STORM SENSATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18389, 3 May 1923, Page 8

STORM SENSATION.

"FIREBALL** AT COLVILLE.

-TELEGRAPH POLE STRUCK. EXPLOSION LIKE DYNAMITE. £bt telegraph.— correspondent.] WHITIANGA, Wednesday. In the height of the recent! storm a terrifying experience "occurred on the telegraph wire about a mil© from the Oolville Post Office. A " great ball of fire" was seen to strike the wire and. explode. A spectator, who was more than half-a-mile away, said the noise was equal to the explosion of a case, of dynamite, ana for quite ten minutes his ears were full of the reverberations. The explosion took place on the. top of the iron telegraph polo, splintering the insulators and cross-arm into Hundreds of pieces, and scattering them chains away. The insulator bolt was burnt down to the size of a two-inch nail. v A hole nearly 'five Id.et, across was torn in the ground at the foot of the pole, and to its full depth. The witness of the spectacle says the " firo ball" continued, course through a ploughed field, and was last seen travelling toward the hills at an immense rate of speed. '' •!•', • The full severity of the storm was felt on the gulf side of the Coromandel Peninsula, and, greatly damaged the Thames Road. It is estimated that repairs will cost £800, while the total cost of repairs to county roads will be £1300.

A contributor, writing to the New Zealand Herald on April 5, stated:— Flashes of lightning are not infrequently seen and described as n balls of fire." The light of a $ nearby flash may be so intense as to fill the eye, so to speak, and " persistence of vision" in such a case prevents any further observation of the flash. This i 3 the explanation of the stories of " fireballs" being seen rolling about on the ground. A case was recently reported in New Zealand in which a man who was milking during a thunderstorm, 3aw a "fireball" roll into his cowshed and roll out again. He had 'seen a flash, been half-blinded by it, and moving his head or his eyes, the " spectral vision" of tho light moved about accordingly, until his retinae recovered their normal condition. , Had the milker moved his head or his eyes appropriately, he might 'have caused the " fireball" to jump over the stockyard fence. , The same writer makes allowance for loud noises, similar to that heard by the witness-in the case reported from Coromandel, stating that the piercing of a hole such as that reported " would assuredly cause considerable noise."