I had a neighbor who claims something like this moved down a Lynnhaven street.

[Taltarzac725]

Electrical Fireball in Montreal (Video) (http://dailypicksandflicks.com/2013/11/02/electrical-fireball-in-montreal-video/)

Ball of lighting rolling down a street. This is all hearsay but I have a neighbor who claims a number of homes in Lynnhaven were hit by a ball of lightning that moved down a street. Not sure how it would do this, just looking for grounding which it found partially in five homes or so.

Anyone hear of this here in the Villages? My neighbor is quite honest.

[rdhdleo]

Wow! Looks like in the video it traveled along the power line.

[pooh]

After the amount and fierocity of the electrical activity the past few days, I wouldn't doubt anything.

[HMLRHT1]

I'm far from any kind of expert on this but for the lighting to travel down the electrical lines causing arcing and shorting I would think is possible. But since we have no above ground utilities here in TV I find that hard to believe that a lightning ball traveled down the street as such.

[pooh]

Could be ball lightning. Can range in size from that of a pea to the size of a bus.
It can float down the street, though it might not last for a long time.

[JC and John]

Could it have been St. Elmo's fire? Years ago back in VA we experienced a ball like form of lightening inside our house which we were told was St Elmo's fire. It lasted only seconds and did no damage. Scary though. According to Wikipedia, St. Elmo's fire is sometimes mistaken for ball of lightening. Obviously your neighbor saw something and that is something I don't want to see!

[villagetinker]

This is very interesting. It appears the original arc was probably blown along the line. This would be very unusual as the arc is very hot and tends to move up. If the wind conditions were just right, I guess you could get horizontal movement. The wind would need to be in the direction of the wires, and of sufficient speed to move the arc without blowing it out. Also, the arc (this is a fault on the utility system) needs to be restricted enough so that the protective equipment at the substation will not trip.
Ball lightning is a different phenomenon but I do not have the specific details on it.

[zcaveman]

If you google ball lightning you get numerous hits. I googled "electric fireball caused by lightning". Here are a few hits:

USATODAY.com - Great balls of fire! Ball lightning does exist (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2004-07-30-wonderquest_x.htm)

HowStuffWorks "Explanations and Theories of Ball Lightning" (http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/ball-lightning1.htm)

Ball lightning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning)

Z

[rp001]

This is an example of "fault current". Somewhere along that circuit the insulation failed and this is a fault headed to ground. As soon as it finds a path to ground all kinds of mayhem will break loose. Stay away from any situation you see including downed power lines. Just because it's on the ground does not mean its de energized. After 40 yrs in the buisness I can say I've seen just about all. I've never seen fault current move this slowly.

[villagetinker]

RP001 is absolutely correct, and if you search YouTube you will find many examples, including 1 at 500kV (500,000 volts) that stretches around 100 feet, very impressive. Been around this stuff for 40plus years, now relaxing in TV.