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