Meteor Update
April 14th, 2010 at 11:25 pm by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather
<–meteor about 11:10 PM Weds. lights up the sky in Madison Wis. (picture from University of Wisconsin AOS/SSEC). Here’s radar images in SW Wisconsin where the meteor showed up on radar at 6,000 feet. Here’s radar images from the Quad Cities radar. CNN has some great video here (though there article has a couple mistakes…it wasn’t visible for 15 minutes…it was about 9 seconds). The video is from downtown Milwaukee. Good video here (about 30 seconds in – from a police car dashcam). Here’s more video. A huge meteor (estimated about one meter wide) lit up the night sky shortly after 11 PM this evening, prompting over a hundred calls and comments to WOOD-TV. Please leave a comment if you saw it. It’s been seen in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, North and South Dakota, Kansas and Wisconsin. A sonic boom was heard in parts of southern Minnesota, western Wisconsin and Iowa. Here’s what it might have looked like (not tonight’s meteor, but pretty cool nonetheless). The Lyrid Meteor Shower is April 21-22. The lesser know Gamma Virginids peaks April 14-15, but this meteor was NOT connected to that shower. Here’s recent fireball sightings in the U.S (including dozens of eyewitness reports of this latest meteor). About 14 “fireball” meteors come into the Earth’s atmosphere each year. However, half are in the daytime and a few during twilight. We’ve had two now in our area in the last year.
Driving home on 28th street in Wyoming, saw huge fireball coming down from northern sky. Thought it was a plane in distress at first. Pretty awesome to see none the less.
So, I was coming home from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and got into Elkhorn, Wisconsin where I live. The entire sky lit up and right after that I saw this fireball explosion in the sky was crazy. i couldn’t believe it.
I was coming home from lake geneva wisconsin coming into elkhorn wisconsin, and the entire sky lit up so bright, and than I saw this fireball in the sky and it exploded, I don’t know what it is
OK, this is getting to be a bit scary!! Earthquakes, now gigantic meteors just missing us, it would have been absolutely cool to see, but God if it hit us we wouldn’t be here to talk about it. I’m getting more and more convinced about 2012, I hate to admit.
What happens in 2012? This article may ease your mind a bit. http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2010/04/14/the-year-of-the-earthquake-not-quite-despite-high-profile-events-quakes-are-not-increasing-populations-are.aspx
whats to say a gigantic meteor may not hit us one day and end it all?
Check out Revelation 8:10-11.
2012 means nothing…really, it doesn’t. The Mayan calendar wasn’t organized the same way ours is. 2012 is equivalent to a new millennium in the Gregorian calendar (the one that is in standard use).
In December, I actually visited the ruins where the famous stone tablet that had the 2012 thing on it was found. It was pretty awesome.
I SEEN IT TOO. A FRIEND OF MINE AND I HAD JUST LEFT A RESTAURANT WHEN I SEEN A FIREBALL IN THE SKY LAST NIGHT.
I pretty sure you saw it…
BIG TIME fireball. sweet video!
I stepped out of the back door of my mobile home to go shut off a garage light
and halfway to the garage in the western sky I saw what looked like a torch traversing from north to south low in the sky just above the tree line a half mile away. It looked like a comet because the trail was not as long and bright as your usual meteorite the light coming off it was yellowish. Just as it burned up I could see what looked like flames behind the object.
I saw it as I was driving home from the grocery store. Scared the crap out of me, honestly! I’ve seen my fair share of meteoroids, but NEVER one like that before!! At first I thought is was burning debris from something.
You deserve an award for being a fine example of properly using “saw” and “seen” in one post!!! Hopefully people will take note =)
That was the sharpest saw I ever seen. There, I done it, to.
hi Bill
i was driving on the express way going to Hudsonville from the air port when i saw a fire ball with a tail on it at first i did not know what to think was it a plane on fire?? were we being attacked?? but after it was gone i was like wow it was a meter or something from outer space how cool!! as quickly as it was in the sky it was gone.
