American Meteor Society
340 Reports… so far
The AMS has received over 340 reports so far about a fireball event over Arizona on June 2nd 2016 around 03:57am MST (10:57 UT). The fireball was seen primarily from Arizona but witnesses from Utah, New Mexico, California, Texas and Nevada also reported the event.
If you witnessed this event please fill an official fireball report.
If you have a video or a photo of this event please contact us.
If you want to learn more about Fireballs: read our Fireball FAQ.
Smoke Trail
Twitter user David Adkins shared the photo of the smoke trail of the fireball – The winds of the upper atmosphere have caused the trail to twist and turn.
Below is a great video of the event caught on a dashcam by S. Paris:
Below is a video of the fireball caught by Justin D. security video camera:
I seen this earlier than the pictures I’ve seen posted, it came straight down as a fireball at 0357 and sparkled as it came into the atmosphere leaving these com trails that lasted until light. I live south of Globe and it was almost do North from me.
Okay, I have to ask. What is a “com trail”? It left a trail of communications behind it?
I think they mean “con trail”… Originally derived I believe from “condensation trail”, as aircraft burn fuel the remaining exhaust, extremely hot in a high altitude cold environment, creates condensation, or clouds.
A similar term, “Chem-trail”, is used by conspiracy theorists to allege that governments or groups controlling the government are using commercial airlines, or private/military airlines to spread chemicals into the atmosphere which will be ingested one way or the other by the unsuspecting masses.
Unless the meant “com-trail”…of which I am unfamiliar 🙂
Contrails are clouds formed when water vapor condenses and freezes around small particles (aerosols) that exist in aircraft exhaust. Some of that water vapor comes from the air around the plane; and, some is added by the exhaust of the aircraft. The exhaust of an aircraft contains both gas (vapor) and solid particles.
Michael, That’s a joke right? If not…look it up.Communication haha
Contrail as in condensation …
i wounder if the cell and internet outages are because of this
As I was pulling out of my driveway at about 3:50 am I saw a huge flash out of the corner of my eye and when I looked over, it looked like a shooting star that fell the burnt out. But this was way closer and brighter than any shooting star I’ve ever seen and the trails left behind didn’t make sense to me. I don’t understand why they are so swirly rather than a straight line.
I agree. What kind of meteor or even missile makes several circles?
As it traveled down towards earth, it is apparent the Asteroid released gases and dust that twirled in the skies. Let’s match the evidence with fact, not opinion.
After the meteorite hit our atmosphere, pieces most likely began to fall off. Since they were on fire as well, they were propelled too; their shapes very likely affected their trajectories, and they wavered and wobbled their way through the sky until burning out completely. That’s why there’s not just a single smoke trail as well as why they’re not straight….. or at least that’s my theory. 🙂
As the object..wx a missile or meteorite passes thru different elevations of atmosphere, the wind currents that vary in those different layers move at different speeds over time. Imagine if you squirted ink in a river or stream…same concept.
If that’s true then I wonder why swirling trails isn’t more of a common occurrence? In fact I’ve never seen one before, only trails that were more or less straight.
Vanessa,
These trails occur at altitudes much higher than your commercial aircraft. That is why these patterns are rare.
Robert Lunsford
American Meteor Society
I see, so I take it most meteors typically break apart at much lower altitudes? Thanks for taking the time to explain it for me!
Vanessa,
You misunderstood me. They are rare when compared to contrails, which are commonplace. Meteors usually disintegrate at very high altitudes, much higher than the normal cruising altitudes of aircraft. Nearly all long-lasting meteor trails will exhibit disruptions in its path due to high altitude winds. Most meteor trails only last a second or two and the disruption is not noticeable.
Robert Lunsford
Wind patterns make the trail swirls. Different heights & directions cause different movements.
There was a loud boom, my house shook and I thought a transformer had blown in the area. I live in Navajo County,
I live in north phx… was up…and heard zero… but the flashing light was very bright thru my window!
