Reply #34: The cause is unknown

[ijk]

Or causes, I should probably say. Yours is one theory. But appearance close to the ground may well simply be due to the fact that we humans spend most of our time close to the ground.

Right now it's fairly clear that all the theories of ball lightning are 'broken'; there's no theory offering a full explanation. It's a pity the stuff is so hard to observe; people make things like ball lightning in the lab, but they're not at all sure they're the same thing.