Meteor Spotted In North Escambia, Across 9 States

January 12, 2011

Residents of North Escambia and nine southern states reported seeing an apparent meteor Tuesday night.

“While I was talking to a friend out in the yard, we saw something big fall from the sky,” Matthew Brook of McDavid emailed NorthEscambia.com shortly after seeing the fireball. “It was bigger than a falling star and when it fell below the tree line, there was a big flash that looked like lighting from the ground. We listened but didn’t hear anything after the flash.”

One resident even stopped by the McDavid Volunteer Fire Department to report the bright streak across the sky, but firefighters were obviously unable to find anything out of the ordinary during their investigation.

The flash of light from the meteor was reported in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas , North Carolina, and Oklahoma.

The Sebastian County (OK) Sheriff’s Office told CBS News affiliate KTHV it was a meteor and likely hit near Poteau Mountain, Oklahoma.

TheWeatherSpace.com reports the meteor was greenish-blue, indicating that contained copper, and that other described it was being like lightning. A photo submitted to TheWeatherSpace.com shows what was believed to be the meteor as it passed over Little Rock, Arkansas.

Security cameras at a home in Ridgeland ,Mississippi picked up the flash of light as the meteor passed overhead. See the video from CNN below.

Pictured top: Internet site TheWeatherSpace.com says this is a photo of the meteor over Little Rock, Arkansas, Tuesday night. Courtesy of TheWeatherSpace.com.

Comments

18 Responses to “Meteor Spotted In North Escambia, Across 9 States”

  1. B on October 14th, 2016 7:13 am

    I saw this at 6:45AM in Cantonment Florida. My siting was in the early morning. It was blue-green in color and traveling slowly west over Highway 29. It was very low and about the size of a Volkswagan bug. It was extremely awesome but strange.

  2. David Huie Green on January 15th, 2011 4:46 pm

    Hadn’t noticed “likely hit near Poteau Mountain, Oklahoma.”

    Which leads to the follow-up, craters tend to be ten times the diameter of the impacting object. Most of the ones we see are about the size of a grain of sand, this one was surely much bigger but if it were a meter in diameter, the crater would be ten meters, more or less. Seismic data should help pinpoint it and satellite reconnaissance should be able to see changes if big enough but every snowfall and rainfall changes the image.

    But maybe they WILL find it.

  3. David Huie Green on January 15th, 2011 4:38 pm

    most meteors do not hit the earth, they burn up while incoming or continue out into space, just grazing the atmosphere on their cosmic journey

  4. ChanSter on January 15th, 2011 2:57 pm

    If it was a meteor that big and they have an idea of where it landed.. it must have created a huge creator that couldnt be missed.. so where are pics of the Impact sight?

  5. David Huie Green on January 14th, 2011 6:03 pm

    REGARDING:
    “This is the end, the end my friend. Meteorites, earthquakes, floods and mass bird deaths.”

    You figure a shooting star proves the world is about to end? It could be so, but all of these things have happened many times in the past.

    David for Tunguska

  6. SHARLENE on January 13th, 2011 2:57 pm

    I saw the meteroite Tuesday night in McDavid, Florida in my dad’s back yard off Hwy 29. It look like blue colored fire works.

  7. sara on January 13th, 2011 10:29 am

    This is the end, the end my friend. Meteorites, earhquakes, floods and mass bird deaths.

  8. Eric on January 13th, 2011 7:50 am

    My son and I saw this Tuesday night while driving on a busy street in Montgomery, Alabama. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. At first I thought it was some kind of firework (as it started off pretty small). Then all of a sudden it became a huge ball of fire with a long firey tail. Glad to know what it was.

  9. Alabama Resident on January 13th, 2011 5:12 am

    My husband saw this as he was going past Trinsic/Huddle House in Atmore — He thought he might have been seeing things, but now his “sighting” has been confirmed! :-)

  10. S on January 13th, 2011 12:53 am

    I saw what I thought was a meteorite around 820-9pm today (Jan 12) up in Minnesota. It wasn’t green though, it was bright white/yellow and shaped like the picture above. It was not a shooting star because it was way too big for that. It lasted about 2 seconds. Is it possible it was the same thing? I’ve been looking around for news about a meteorite in Minnesota but this is the only thing I could find about a meteor today.

  11. intrigued on January 12th, 2011 8:29 pm

    i saw one once when a few friends and the fam were sitting outside one day. it shot across the sky in a big blue ball of light. we all were joking around saying the aliens were among us! haha

  12. Stuart on January 12th, 2011 7:06 pm

    A friend and I saw this in Walnut Hill.

  13. CandysVinceGill-NoMore on January 12th, 2011 6:21 pm

    i saw one when i walked out on my back deck in walnut hill community several months ago, it was a streak of fire about 11 or 12 at night looking to eastern sky it traveled from north to south it did not appear to hit anywhere close, it just streaked across the sky like fire, not a normal sight like a meteor shower, did anyone else see it then?

  14. Hayley on January 12th, 2011 5:26 pm

    My mom and I saw it in Baton Rouge, LA around 8:45 last night on our way home… SO COOL!!

  15. Brent Hogue on January 12th, 2011 5:10 pm

    I saw a Blue Fire Ball that looked like it was falling from the sky in a field behind my house around 8:30pm in Memphis TN. I’m not sure if it was a piece of this thing or if it just appeared to be falling but was actually traveling away. Anyways it was pretty cool sight.

  16. Randon on January 12th, 2011 4:31 pm

    I seen it, coolest thing I’ve seen in a while!!!!!!!!!!!

  17. K on January 12th, 2011 4:24 pm

    I saw this east of Dallas, TX. Started really small white light, then got a bigger green color, then turned to fire! I have never seen anything like it!

  18. .::BLESSED::. on January 12th, 2011 3:08 pm

    Awesome! I wish we could have seen it!