The following account was kindly e-mailed to Mysterousbritain. Does anyone have any ideas on the matter or know of similar sightings?

Hi, approx 10 years ago I took our dog to Cleethorpes Leisure Centre to meet my partner Tracey from work when she finished at 10 p.m. It was a warm summer night,not one of those pitch black nights but the kind with an indigo sky and decent moonlight. We left the Centre just after 10 and set off along Kings Parade in the direction of Brighton St. As we walked along side by side chatting, with our dog trotting 5 yards in front, down the middle of the arade I noticed about 15 yards in front and to our left a ball of light
about 10" in diameter emerge from the hedge (that runs alongside the parade) hovering about 24"-30" from the ground. It moved off at a quick walking pace across the front of us towards the gap in the beach wall on our right where the steps go down to the sand. I said to Tracey something like "What the Hells that?" but she just said "What?" Saying afterwards that she didn't see a thing. Normaly that would have been enough for me to have doubted what I'd seen,was it not for the fact that Deemus our Staffie was standing stock still in front of us with her ears pricked following the ball of light as it travelled. I shouted for her to "Get it" and she was after it like a shot with me in pursuit. She followed it through the gap in the wall down the steps to the beach. I was close behind with Tracey behind me, we both looked over the wall to see Deemus running from left to right still with her ears pricked and very alert looking for the ball of light which had vanished. The ball looked like a solid ball of light with a definite outline,not hazy.

As a footnote in late October of the same year I again walked Deemus down at night to meet Tracey,it was a full Moon,the tide was in and the sea was calm reflecting the Moon. As we walked along the beach she suddenly stopped and stood once again staring at the ball of light (The Moon) so much so that I had to call her away. Only now writing this have I realised that the place where she gazed at the Moon was directly opposite where the ball of light had emerged a month or two before. A little later that night as I walked Deemus around the back of the Leisure Centre she disappeared (completely out of character) from view toward the front of the building. As I followed her round I heard a loud bang from the Kingsway and saw a 4x4 pulling up on the otherwise deserted road. I ran round to find Deemus lying almost dead on the
road. She died as I got to her. The driver of the 4x4 and his wife ran up to me as I picked her up and carried her to the side of the road. They said they'd been looking at a fox on the central reservation and our dog had gone after it and ran out in front of them. The thing is ,the council gardeners told Tracey they'd buried a dead fox early in the year that they'd found dead on the Kingsway. It was buried in the place where the ball of light emerged from.

I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Sounds very much like an example of ball lightning, an atmospheric phenomenon often - but not exclusively, witnessed around the time of a thunderstorm.

However, as with any phenomena lacking a popular, natural explanation, it's only natural that a lot of witnesses will attempt to objectify their encounter of the phenomenon by personalising it to a degree, often leading to the timeless paranormal theories, eg spirits, UFOs.

Ball lightning seems to be associated with microwave radiation - people have been known to create ball lightning effects in microwave ovens and, the phenomena has been reported on crop circle sites a lot - increased microwave radiation has often been detected when a crop circle site has been scientfically investigated.

If we look at the whole account and assume the parts with the fox's grave as just being a big coincidence, which we should do really, then ball lightning is a very good possible explanation for the witnessed phenomena.

I think the following fact is worth of notice.
The Japanese have many traditions regarding balls of light. One of these is the kitsunebi (fox fire), which is regarded as some sort of magical lantern used by foxes to get around during the night. When many kitsunebi are seen together they are believed to be a kitsune no yomeiri (fox wedding procession).
As you may well know the fox is regarded by many Asian cultures to possess many supernatural powers and to be one of the animals more likely to attain those powers making them mononoke (minor deity or extremely powerful spirit).
Another tradition worth mentioning is the kosenjobi (ancient battlefield fire): the balls of light seen near places where many deaths have occured are believed to be generated by the sorrow of those who fell without proper religious rites which makes them unable to reach the afterlife. They linger around their deathplace trying to harrass or hurt the living.

These details are taken from my notes. It was a personal experience shared with Dan. Not sure what the natural explaination is yet.

Saturday 20th June 1992
At 9.30pm Dan and I took my two Jack Russels for a walk around Strinsdale Resovoir. It was still light being so close to Summer Solstice. The resovoirs were drained and being converted into a nature reserve. The only other people we saw were a young couple who were not in a position to witness the light we encountered. It was about 10.20pm (still light) when Dan pointed out a bright red/orange light in the sky. It hung in the air hovering roughly 30 meters high and at a distance of about a quarter mile. We stood watching it for about 40 seconds before it very, very slowly started to lower itself toward the ground. We thought it may have been 1-2 meters in diameter. There was no noise. It went out of sight behind some trees as it descended. We ran to where we saw it coming down but found nothing. No burn marks, nor wreckage, nothing to suggest it had any substance. We searched for 30-60 minutes until it went dark.

Just out of curiosity: how did the dogs react when you arrived at the landing site?

PS: I am a terrier owner myself!

I can't remember Mauro. I don't recall any strange behaviour and I feel sure I would have made of it if they had acted up a bit. As I said this account is straight from detailed notes I took at the time. Dan may remember more.

Just asking: they could have noticed any out of the ordinary sound or smell our senses can't pick up.
PS: I had a similar experience in the Alps. I saw this big bright white light in the evening sky. It seems to change dimensions and shape as closely as I got to it.
Turned out it was a reflection from a distant stainless steel antenna array: it was a very bright evening and the full moon played a trick on me!

I'm sure I have mentioned my dogs reactions to things in other posts and as I didn't make a note of it in this case maybe they did not react. I think in many cases, including mine above there must be a natural explaination, the only trouble is if you don't identify it immediately it becomes harder to find over time.