(meteorobs) Fireball and booms reported - Dorchester County, Md., to the Virginia/North Carolina border

[Barbara Wilson]

Kent Blackwell, an amateur astronomer who saw this as it happened has posted a detailed report on  on amastro at yahoogroups.com.


--- In meteorobs at yahoogroups.com, Leo S <l.stachowicz at ...> wrote:
>
> Some of you may want to check your cameras. Do we have anyone on this 
> list in that area?
> 
> Leo
> 
> 
> http://hamptonroads.com/2009/03/loud-explosions-lights-sky-reported-maryland-nc
> 
> Streaking lights, explosions reported all along coast
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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.
> 
> /Patrick Wilson, (757) 446-2957, patrick.wilson at .../
> 
> 
> 
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