(meteorobs) Texas fireball -- radar images

[Ed Cannon]

Two local TV weather blogs have radar images
from 11:03 AM (local, 17:03 UTC) Sunday that
show two echoes, one in southern Hill County
near Hubbard and another, larger one in the
northern corner of McLennan County (Waco), 
just north of the small town of West and 
south of the small town of Abbott in Hill 
County.

They both agree that in one pair of images
from Fort Worth radar the right-hand or 
eastern echo is higher in the atmosphere 
than the larger one to its left.  They say 
that the one of the left was at about 
4,000 feet and the one one the right at
about 7,000 feet above the ground.

I assume these are echoes of a smoke or 
debris trail, but maybe they could be 
plasma (?).  I don't know why there are 
two separate echoes.  I believe that 
weather radars rotate once per minute.

In the KVUE-24 blog, there are two pairs
of images, each from a different radar 
center, and the altitudes of the echoes
are given different altitudes for the 
Granger radar than for the radar from 
Fort Worth.  However, in this one it 
appears that the blogger or his source 
has misstated (reversed) the altitudes 
of the echoes in the second pair of 
images (from Granger radar).

Here are links:

"Sunday Fireball Seen on Radar" (KXAN-36,
NBC affiliate, Jim Spencer)
http://blogs.kxan.com/weather/2009/02/16/sunday-fireball-seen-on-radar/

"Meteor Captured on Radar" (KVUE-24, ABC
affiliate, Mark Murray)
http://www.beloblog.com/KVUE_Blogs/weatherblog/

Now, here is a second-hand report from an 
eyewitness in Hearne, Robertson County, 
Texas, who reports that the fireball went 
near the zenith, lasted about 10 seconds, 
and lit up the ground in broad daylight:

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Feb-2009/0354.html

>From Hearne to West in McLennan County 
yields a more or less SSE to NNW track, 
and the two radar echoes seem to have it 
descending as it went in that direction.

I've read one report in which the 
eyewitness says she saw five streaks.

Another story on one of those websites
says that so many 911 calls were received
in Williamson County (immediately north
of Austin) that they sent out a helicopter
to search for a fallen aircraft.

It would be very nice, if this was detected
by DSP satellite, if they would report it 
as has been done in the past (several years
ago).

Ed Cannon - Austin, Texas, USA