Yes I awoke to the boom at 3:39 am, the windows and house shaking and all my dogs barking. I looked out and saw nothing the animals settled down. I live in Show Low off Hwy 260
Yep, whole house was woken to the sound of a boom at about 4 this morning. Also in Navajo County. Wish I had been awake, because I missed the light entirely. I went out the back to see if something had exploded in the neighborhood, and the birds were all in the trees making noise. This has been a weird year so far.
Wow! I thought I was nuts. I heard a loud sound, more like a boom! My bedroom windows shooked. It was nearly four in the morning. I thought it was thunder or those crazy summer winds that shakes the entire house. My husband thought that someone had tried to brake in so he went around checking all windows. Crazy!
I live in Show Low, Az. in subdivision Hacienda Pines. At exactly 3:58 a.m. June 2, 2016 I was woken out of a sound sleep by the sound of a large explosion. Thinking a home blew up I ran to the windows and saw nothing and heard no sirens. My cats were freaking out. Finally went back to bed but in the morning saw on my phone Fox 10 news alert about a meteor. I’m positive now that’s what I heard. Could it have landed up here somewhere, if it didn’t burn up on the way down?
Hello,
I just wanted to report that we (my wife and I) witnessed the light from the recent “Arizona fireball’, but did not see the event directly. That is, our bedroom lit up very brightly (a very “white” light), for 1-2 seconds, at very close to 04:00am, Thursday morning, June 2, 2016. When I enter my address at your web-site, the lat/lon indicated is (a few miles east/ne of Flagstaff, AZ):
“Latitude: 35.26631′ – Longitude: -111.48969′ – Elevation: 2006.0m”.
We knew at the time it was something other than ordinary lighting (e.g. not vehicle head-lights, etc), as we are pretty familiar with recognizing (and hearing) traffic/etc in our rural area. It was a very quiet morning when this occurred. We are unable to provide additional information via your “report a fireball” form, as we did not see it directly. However, we have windows facing directly east, and directly south, and have the impression the illumination came mostly through the south facing window.
We hope this is helpful.
Take care,
Chris
We live in strawberry. Arizona hi mountain getting ready for bed we saw this very clear and bright light come thru the window and then felt a bid stump like a tree falling. Rattle the windows .
Hi,
Do you know the general location of the impact? It would be great to explore the area searching for meteor fragments.
Thank you, and best regards,
Christopher
Christopher,
If any remnants survived all the way to the ground they would be located east of Phoenix off of highway 288, north of Aztec Mountain. This appears to be a very rugged area. If there is any access to the canyon that runs through that area, that would be a great place to look.
Robert Lunsford
‘could be the smoke trail’…………….that picture from Phoenix is the smoke trail. It was visible to the naked eye in the night sky right after the event with indirect ocular vision. It became much more visible as the sky lightened with sunrise, and that photo shows the various changes due to wind speeds and directions. From my perspective, it almost looked like ‘rings’ early on at different elevations, the typical smoke rings you sometimes can see in contrails behind planes, from smokers etc. the dispersal of material varied with height, the upper most stratosphere area was pushed western at an increased distance/speed, while the lower elevations remained closer to the actual event path.
I witnessed the smoke trail from this event from Lakeside, CA, east of San Diego. It appeared very much like the exhaust from a rocket launch as I have seen these many times from events launched from Vandenberg AFB. I did not witness the actual fireball as I was inside at the time of the event. This was the first clear morning in a long time so I consider myself lucky just to have seen the resulting trail.
Robert Lunsford
Thx for your input. Thought it could be a missile except the trails were so weird! If you know about missile trails, that is helpful!
When I saw this fireball picture it looked identical to the vision I had of a rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base when I saw it predawn approximately 430 in the morning about one year ago from my backyard in Tucson Arizona ! The similar circumstances amazed me as they were almost identical!
