Thursday, June 3, 2004 · Last updated 4:22 a.m. PT
Flashes, booms reported over Western Washington
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE -- Bright flashes and sharp booms were reported in the skies over the Puget Sound area early Thursday, and aviation officials said a meteor may have been the source.
An early report that a meteor might have hit near Chehalis, about 90 miles south of the city, turned out to be false, a University of Washington scientist who specializes in meteorites said.
Toby Smith, a lecturer in astronomy, told The Associated Press scientists were looking into the cause of the skybursts reported over a wide area about 2:40 a.m.
Witnesses along a 60-mile swath of the sound from near Tacoma to Whidbey Island and as far as 100 miles to the east near Ellensburg said the sky lit up brightly, and many also reported booming sounds as if from one or more explosions.
Officials at the National Weather Service ruled out any weather-related causes, and duty officers at the Federal Aviation Administration and the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station told The Associated Press they knew of no civilian or military airplane problems.
Civilian pilots reported seeing the flash from Ellensburg, east of the Cascade Range, said an FAA duty officer who did not give her name.
At Whidbey Island, Petty Officer Andrew Davis said he and other saw the skyburst.
"It made a pretty big bang," Davis said. "We thought it could maybe be a meteorite (a meteor that has struck Earth) or something."
A man who identified himself as University of Washington astronomy professor Bradley Hammermaster told KIRO Radio a team was being assembled to head for an area where the meteor was believed to have hit, but that call appeared to be a hoax, Smith said.
No one by the name of Hammermaster is known to the astronomy department, and the description given by the caller to the station of the object - an automobile-sized piece of a small car from a piece of the larger Trilene meteor - was clearly bogus, Smith added.
Printer-friendly version
E-mail this story
Get e-mail news updates
From what you posted:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Meteor