Mysterious fireball lights up night sky

Updated: Thu Nov. 20 2008 18:26:45

Amanda Ferguson, ctvedmonton.ca

Numerous people living in Edmonton and surrounding areas are reporting seeing a meteorite-like fireball that lit up the sky.

It not been confirmed as a meteor by official sources, but many witnesses report seeing "bright orange flames" with a large tail that shot horizontally across the sky and then disappeared.

Others said it looked like horizontal lighting, where all the clouds in one huge swath were lit up.

Richard Bellington said he was driving north of Highway 2 on his way to Edmonton when he saw the sky light up.

The flames were so bright and appeared to travel so close to the ground that he called 911.

Callers as far as Onoway, Beaumont and Cold Lake also report seeing the ball of flames. Stations as far north as Fort McMurray also report seeing the fireball.

Some experts say the fireball could be part of the Leonids meteor showers, where activity has been predicted to begin on Nov. 17.

Chris Herd, a meteorite scientist at the University of Alberta, said people shouldn't panic after seeing such a sight.

"The sky's a big place," he said. "It can play tricks, these fireballs can play tricks with you and it can look like they fell over there, when it actually can be tens of thousands of kilometres away. The fact that we've got reports as far away as Cold Lake, Saskatoon adn Airdrie tells you can see it from a long ways away."

This is no word whether the meteorite actually hit land.

More to come...

Please Add Comments(42)

Matt Holland
Driving beside the school on Winterburn Road (215st) the light was seen to the ENE direction.

Vince Martin
I saw a flash from my basement window in Red Deer and thought it was lightning. Unfortunately it was only a flash and my line of sight is limited from the basement, soI can't say it is related to this story or not, but the timimg is right.

michael Chesworth
Saw landing of fireball in the west end of edmonton, north of yellowhead highway and south of 137 avenue between 170 street and 184 street at 5:30. Sorry I never had my video camera.
Michael

"The sky's a big place,"

Calls pour in about fireball

Updated: Thu Nov. 20 2008 18:27:24

ctvcalgary.ca

CTV News is being inundated with phone calls about a ball of flame that appeared in the sky.

Calls started coming in around 6 p.m.

One driver described being on Deerfoot Trail around 5:30 p.m. and seeing a fireball with flames trailing behind it in the sky. The driver says the light was close enough that it lit up the clouds.

Another driver, on their way to Edmonton, says he was heading north on Highway 2 when he saw bright orange flames light up the sky. He called 911 and they told him they have received numerous calls about the same thing.

CTV News is looking into these reports to see if it was part of a meteor shower.

Possible meteor lights up the skies in northern Alberta
Huge flash also seen in Sask. and Manitoba

EDMONTON — A possible meteor has lit up the sky and the telephone lines in Western Canada.

Around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, a huge flash of light briefly turned the dark skies into daylight.

Reports of sightings of the light and possibly a fireball came in everywhere from Edmonton to Regina to Swan River, Man.

People got so excited that RCMP in Lloydminster, on the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary, issued a news release asking people to stop calling them.

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
I checked on the NEO website and there's nothing on a potential meteor strike today.

A spectacular fireball lit up the predawn sky above Northern Sudan on October 7, 2008. This explosion was caused by the atmospheric entry of a small near-Earth asteroid, estimated to be no more than a few meters in diameter. The explosion likely scattered small meteorite fragments across the Nubian desert below. Although such small impact events occur several times per year around the globe, this case was unprecedented because the asteroid was actually discovered the day before it reached the Earth and the impact location and time were for the first time predicted in advance.