American Meteor Society
The American Meteor Society has received over 300 reports of a bright fireball occurring over a wide area in the eastern USA. It occurred near 10:55pm EDT on the evening of September 14, 2014. There were a wide range of colors reported for this object but nearly everyone agreed that it was very bright, bright enough to cast shadows. There are no major meteor showers active at this time so this meteor was most likely a random occurrence, not associated with any known meteor showers.
For viewers located in the northern hemisphere, we are entering a period of elevated meteor activity now through the first month of 2015. As the length of night increases, expect to see more meteors and possibly fireballs as the Earth intersects orbiting material left behind by both asteroids and comets as they circle the sun.
Below is the heat map of the witnesses of the event.
AMS EVENT #2187-2014 – Heatmap
Below are 2 videos of the event
If you saw this fireball, please fill out an official fireball report with the AMS. To learn more about fireball meteors read our Fireball FAQ.
We encourage witnesses who saw this fireball to also download the AMS Mobile App for iPhone or Android and submit an enhanced fireball report using your mobile device. The data we can collect from the mobile App is more accurate and allows us to determine the velocity of the fireball. If you already submitted a web based report, please also complete the mobile report.
Which direction was it traveling?
A heat map only shows where the reports came in from.
Phil,
Initial estimates was that this fireball was traveling NE to SW. More details will be provided as time allows.
Robert Lunsford
American Meteor Society
I witnessed the fireball as it neared the ground. Seemed like it was 500 feet from where I was in Washington township nj around 10:57 last night
It was a bright orange then flashed blue and it came down over the tree line.
Omg.. My daughter and I saw it last night too coming home to Michigan from Indiana. Near Maumee Ohio. We thought it was a firework at first but realized it was the only thing we had seen. It was a bright green light at first then it turned into a red flame crashing into the ground. We around the exit that had said Mania on highway 24. It was amazing to us. We were like omg what was that. The second thing that came to my mind was a comet or meteor… Wow!!!
didnt see a fireball here in altoona but did see the flash was awesome ha
I don’t think this was an isolated event. My sister and I were traveling home Saturday evening, after nightfall though I’m not sure what time, and we saw a really bright fireball falling. Not quite as big as the moon, but definitely bigger than lights on a plane. Tonight I was reading my local paper & there’s a story, complete with pictures and video, of a fireball taken on Tuesday evening around 7pm, in a town about 40 minutes away from me. There was also a comment from another person that he & his wife saw one on Sunday evening around 7pm.
Sunday evening, Sept. 14th I was driving east on Rt. 70 from St. Clairsville, Ohio to Wheeling, WV.
As I descended the hill leaving St. Clairsville there was no other traffic either direction or lights anywhere.
Suddenly I looked to the left (a wooded area where the town of Lansing, Ohio can’t be
seen from Rt. 70) and suddenly a bright white ball the size of a harvest moon with a small
part of yellow quickly fell to the ground. I glanced at my clock and it was 10:58.
What an awesome experience. I never imagined that I would ever see such a rare and
spectacular occurrence. In the past my grandson and I have watched meteor showers
but never saw anything this amazing!
Was this maybe an old satellite that lost orbit? Skylab fell over Australia… just a thought.
I saw it driving home late at night when I was merging from 295N/95S onto Route 31 North. I was taking the exit ramp (exit 4) when I saw it. It was incredibly bright and shot straight down from the sky to the ground in a vertical motion.
I saw this incredible fireball!! I’m amazed that I did since I live in the very bright (at night) Baltimore City. I was walking my dog around the neighborhood in southern Bmore, I was almost home and about to go in when I saw a streak of light across the sky. I was looking North/NW and at first I thought it was a firework (Baltimore just celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Star-Spangled Banner) but I quickly realized it wasn’t as it was traveling in an odd direction. Then I thought it was a shooting star until it blew up into a fireball. That lasted for about 2-4 seconds traveling west. The fireball winked out and I thought it was over. Then another second later and the fireball reignited and lasted another 5 seconds or so. Very impressive!!