I think that ball lightning in its many forms has been much reduced, at least in the United States. I was raised in SouthEastern Oklahoma in the late 1930s. I have heard older people talking about severe thunder storms with St. Elmo's Fire dripping from fences and power lines, and ball lightning flying around. In fact I have been told that when I was very young I was chased across the porch by a ball of lightning. It grounded out on a metal wash tub hanging on the wall. But I have never seen any manifestations of that sort that I can recall. I suspect that the reduction in such displays has to do with the number of power lines that we now have. The power poles all have grounds from the top, and I suspect that they drain some of the charge from the clouds so they don't get quite strong enough to create the strange displays. Of course this is purely conjecture on my part since I don't really know how they form, and what it takes to disrupt them.
Bill Gill