The explosive sound woke my son and my husband. It shook our home and the windows were rattling as well. It was frighteningly loud!! They ran outside to see if a home may have exploded near us. Neighbors by us did the same. No sirens. No fire or smoke.
They thought a home had literally exploded right by us, due to the loud explosive sound and the shaking of our home.
In Overgaard, I saw a very bright flash through a south-facing window at just before 0400, followed a few seconds later by a loud boom that caused the windows to shake and a set of blinds over the open window to blow inwards. It actually looked like a set of headlights coming through the bedroom window and sounded like some type of explosion.
Just before 4 AM I saw a very bright light shining in our East-facing window, followed shortly after by a loud, concussive boom that blew the bedroom blinds into the room! I jumped out of bed and looked out the window but saw nothing. (We live in Strawberry).
I failed to post that we live in Show Low AZ.
I live in Phoenix and was woke up before 4:00 a.m. by a low (not loud) boom and our window(s) rattling. I thought someone was testing our window(s) to get in so I actually got up and cleared my house! I did not see any lights or swirls probably because we have big trees on the east side of our house and didn’t know about the meteor until a few minutes ago.
We live 7 miles west north west of Show Low Arizona. At 3:57 a.m. we heard a loud explosion. I am familiar with close proximity Dynamite explosions. I would say this was equivalent in audio amplitude to one stick of dynamite 75 to 100 feet away from me. It caused many neighbors to roam the neighborhood looking for the explosion. We could not find anything that had blown up on our street. We live in a rural area that is dead quiet at night.
I live in West Phoenix, and it flew right above us. Although I did not see it, my brother and cousin were awake at the time. They were outside with the dogs and they told me out of nowwhere the sky turned into daylight for a few secs, dogs got scared and ran inside. They freaked because well, they didn’t know what it was at the time. My mom also witnessed it, and heard the noise. She said it was louder than fireworks booming. Some people near my area woke up to the noise, I didn’t… wish I did tho..
I live in Tucson AZ; at a little shy of dawn I was awakened by a sound that, to my groggy brain, sounded like a gigantic firework going off. I didn’t see it (I stayed in bed) but by the time I was really conscious it seemed like every dog on the planet was barking and I heard the coyotes from the nearby wash as well as several car alarms going off. I had no clue what was going on and just tried to block all the noise out and eventually went back to sleep, but it took quite a while– the dogs in the area were REALLY upset. I didn’t actually know about the fireball for a number of hours.
Susie did you graduate from so Worrell high school in 1970? If you did this is Ned
I just missed being outside to see this fireball. After spending a few minutes observing comet C/2013 X1, I went back inside to write up my observations. At ~ 3:55 am the room I was in lit up for 2-3 seconds (house is in the Tanque Verde area NE of Tucson and the room I was in is north facing). Since I live on a cul-de-sac I looked out the window to see if there was a vehicle on the road but thought it weird that there wasn’t one. At ~4:45 am I was on the road and noticed an obvious contrail due north above the Catalinas. Reminded me a lot of similar contrails visible in Tucson from rocket launches from Vandenberg and White Sands. It is possible my meteor camera picked up the early phases of the fireball. I’ll check when I get back home.
Carl Hergenrother
AMS Secretary
I live in New Mexico and I saw this at 2 minutes til 5am this morning it was amazing so bright and actually it was the sound of it that caught my attention first never seen anything like that before but it was beautiful.
I saw it this morning also at Eubank and i-40 at first it looked like a falling star but then it got brighter and larger then anything I’ve ever seen. It was a once in a life time sighting that is hard to explain to those who didn’t see it, but its something I will never forget
Hello,
I just wanted to report I live in Laveen, Az and experienced my house shaking and saw a super bright light!
My tv fell of the wall!! Crital!!!!
Heard the loud boom at roughly 350 something Anthem AZ
I was baling at this time and saw it crystal clear. It had a very strong green lighting to it that lit up approx 2 miles to the naked eye. It lasted about 5 seconds maybe 4. Such a cool sight.
