This happened about 0530 this morning. Southeastern Washington/Northeastern Oregon. Just before daybreak. Bright flash followed shortly afterwards by a rather large boom.

I was outside, when the sky to the southwest over Oregon, as near as I could tell, lit up with a bright blueish-white flash. Followed several seconds later, by a loud booming report. As near as I could tell, it was way up, and out over Oregon somewhere. southwest of Walla Walla, where I am anyway.

Radio says a meteor exploded. If so...we just had a near miss of rather large proportions, Tunguska II if you will...

With the Hanford site and the Umatilla Army Depot in the vacinity, could have been catastrophic. Does anyone know anything about it? I keep missing the local radio news updates.

Apparently the entire Northwest was ablaze with meteorite explosions. KOMO TV in Seattle reports explosions over Whidbey Island. Coeur D'Alene, Idaho reports some as well.

These apparently occurred before, by 2 hours or so, the one that I saw. Interesting, and a little scary.

On a second glance at Komo's page, I think that story is a couple of years old, and isn't related at all to this mornings event. Or am I just an idiot this morning?

[edit on 19-2-2008 by seagull]

I checked USGS but they don't record an earthquake today. I figured they would from the description. Scary. I saw that great meteor shower in Nov 2001 it was beautiful. Hope everyone is ok.

Might of been the explosion from the satelite by a missle.

Originally posted by cockadoodledo
Might of been the explosion from the satelite by a missle.

that hasnt happened yet


i asked my wife if she heard anything this morning

we live in seattle, wish i couldve seen, i got a nice camerai most certainly would of clipped pics of it

i dont know if this is connected or not, but my mother saw a meteor streaking across the sky today.

it was during the day, sometime in the afternoon, so it must have been very intense.

she said it was green, and stayed lit up for a long time.

im waiting for some official reports though, if there will be any...

same thing happened to me this summer, i also saw a green meteor at noon, and that one was reported to have fallen somewhere near Slovenia.

i live in croatia, by the way.

yeah, and no explosion.

Couple of quick things...

With the recent TU24 mania, wouldn't most meteor showers/near misses be well known in advance of the event?

I mean, we were all over TU24. i find it strange that a meteor could get so close, explode, and yet none of us were aware it was coming.

Are there any weather services or astronomical websites which told of this meteor before it happened?


Also, has anyone considered the possibility of piezoelectricity? Quite often, before major earthquakes, the earth itself discharges energy which can often be seen as explosions in the sky. The OP's description perfectly matched a piezoelectric outburst which would precipitate a major earthquake.

The only thing i am not sure of it whether this type of explosion would make a noise or not.


Anyway just a couple of possibilities and options to ponder.

Great post though

I had just gone out to my truck to go to work when it happened this morning. It was a bright blue/white light that lit up everything and then the boom it sounded almost like a sonic boom. Interesting way to start the morning.