I was wondering if anyone else saw a meteor burning up in the southern sky last night. At least a couple of people did see it. One person left a comment in the blog and another left a voicemail. Anyone else see the meteor? If anyone has pictures or video send it our way at weather@waow.com
Oddly, Spring appears to be the time of year when many fireballs are seen in the skies, especially daytime fireballs. Just this past week a bright fireball was seen streaking through the skies in New Zealand and in Texas. The Texas fireball was first mistakenly identified as a jet contrail after a local TV station used contrail video in order to show something similar to what was seen. It was later determined to be a real meteor.
Every time meteors or fireballs make the news, I always look for the old footage of one of the biggest fireballs ever caught on tape. It was in Oregon (I think), in the 1970s (I think), taped by people who were at one of the national parks (I think). The footage was used in some past news/science programs but I cannot find it online. One would think that it would be converted to digital form by now. The fireball was very bright and the meteor was estimated to be the size of a bus. If anyone is familiar with the video or knows where to view it online, please let me know.
Have a good Thursday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.
Posted under Space
This post was written by jloew on April 12, 2012
could this be it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIv7wL9nWMQ
Thanks for the quick reply Kelly! That Canadian one was pretty significant, but the one I was thinking of was even more spectacular. I am pretty sure it was in the 1970s and on the west coast of the U.S.
My husband and I happened to be driving south on Highway 13 last evening and saw the meteor. My husband commented that he can only remember ever seeing one that was larger than the one last night. A really spectacular sight; even had some green color to it.
Yes Justin,I saw it also last nite.Initially I though it was an aircraft,but being at such a high altitude I thought to myself,why would it have it’s landing lights on along with no running lights? Didn’t really know quite what to make of it,thanks for clearing it up for me.
Grand Teton Meteor August 10, 1972 I think
How about this one? http://www.maniacworld.com/tetons-meteor-a-near-miss.html
I recall seeing a spectacular fireball along the Oregon coast in the early 1970s — my boy scout troup was having a beach campout. In fact, I came across your post trying to find information on it, to pin down the date, in the wake of the recent events.
Very interesting Jeff. Let me know if you find anything about that fireball occurrence.
Yep! My two children saw it just after 7p.m. coming home last night in the northern sky travelling east. We were heading down the driveway and I thought it was some sort of glare in my windshield. They spotted it right away. My son said it was bigger than our house.