Many people in Michigan saw and experienced reports of a midday fireball ball with a “boom” all day from Ontario to Virginia on Wednesday.
According to the Associated Press, the afternoon show was probably of a meteor.
The American Meteor Society, based in western New York, reported about 100 witnesses to the fireball. They include people from Michigan, including reports from the people of Sanileck County, Marysville, Marlett, Livonia, and the man from Clinton Township, Momba County:
“It was a perfectly bright sunny day without clouds in the sky and the fireball was 100% clear and bright.”
To view the reports, check out the AMS website here. There have been reports of other fireworks from Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania. The color of the display was obviously in the eye of the beholder. A firefighter in New York described it as bright white with shades of yellow, according to the AP. Someone else in Maryland said it looks red and has orange sparks. Another observer said he had a long, bright green train.
The boom shook windows in central New York, prompting people to call 911. Because most of the bullish boom reports were from the Syracuse, New York area, probably where the meteor exploded, said Robert Lansford of Geniso’s AMS.
A report from Winchester, Virginia, states that “Sunny Day therefore felt like a flash of gold in front of a blue sky.”
An observer in Port Dover, Ontario, wrote: “Surprising, surprising, still talking about it. “The train was white, wide and long, not smoking.”
“We tend to pay more attention to fireballs at night because they come out better, but it’s not uncommon to notice very bright people during the day. It occurs several times a year in populated areas, ”said Margaret Campbell Brown, a member of the Meteor Physics Group at Western University in London, Nantario.
So why is there so much noise in some fireballs? These bright meteors produce sound waves, and larger meteors can emit a sonic boom that makes the sound of lightning when they break, said Campbell-Brown.
