Lightning Information Index . An excellent site on weather with an illustrated introduction to the science of lightning. You'll also find information on lightning safety, and links to other lightning sites on the web. Lightning in Virginia . You'll find a general introduction to lightning here as well as information on safety precautions, protecting your trees from lightning, and a lightning strike density map for Virginia.
Ball lightning is a glowing plasma ball sometimes observed bouncing around on the ground.
At sea it commonly occurs on ship masts and is called St. Elmo's Fire. Some people doubt the existence of ball lightning, but we've seen it. This web site is a collection of articles on ball lightning, a bibliography, and links to other web sites with information about ball lightning. A great page about these fascinating phenomena. The site includes an introduction to the topic, photographs, a bibliography, and information on how to look for sprites and jets.