I also saw the color green, however my daughter standing next to me saw orange/yellow. May be case of old eyes young eyes! We were at antelope point on lake Powell and saw a vertical descent from our vantage point.
That one color still is not the fireball. That was pulled from the web. It gives the wrong idea I think and will propagate through the web. Thomas Ashcraft
Did it land? If so where, cant find anything.
You likely won’t find anything. A meteoric rock the size of a small fist is enough to create a sonic boom as it breaks through our atmosphere. It may have broken & scattered. Or it may be buried in the ground on impact. Needle in a haystack. I could be a lot farther away than you may imagine. We had one on Overgaard in late Nov. a couple of years, rattled windows.
I live in southern Utah and saw the fireball as it left a sparkled trail and then it blew up into a bright light.
My partner and I witnessed the 6/2/16 AM fireball meteor in it’s very rapid (approximately 7-10 seconds) descent, bright combustion, ignition into large flames immediately breaking apart and disappearing from view towards impact locations of remaining debris. It was followed by four deep, hollow resonating sounds I can only explain as similar that of bass drum impact or some launchers. (for example of what it sounded similar to, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMFGlacb7Ok ) The fireball comet’s clarity was nothing short of jaw dropping, and astounding. I have never seen a fireball meteor in my lifetime in person before this morning. I feel very lucky to not only have been up, but to have been able to catch that sight. I have seen meteor showers, even Halley’s Comet, but this was an unexpected first for me. I was filled with amazement, confusion, curiosity, a little nervous apprehension being as I didn’t know what it was at first, but overall in the end and my curiosity sated by looking online and educating myself, I feel lucky to have witnessed it and will never forget this new experience and memory shared… that left in its wake a beautiful smoke trail that seemed to change color as the sun rose, taking on an almost surreal dragon form near its base. Beautiful. If you would like to see pictures of that smoke trail from where we saw it, follow this link to my twitter, where I will post my photos: https://twitter.com/_Paradise_Lost
Glad someone else mention additional booms … I was thinking we had imagined them.
I thank you too. I read most of the posts, and not seeing anything about more than one boom, I posted (probably below.) To me it felt like it would if a monster was slowly heavily treading down the street outside. The last boom seemed directed at the side of the house and was louder than the others…but I think I agree with your numbers (although I thought maybe there was one more at the time.)
About 455am here in el paso, i was headed to work West on i10 and saw it break through the atmosphere and trail behind a giant green tail and go behind the Franklin mountains. It was awesome…
I saw it! It was incredible,I just had an insomnia jacuzzi bath and went out back to cool off just before 4 a.m.I was standing there with my arms outstretched and my eyes closed Facing East.I live east of PV Mall just south of Thunderbird so we get plane traffic from Scottsdale Airpark,all of a sudden it was so bright I thought maybe a helicopter light was shining on me or something.I opened my eyes in time to see the meteor streaking from about the 10 o’clock position Facing East and it burned brightly and fizzled out just before it disappeared behind my neighbor’s rooftop at almost 230 position in the sky.I couldn’t believe what I just saw but I knew exactly what it was I waited for a while wondering if there might be more.just after 4 o’clock I had texted my friend cuz I was so excited, he didn’t respond of course.at approximately 4:10 I started hearing a rumbling like thunder then boom. boom boom 3 Sonic booms in a row I knew exactly what it was.I swear I was actually standing there with my eyes closed thinking God I can’t believe that this happened to me.I started taking pictures and video after the Sonic booms can have some amazing pictures of the trails and video!!!!!!
I was working this morning. I was four story’s up on a roof , when everything got so bright , I said to myself the sun just popped up to fast. Thirty minutes later when the sunrise actually started I took a picture and up loaded to American Meteor Society. I title the picture ” The sky at 4:32 am”.
