Editing Ball lightning (section)

=== Great Thunderstorm of Widecombe-in-the-Moor ===
[[File:Great Storm Widecombe woodcut.gif|thumb|Contemporary woodcut of the Widecombe-in-the-Moor storm]]
One early account reports on [[the Great Thunderstorm]] at a church in [[Widecombe-in-the-Moor]], Devon, in England, on 21 October 1638. Four people died and approximately 60 suffered injuries during a severe storm. Witnesses described an {{convert|8|ft|adj=on}} ball of fire striking and entering the church, nearly destroying it. Large stones from the church walls were hurled onto the ground and through large wooden beams. The ball of fire allegedly smashed the pews and many windows, and filled the church with a foul sulfurous odor and dark, thick smoke.

The ball of fire reportedly divided into two segments, one exiting through a window by smashing it open, the other disappearing somewhere inside the church. Because of the fire and sulphur smell, contemporaries explained the ball of fire as "the devil" or as the "flames of hell". Later, some blamed the entire incident on two people who had been playing cards in the pews during the sermon, thereby incurring God's wrath.<ref name="Rowe1905">
{{cite book
|title= The Two Widecombe Tracts, 1638[,] giving a Contemporary Account of the great Storm, reprinted with an Introduction
|year= 1905|publisher= James G Commin|location= Exeter|url= https://archive.org/details/devonandcornwal02unkngoog
|editor= J. B[rooking] R[owe]|access-date= 29 June 2013}}
</ref>