Exiting freeway to Alpine facing west about 11:10. Huge fireball shooting down; I thought “Oh no – plane crash!” My husband & son said “Meteor – cool!”
I didn’t get to see the Meteor but I do have a question…Doesn’t anyone use spell checker or even proof read their posts?
Does it really matter?
Ed –> The English teacher suggests that you should have used a colon instead of an ellipsis, “Meteor” begins with a lowercase “m” because it is a common noun, and “proof read” is actually one word.
In other words, if it’s obvious that people are at least trying to communicate in standard English, give them a break. Consider the Internet a rough draft.
No one is perfect.
It looked almost unreal. Like a movie scene…. I was waiting for something awful to happen.
Here’s a great link to a song by Tommy James and the Shondells in concert singing Ball of Fire!! Awesome group, awesome song! I missed the fireball last night, I was watching the 11pm news like the good viewer I am! I am bummed I missed it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A0EKnwdT8M
Does anyone know how close to the Earth this came? It lightened the whole sky! Did any of our cool satellites get a picture of this? Did it come into our atmosphere? etc etc. I think I want to here from some NASA folks about this one, how did they not see it coming? I mean they are up there floating around upside down in the international space station and they didn’t see this? lol
Does anyone know where this these landed?
Yah, yah, meteor/fireball blah, blah blah. Let’s focus on the dumbing down of America that is unfolding right before our very eyes here people. I’ve never seen such poorly written, horribly misspelled blog entries in my life! If you can’t even type in one coherent sentence, maybe you should take a good look at yourself and never mind staring up at the sky. Just a thought.
If you are so annoyed with the way people type on a blog, why do you even read them? Go find something else to do…….
Oh, Bob: You missed the commas after your second “blah”, and also after the word “here” before the word “people”! News flash: E-mails and blogs are intended for quick communications. Most of us would rather watch beautiful sights in the night sky than abscess (yup, I meant that spelling) over our writing.
Sorry, but ignorance is no excuse.
The bridge you emerged out from under feels lonely. You’d better go back home now; I think I hear the Three Billy Goats Gruff approaching.
Wish I would have seen it! Probably too many trees in the way even if I had been outside at the time.
Wish I had seen it, sounds so cool! Found this animation from someone who did see it: http://www.studion51.com/Meteor_Sussex_WI.html
Now THAT was beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
I was fishing on the Muskegon Pier last night with a friend. We both saw the flash and trail of fire behind it. It was pretty amazing. It was distant and to the west. It traveled north to south and looked like it was on a path towards Milwaukee (if it was that close) from our vantage point. By the sounds of it, it was quite a bit further west.
Rats – I missed it
But in the second video Bill linked to, you can see a plane flying overhead – I wonder if anyone (passengers/pilots) thought the plane had exploded?????
it couldnt have, because the meteor started in a different location in the sky
glad I wasn’t on THAT plane!!
Um, seriously!! Is this a blog about weather or using perfect grammer?!? You critics should leave everyone alone and find something or somewhere else to be critical!! I was trying to read about the meteor and what everyone thought about it, but have been so distracted by how rude some of you are!! THE END
To all you sky watchers out there, keep watching ( and blogging):) I am sorry I missed it myself
Beans! I missed it. Looks awesome on the video though.
Dang it i missed it but i have heard about it all day today!!!! at School
seems sorta dead around here lately, i guess that’s because we aren’t tapping into that gulf moisture to get any storms…. seems erie familiar this spring so far, just as last year. warm during the week and cold, wind and rain on the weekends. we had a warm spring last year followed by a record breaking cold summer, i really hope this year will not duplicate that. so far i have a feeling it will despite what bills tells me via email. where is all of this cold air coming from? really wish it would just stay cold or stay warm already, that’s why were all sick.
i will admit it’s nice today, but too windy out, i can tell a change is coming…AGAIN! yes, i know it’s april and that brings rain and such but this pattern has got to end already!
so fix the weather already bill, ok?…thanks!