I saw the bright flash of light Thursday morning, June 2, 2026 at just before 4:00 am. I just happen to look toward the northeast (more north) here in San Simon, AZ to see the bright flash of light. It was a real bright white and silent.
At about 4 am this morning I thought some one opened the refrigerator door because of a bright light that came from the kitchen .The a few seconds latter A loud BANG and the entire house shook. I got up and looked out side and saw nothing Every one in the house was awakened buy the house shaking. we thought it was an earth quake.
Bruce Barham
At my sisters House in Show Low Arizona.
I was driving south of Santa Fe. Meteor moving north to south. Depth perception is tricky on this, as it appeared to disintegrate no farther than a few miles from my location
I was awakened a little before 4 am to the sound of windows rattling. My dog was outside and started barking. I live in Sunnyslope, north central Phoenix. I couldn’t figure out what the noise was or where it was coming from. Thanks for all of the posts!
A few minutes before 4 am with my eyes closed lying in bed a bright light startled me through my eyelids.
I opened them and the entire room was so bright it was like a car was parked in the bedroom with high beams on. I could not even tell from what window was the source.
It lasted slightly more than one second.
I know what a magnitude minus 12.6 Full Moon does to that room, so I estimated it at least 4 to 6 times brighter (perfectly subjective non-scientific estimate) – so roughly magnitude minus 15 I guessed.
I jumped up – no lightning anywhere, clear skies. No cars, no BP patrolling. ????
Way too freaking bright for anything celestial, no delayed sounds.
I told my wife….cosmic mystery. So I went hiking in the canyon. I got home at 11 am and she tells me a fireball was reported in Phoenix.
I said if it was the same event it must have been insanely bright 200 miles away.
I was lying there in bed contemplating a look-see at the comet despite the thin Moon…..
I should have gotten up, although I would have been looking in the opposite direction and behind a wall so I would have missed a LOS observation anyway in all likelihood.
The three of us were awakened by a sonic boom at 0400 that reverberated through the valley where our cabin is located, on the East Verde River approx 10 miles north of Payson. The sonic boom sounded like an explosion, and knocked an evaporative cooler cover off the wall. As we were in a valley filled with Ponderosa pines, no sky effects could be seen.
Does anyone have the area or map of the estimated debris field?
Me and my nephew saw this in the early morning while we were taking out the trash. We didn’t hear a loud boom but it was crazy because all of a sudden it was bright outside like the sun was coming out. When we both looked up we saw a huge round object moving fast and it was glowing green, yellowish and orange. It lasted for a few seconds and then disappeared leaving behind a bunch of smoke. I remember thinking wow the suns coming up pretty fast when it started brightening up the sky. I live in San Tan Valley.
My wife and three kids were tent camping about 1000 feet from the top of Baker Butte AZ. Wednesday through Saturday (that is why I’m reporting three days late. About 3:30am Thursday, June 2nd (my phone’s clock) I had to go to the bathroom (a tree). Soon after going I was startled by an animal exploring the perimeter of our camp; it’s yellow retroreflective eyes were all that I observed by the beam of light by my headlamp. I yelled and rushed towards it a few times and it eventually went a away. My wife said she had to go too, so I redoubled my efforts to ensure the animal was gone. After my wife went we were quietly discussing what type of animal it might have been and I was still scanning the forest to see if the creature returned when we both saw the woods and sky fill with white light (roughly 4 a.m., neither one of us looked at or watches or phones). I looked into the sky and saw the meteor streaking and flashing (I think two or three flashes). The ponderosa pine trees and the forest floor were all brightly illuminated. The shadows from the trees were all moving very fast. About one to two minutes later we both heard a deep rumbling noise for a second or two. The noise reminded me of the sound of a trash truck going over speed bumps (the hollow truck makes a deep “thud” noise as each pair of tires passes over it). It was a little louder and deeper though.
