Sighting in Blain (44) 28.03.2016 T1, March 28, 2016

A storm was affecting the area that night. After phoning EDF to report a power cut, the witness had gone back to bed when, at about 3:30 a.m., they noticed a white light coming from outside. Through the window they saw a white ball about 2 m above the ground. They went upstairs to get a better view through a roof window, and their family joined them: everyone saw the white light. It moved slowly sideways without any particular noise. When the witness went outside, it had disappeared.

Staying outside, the witness then saw a blue-green light on one side of the farm, in a single flash, about 100 m above the ground. Five minutes later, an orange, coral-yellow light appeared on the other side of the farm, also in a single flash. Three witnesses noticed a cast shadow on the property, after which the colored flashes reappeared. The witnesses were frightened and remained puzzled.

GEIPAN separated the sighting into two phases, divided by an interruption and a radical change in appearance. Phase 1 (the white light) matches the experts' description of ball lightning very closely, and the stormy, even thundery, conditions favor its occurrence. Consistency is strong there, as the phenomenon was close and well defined. Phase 2 is more confused, with imprecise and sometimes contradictory descriptions and stronger emotion. One witness, more detached, did not describe the same colors as the other two. A distant thunderstorm, reflections of lights on the clouds (an emergency vehicle, the Donges refinery, the glow of Nantes and Saint-Nazaire) or the nearly full Moon glimpsed through a gap were considered, but none was probable enough to be retained. An "avalanche" effect of perceived strangeness among the witnesses is possible. The interview had to be held with the family together, as they were very close-knit in their emotion, so overall consistency could not be assessed. GEIPAN classified phase 1 as B (probable ball lightning) and phase 2 as C (lack of reliable information).