‘Kinda terrifying.’ Colorful fireball streaks across SLO County sky. Did you see it?
A rare fireball put on a dazzling display across the California sky on Sunday night, including sightings in San Luis Obispo County.
According to NASA Space Alerts, an official NASA account on X dedicated to alerting the public to “cosmic activity in near-Earth space,” the meteor was first spotted around Chowchilla on Sunday night going at a speed of 35,000 mph. The agency said the fireball traveled “58 miles through the upper atmosphere before disintegrating 29 miles above Calflax.”
“This fireball does not appear to be related to other recent bright meteors,” NASA said.
The display spawned more than 230 reports of sightings from California, Arizona and Nevada, according to the American Meteor Society, which allows members to submit sightings of meteor events on its website.
One user by the name of Gregory E., who spotted the fireball from Lake Nacimiento in San Luis Obispo County around 8:20 p.m., said it was “like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
“I’ve seen plenty of satellites, SpaceX launches (and explosions), and meteor showers,” they wrote in their sighting report. “We thought it was a missile at first. It was kinda terrifying. By the end of it, it looked more like a firework, but it was FAR too bright. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before and matches the reference photos on this website PERFECTLY. SO cool!”
Other users noted the fireball appeared in an array of colors, including blue, green, red and orange as it streaked across the sky.
“It was a streak and then looked like it broke into pieces that were on fire,” user Aelin G. of Morro Bay wrote. “Started as a circle then shattered.”
In Fresno, user Stephanie O. noted you could hear a small boom after the fireball appeared.
“We heard a boom that wasn’t loud enough to shake the house approximately 2 mins after seeing the fireball,” they wrote.
Douglas H. of Clovis also at first mistook the fireball for something else.
“I have never witnessed anything like this,” they wrote. “At first I thought it might be drone flying over head. Then the light formed a tail and I thought someone had shot off a firework or rocket. But (then) it quietly disappeared. I immediately came inside and reported what I had witnessed to my wife. She had an astronomy class in college and thought it was a meteor. An amazing thing to witness!”
If you have pictures of the fireball you would like to share with The Tribune, please email them to reporter Kaytlyn Leslie at kleslie@thetribunenews.com.
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