I wish someone could explain how it was possible for some observers to detect the sound a FEW seconds after the flashes. A delay of a few seconds would seem to indicate that the such observers were within a mile or two (sound travels ~1300 feet per second). We estimate it was a minute or two before we heard any noise. Also, my wife and I both agree that it appeared to have terminated high in the sky – as in the steak of light did not go to the ground. Can anyone comment on how our observations “harmonize” with others’ accounts? In particular, I wish I could have a credible explanation for the wildly differing accounts of the sound delay. Some of the comments that I just read mentioned a delay of a just a few seconds. That would put the obsever’s location very close to the sonic boom path, and would suggest that the meteor was incandescent at a VERY low altitude. Perhaps the meteor went incandescent again after dropping below our horizon?
I was in bed in North Phoenix reading around 4 AM. My room has light-blocking shades so I didn’t see anything. What I did notice, however, that no one else has commented on, were multiple booms. It was as if there was a heavy monster walking down the street outside my window; the sound was more than audible…there was an earth-shaking quality to it. There were at least three (and in my memory immediately after the event I thought there were four) followed by one last boom that seemed directed at the (east) side of the house and was more intense than the others, actually rattled the windows. This last seems to be what everyone else heard. I am embarrassed to say that it was unnerving enough that I did NOT get up and check outside.
I was taking my dogs out and was standing on my patio that over looks north east phx when I saw the meteor. The meteor was directly east of our house. I could see a trail and what appeared to be fragments coming off. It was getting bright until it flashed and illuminated the valley like someone had just flipped on the sun. I thought I could feel the heat but must have imagined it due to the brightness. The flash lasted just a second or so then disappeared but you could still see pieces of the meteor heading to the ground. Then about 6-7 seconds later I heard 3 booms (loud enough to shake windows) followed by a 4th one that wasn’t as loud. Car alarms were going off all over. I am guessing it was about 70 miles away when it exploded. I can’t believe how powerful it was. Unbelievable!
Early morn, just before 4:00am on June 2nd, I heard what sounded like distant thunder coming from the south west of my home near woodland lake in Pinetop, Arizona. It sounded like a lingering sort of thunder clap and I felt the house vibrate. My blinds were closed and eyes closed so I saw no flash. I did jave the window open. I thought it strange as the sky’s were clear upon opening the blinds. I then checked the doppler radar but found no precipitation in the entire state.
Looks like they have now found pieces of this one and estimate that it was about the size of a VW Bug!
Saw a huge what we thought was a huge meter fly over and hit the ground and we felt the force of the landing. We were camping late in I think was fall of 75 give or take a year. Had a huge piece of property back then when no one was around. I grew up in Ahwahnee moving there in ’60 when you barely saw a car. So this meteor hits and my hubby at the time stood there with our mouths open when a huge craft and i mean a huge ass thing or maybe 3 flying in a triangular pattern lew right over the top of a big pine tree making noise or anything. Just 3 extremely bright, white lights, the lead light a strange blue color. we ran a short distance to a clearing where we had a perfect 360 view of the mountains and terrain about 6 or 7 seconds and it or they we gone! No sound no trace no nothing. Never spoke of it till now with computers and all and I’m a 65 year old grandma and great grama so would like to know it anyone saw the same thing. That was back when you could drive to Yosemite and never pass a car!!! Much more to the story but I always wondered if anyone found remnants of a hit of some sort because it really shook the earth. The most amazing thing i ever saw. G. B.
My dog and I were waking up sitting in the back yard facing north east and the sun was just barely starting to come up when the entire sky lit up like it was day and then a super bright lime green fireball blazed thru the sky. My dog and I were both facing that direction and both were sitting just looking at the trees when it happened. Have to say that was probably one of the coolest memories I share with my best bud. Exactly 3 year anniversary of it today.
I was outside smoking before I left to work. Did anyone else see the red laser beam shoot from the sky down just before the bright light? I know I did.