Sighting in Saint-Savin, May 4, 2020

During a thunderstorm, at around 10:15 pm, a witness saw a bright red rounded shape in the north-west. It faded out by gradually losing brightness after about 30 seconds. A few minutes later, the same shape reappeared in the same spot, soon joined by two other identical points of light, set apart from one another. All the appearances together lasted 20 to 30 seconds in total, then everything slowly went out. The objects did not move. The sightings stopped as soon as a rain shower arrived. The witness supplied a photo, and theirs was the only account collected.

The account was submitted to the Laboratoire de Recherche sur la Foudre, which unambiguously recognised ball lightning of the globular type. At the time, the area was under a strong storm, with many lightning strikes and intense activity within and between clouds. The appearance, lifespan and lack of movement fit this phenomenon well, as do the colours in the photo. According to the investigation, these were very probably globular lightning spheres produced by the storm activity, a type of observation that is not uncommon in similar stormy conditions. GEIPAN classified the case as A.