My mom and I were drivin to Davenport, Iowa heading north on I-35 approaching Des Moines and saw a huge meteor that looked like the green one in the video on this blog that was not the meteor from last night. It was amazing!
2012 is coming folks…get ready for the end!
Oh brother, here we go about 2012 now…seems like we just finished w/ the Y2K hype and hysteria B.S not that long ago ;(
OK..I am sick of the judging of people about the 2012 thing..there are only 2 outcomes on this..one the world ends..death disorder..and destruction..the other…we live to tell everyone how the world was supposed to end on our watch and it didn’t..we overcame.. we look like heroes survivors maybe..however right now is kind of a stupid time to tell people they are wrong..dontcha think(had to throw that in for the grammar police) I will stand my ground on this i will make no assumption too the future and then i do not look like a jackass for trying to read tea leaves.. The meteor while it was cool and beautiful to watch could have ended our lives.. and that is no joke.. it was a miss and we are lucky. apparently someone is watching out for our tiny planet…and for all of you that think differently.. you are wrong! This may be the end they are talking about..we may have missed it.. so do not be so quick to judge.. stop making people look like paranoid freaks..cuz when they are right no one will be here to say i told you so.
stop about 2012, i had a dream that meteors destroyed the planet
2012 is probably false but yes the end of the world due to the “big one” could happen.
I was sitting on my deck in Cedar Rapids, IA when the whole northern sky lit up. The sky was clear, and what I saw was WAY more vivid than the video. I saw this huge fireball, with a long trail and debris spinning off the head. This was by far the coolest meteor/meteorite sighting I’ve made in my 51 years. I thought sure it was going to hit the ground nearby as it appeared to be very low in the sky, but I can see from the comments that it make it a lot further than what I imagined. Wow!
December 21, 2012 at 11:59a
Big one just took out Grandville!!! Nothing on the Northend!! Indydog!!!!!
Just kidding, man! Couldn’t resist.
where is indy?
I was outside last night and seen it but I just thought it was lightning.
Sheesh. It wasn’t a “gigantic meteor.” It was about a meter in size. Objects like that enter the earth’s atmosphere once a month.
Hefty little storm rolling through here right now. Lots of lightning.
Since most meteors are about the size of a grain of sand…having one a meter wide is relatively gigantic. Think of the concept of jumbo shrimp.
Bill, is there any general direction in the sky to look at when watching for meteors or is it pretty much random?
hey bill if your out there I just got word of a second quake out west from my sister and it was bigger than the one earlier today out in Utah. She has a cracked foundation and the house has shifted and are telling not to stay in the house tonight. All her windows in her house are broken and she is concerned about more minor quakes coming. Any thoughts….
I saw it while riding motorcycle home. I pulled over and contemplated many things. Awesome.
I was flying last night over WI at 47,000 feet (corporate business jet) when it went by us. This meteor lit up the whole northern sky, and it was very bright (bluish, white light, almost as bright as daylight) for a few seconds. We saw the bright light coming from behind us, which is what got out attention, watched it go by and break up, then burn out in front of us. Spectacular!! Caused a lot of comments on the Air Traffic Control frequency. From what we saw, it’s hard to imagine that this meteor was only a meter in diameter because it was a huge ball of fire. Unbelievable. It would have been a wonderful video or picture if we could have reacted in time, but it was over in just a few seconds.
I was walking with a friend on April 14,2010 in Canton,Illinois and we saw a fireball fly across the sky. It was amazing. My friend saw it first, describing a green circle trailed by a flaming fireball, as she alerted me I missed the green disc but witnessed the fiery tail.
I had just landed in Kansas City, MO (after leaving for GR) and we looked up in the sky to see a huge ball followed by fire! It was about 10pm Missouri time (11pm Michigan time). It was awesome!!