Posted on 03/30/2009 8:17:40 AM PDT by TaraP
Were they meteors? A comet? UFOs?
People from Maryland to Hampton Roads heard loud explosions and saw brilliant, streaking lights in the sky Sunday night.
There was no immediate explanation, the National Weather Service office in Wakefield said. The Virginia Beach 911 center had numerous calls waiting just before 10 p.m., a supervisor said.
The Weather Service said reports were made from Dorchester County, Md., to the Virginia/North Carolina border. People said they saw a streak in the sky and heard an explosion.
“It was orange, like a fireball,” said Steve Wagner, who lives in the Great Bridge area of Chesapeake and said what he saw was too close to be a shooting star. Wagner was outside cooking with family when he saw the streak. He said he went inside when his daughter called, then heard an explosion that sounded like thunder.
Chris Wamsley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Wakefield office, said there could be various causes of the explosions and lights. A team of people is looking into what happened, he said.
Alan MacRobert, senior editor with Sky and Telescope Magazine, said the loud boom that followed the brilliant lights probably means the object probably exploded.
There could be meteorites that fell to the ground, MacRobert said.
If enough observers can provide information on the direction of the object and how high it was in the sky in relation to other objects such as buildings or constellations, scientists could figure out where to organize a search.
Observers can report what they saw last night on the American Meteor Society’s page here.
Lindsey Hosek of the Great Neck area of Virginia Beach was jogging along the water with her dog when the sky lit up, she said.
“The bright light at first terrified me because I thought somebody was shining a light on me, and then I saw it, and I was in complete awe because it was so beautiful,” she said.
Then she saw something that looked like a comet moving low toward the ground; it was blue in front followed by orange and appeared to be the shape and size of a refrigerator.
“It was just so low. It was like where a bird should be,” she said. “It was definitely heading downward.”
She was on the phone with a friend a minute later when she heard an explosion.
Kenneth Martin of Chesapeake’s South Norfolk neighborhood said he saw what appeared to be lightning, then the sky turned blue.
Then, he said, a white ball of fire shot close to the ground and appeared to burn out. He said he’s sure it was a meteor.
“It was so vivid in the sky, blinking,” he said. “It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”
No damage was reported, the Weather Service said.
There sure seems to be a lot of this going on lately. Very strange days indeed.
Ping...;)
Meteorites and sonic booms from entering the atmosphere?
Armageddon?
again? this is AT LEAST the 4th such story this last month
There was the one in Canada filmed by a police cruiser at night, and then another one in canada (I think) and then last week one along the coast and now this
That, or with the proliferation of the Internet as well as the 24 hour news cycle, we are just hearing about it more. It may be the pattern hasn't changed in the events, only in the reporting.
Errant NK missles ;)
Can't put anything past Sky and Telescope. Probably.
Nah, just space refrigerators. No problem.
Fireball in the Night Sky Over Virginia Beach
This appears to be mainly an Eastern VA, MD, and NC phenomena but reports started come in fast and furious to the NWS office in Wakefield last night around 9:45pm. Witnesses reported seeing a bright flash in the sky and a loud boom like a sonic boom or earthquake seconds after seeing the bright light.
At first inspection of reports, I think a good guess would be a large meteor that exploded before impact with the earth. Most of the time meteors burn out without any sound. But some large meteors can get heated to such a degree that they literally explode, sometimes causing a huge noise.
http://nbc12weather.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/fireball-in-the-night-sky-over-virginia-beach/
The National Weather Service is NOT investigating this. (who is?) They did take many phone calls though. Unless some security camera footage in the Tidewater area shows something, this may go down as one big mystery!
NBC 12 Reporter Laura Geller is working on this story. Look for her reports in the day ahead on NBC12 and NBC12.com
like I said it is Kooky and Strange...
But so is this Fireball Activity....
No. It’s not per se the reporting.
Folks in major areas of increase have noticed that
BEFORE it was one way with one level of frequency
NOW
AFTER, it is a much DIFFERENT, HIGHER RATE OF FREQUENCY.
About DOUBLE a year ago nation wide/world wide.
SOMETHING IS going on.
God’s warning shots across our bows prehaps!?
FEB 13th, 2009
Strange objects in the sky on Friday night...
Monday, 16 February 2009 12:02
Feburary 13th’s Kentucky Fireball!
Reports have been coming in about a large bright fireball centered over Kentucky. Additional sightings have been made in Ohio, West Virginia and Tennessee. Interestingly, a sighting of a fireball was made in Ontario, Canada at nearly the same time. This sighting is probably too far away to be the same object and was probably of a different but still spectacular fireball.
http://www.wtvq.com/36stormteamblog/3730-strange-objects-in-the-sky-on-friday-night.html
Where did you dig that site from?
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