When I was in the service in Germany in the early 80’s I was in a 20 man tent that was erected over a concrete pad. During a thunderstorm I watched what appeared to be a bolt of lightning “walk” into the tent towards the diesel heater and then walk right back out. As I was emptying my pockets and body of all things metal the First Sergeant rushed in and asked me what the hell I was doing. I explained what happened standing there in my stocking feet without my boots, belt, rank insignia and all coins and keys tossed on my cot. The First Seargeant bellowed, “it’s only ball lightning, get dressed. Meliher in the next tent was on the radio and got hit by lightning.” The First Seargent was originally from the hills in West Virginia and was familiar with “ball lightning” enough that he thought it harmless. I was scared out of my wits. Meliher was just knocked senseless for a while, I’m sure he got promoted later.
You described ball lightning, but your thread title is heat lightning–a completely different phenomenon.
Since you posted to Comments on Cecil’s Columns, I guess you must be talking about Is there such a thing as heat lightning? Has he ever discussed ball lightning?
Oops. And I see there is this other [url=“http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=172745”]Heat lightning thread.