Fireball Streaks Across Bay Area Sky (San Fran)

NBC Bay Area ^ | 2/15/13 | Anon

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Jodi Hernandez reports on the cosmic close encounter that the earth is experiencing tonight and the real one Russia experienced this morning.

On a day that had a lot of people talking about meteorites and asteroids, a fireball of some sort was seen streaking across the Bay Area skies.

The fireball was seen around 7:45 p.m.

There are reports into the newsroom from people as far north as Fairfield and as far south as Gilroy. It was also seen in Sacramento, Newark, Walnut Creek, and St. Helena.

It was bluish in color and appeared to be heading straight to the ground, according to one viewer in Santa Clara.

"I saw that meteor/fireball over Solano County after spending the day reporting on asteroids and fireballs," said NBC Bay Area reporter Jodi Hernandez.

Candice Guruwaiya told us on Facebook she saw it in San Jose. "I was leaving Safeway on Branham and Snell when I saw it. It looked like it was headed for the Capital Auto Mall area. It was a bright green when it first appeared, then it went to a bright yellow. It was awesome!" Guruwaiya posted.

Gina Johnson also saw it in San Jose. She also posted on our Facebook page that she had just walked out of a Fresh and Easy in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood. "It looked just like the one I saw back in October except it was a little smaller. It was greenish in color just like the one on October. Everyone in the parking lot stopped and looked at it," Johnson posted

[ApplegateRanch]

Quite possibly it was the Bay Area fireball you saw.

Comments from the end of the linked story:

Shontai Hanks Sperling · Dundee, Oregon
My husband saw this in Redding...WOW!
Reply · 4 · Like · Follow Post · 2 hours ago

Carol Harder · Puyallup, Washington
My daughter was outside her house in Toledo, Washington talking to me on her cell about the same time and , in the middle of a sentence, yelled OMG what..Oh I just saw a huge shooting star up towards the moon!

At typical meteor altitudes, the distance of a ground observer can be as much as 600-700 miles away, depending on how low in the sky you see it. http://www.amsmeteors.org/richardson/distance.html

This one, according to the sequence of reports was headed more-less south or SSW; and San Jose, Santa Cruz, & Monterey are almost exactly due south of Puyallup, at about 700-725 miles. Redding (mentioned in the above comments is also almost exactly on that trajectory.

[no-to-illegals]

Nearly fifty years ago there was a space rock which came in and iirc was sighted near Canada and U.S. line and then proceeded over N.Y. and down the east coast. The space rock eventually made it down the east coast and crashed into the ocean a few hundred miles from Florida. To the best of my knowledge nobody was injured from this space rock's flight. I recall seeing nighttime turn into a reddish bright blinding bright flash of light lasting four or five seconds. Thought, oh well, there goes the neighborhood along with everything else. What a rush of adrenaline! Have looked on-line a couple of times since that evening and have never found anything to reference that event.

[LanaTurnerOverdrive]

I’m kinda with you, wipe Sodom out.

Extermination? That seems a bit dark.

[berdie]

I can’t imagine how modern day people would feel seeing this. Even if they understood space. Or more because of it.

The Russians had to be a little on the worried side..not to mention San Fran.

[Las Vegas Dave]

Fireball Streaks Across Bay Area Sky (San Fran)

Pinging the UAP/UFO list as a FYI..

[Las Vegas Dave]

Fireball Streaks Across Bay Area Sky (San Fran)

Pinging the UAP/UFO list as a FYI..

[no-to-illegals]

Remember the big train of blows to Jupiter with comet Shoemaker Levy.

I suspect had Shoemaker Levy hit Earth we would not be typing to one another.

[no-to-illegals]

I missed the intent of your post and the point within your post. After I reread your post I found I owe you an apology for not first agreeing prior to make my point. My apology, and agreement.

Who needs NASA? Go to the FReeper Space Rocks for accurate analysis! LOL

[Axenolith]

I saw it, I was returning from Rancho Cordova and on 580 headed west through Tracy. Descending trajectory, white to brilliant green headed west near parallel to freeway, diminished to nothing maybe about 15 degrees above horizon. It was kick ass :-)

[JoeProBono]

[GeronL]

mass conversion would be nice too

[ZULU]

God speaks to Gaytown.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Of interest, Meteor Echoes

[fivecatsandadog]

I’m catching a flight early tomorrow a.m., Detroit to San Diego. All this is making me a little more nervous and uneasy than usual.

[Enduro Guy]

“Maybe the Mayan calendar was a few months off”

Yep, apparently they chose to exclude the annual .25 day leap year factor...

[varyouga]

Videos of Russians laughing at or ignoring the meteor (bad language):

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/5-meteor-videos-that-prove-russians-dont-give-f2340k/

[sergeantdave]

This is a prelude to Farakhan’s Mother Ship landing and eating all of us honkeys and white Latinos and shooting our dogs. White African American South Africans won’t be spared.

[Bigg Red]

Too much love makes a man insane....

[angcat]

Too bad it missed Pelosi’s house.

[Strategerist]

You don’t have much to worry about; these (meaning the West Coast Fireball, not the Russian one) are fairly routine. However they are going to get much more media attention and are much more likely to be posted on FR from now on, which inevitably will lead to the impression that there are suddenly a lot more of them.

The American Meteor Society has a site where the public can post their reports (which can then be used to estimate the orbit of the meteor).

Last night’s event (32 reports):

http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireball_event/2013/326

However just in 2013 so far, there have been 7 other events with more reports just over the US alone:

http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/fireball/browse_events/?year=2013&state=&num_report=32

And there were 25 such events in 2012:

http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/fireball/browse_events/?year=2012&state=&num_report=32