing glowing sphere puts out the approximate lighting of a 100-watt bulb and generally occurs during stormy weather.

Its average lifetime seems to be around 10 seconds after which it either just fades away or sometimes ends more dramatically, dissipating with a small "explosion."

Question: What can you tell us about St. Elmo's Fire? Have you ever experienced it? What is it? What makes it happen? Is it the same as lightning? — Jim Colby, Fosters, Ala.

I'll assume you mean a phenomenon of nature and not the cheesy 1980's movie.

St. Elmo's Fire has been described as a "glow discharge" and is not the same as lightning.

When it appears inside a glass tube, we know it as a neon sign.

When it occurs in nature, we call it "St. Elmo's Fire."

It's a continuous electric spark and I've seen it last anywhere from a second or two to several minutes at a time.

When we fly through clouds, often St. Elmo's Fire will appear on our front windshields as a glowing blue light which at first frames our window, then moves more and more toward the center as a bluish-green light.

If you're ever looking out a passenger window at the same time, we can see it on our front windshields, you might be able to see it illuminating our wingtips.

Others have spotted it around church steeples and the masts of ships (St. Elmo is known as the patron saint of sailors).

It's even referred to by Shakespeare in The Tempest. In researching this column, I found that most sightings were on the wingtips of airplanes and on churches.

I've witnessed St. Elmo's Fire dozens of times as a pilot, but I've never seen it anywhere else.

Sometimes St. Elmo's Fire has been confused with "ball lightning," and although there doesn't seem to be any real agreement among scientists on what ball lightning actually is, there is agreement that they are not one and the same.

St. Elmo's Fire is always attached to something whereas ball lightning is free-floating.

When I used to fly unpressurized light twin-engine aircraft, St. Elmo's Fire was a somewhat regular occurrence on cloudy days.

Because we were not able to fly very high without pressurization, we often flew through clouds instead of being able to top them.

When St. Elmo made an appearance, we could sometimes reach out to the front windshield and create what looked like miniature lightning bolts between the tips of our fingers and the windshields and then "play" with them — moving them around by manipulating our fingers (kind of like those spark-filled globes you see at children's science museums).

The sensation was something like what you feel when an extremity has gone to sleep and tingles as it wakes up again. It didn't feel like a shock, but just kind of tickled.

This manipulation doesn't work nearly as well on the aircraft I fly now with their heavy windshields, but we still see St. Elmo once in a while when we're in a high cloud layer.

The last visit by St. Elmo to my own cockpit was about three months ago, over the East China Sea between Tokyo and Taipei.

Meryl Getline is a pilot, author of the award-winning book The World at My Feet and a keynote speaker for corporate and other gatherings. She also publishes her own websites, fromthecockpit.com and flyingfearless.com. All opinions expressed in this column are exclusively those of Capt. Meryl Getline. If you have a question, send it to her at travel@usatoday.com, acknowledging she may use it in a future column.

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