Sighting in Barbezieux, June 12, 1981

In the late afternoon, a farm worker who was working in a maize field noticed a circular area about 20 metres across where the plants looked diseased. At the centre, a few plants had vanished. Around them, the plants were dried out as if by intense heat, an effect that faded with distance from the centre and ended at about ten metres. In the middle of the circle the soil was cracked and formed a hollow roughly 80 cm across. It contained five holes, 4 to 5 cm in diameter and about 20 cm deep, arranged in a shape resembling a trapezoid. An indefinable smell lingered at the centre. Soil and plant samples were taken for later analysis.

The analyses confirmed that the central area had been exposed to strong heat: its moisture content was significantly lower than in samples taken farther out, and the temperature it reached was probably above 100 °C. Weather data showed a violent thunderstorm with heavy rain over the area during the night of 8 to 9 June. GEIPAN favoured the lightning hypothesis, which accounts for the blast-like effect the maize appeared to have suffered and for the rise in temperature at the centre. Currents induced in the ground by a lightning discharge could also explain the holes. The case was classed B: probable observation of the effects of lightning in a maize field.