Local news outlets are reporting that a “fireball,” or very bright meteor, passed through the skies of North Texas tonight, creating a loud sonic boom. Above is a photo of the fireball posted by one of our Facebook friends a short time ago. WFAA reports:
WFAA received more than 200 reports Wednesday night from people who said they saw what appeared to be a meteor streaking across the North Texas sky shortly after 8 o’clock.
Many people also said they heard what sounded like a sonic boom (or booms) associated with the fireball, which was apparently witnessed all the way from San Antonio to Oklahoma City.
The Federal Aviation Administration told TV station KWTX in Waco that it was a meteor.
DISCLAIMER: As of 10:15 p.m. I can’t personally vouch for the authenticity of the photo. The person who posted it on Facebook has not responded to my messages. I have already been contacted by two local TV stations asking if they could run the photo.
UPDATE, 10:30: The Facebook friend who posted the photo now says he got it from KDFW’s Facebook page. However, he says the photo has since been removed from the page. WFAA just showed the same photo on its 10 p.m. newscast.
Below is some video that appears to have been captured by the dash cam of a police vehicle in Little River-Academy, which is near Temple:
Pic says jan1st….
Nice catch Savy, at least they didnt Photoshop it like so many do.
That’s a weird angle too… The fireball that I saw was traveling W to E not top to bottom…
I live in Snyder TX & also saw this just before 8pm tonite.
I saw it while driving down I35 about 50 miles north of OK City.
If it was last night we saw it. I’ve been waiting to see what it was. It was at 8:32 pm on 1/31/12. And we are in San Antonio.
I was in the back yard viewing Jupiter with a telescope when the whole yard lit up. I looked up to see the biggest brightest meteor I have ever seen! Spectacular! And no it did not even look like the photo above.
If that’s not the real photo then it’s close enough, I seen it in Ponca City, ok (100 miles north of OKC). It was the same green color and actually darker green at the start. I will say from this far up north what I saw was more horizontal than that photo.
I saw it it was amazing!! I was on my friends 3rd level balcony on the phone n saw it! I didn’t think it’d last and I was in so much shock I couldnt even move to take a picture! Right before that a low plane flew over heard from S to N then the meteor W to E. I’ve never seen anything like it in my whole life!! It was soo bright & huge & close!
My friends didn’t believe me till I showed them the news article! I was near George bush & the tollway in Dallas. The low flying plane was weird as well..
I live in Kaufman tx 30 min SE of dallas and saw it around 8:02 p.m. It looked like a firework. It was a bright white color that lighted for 5 seconds with sparks and then disappearing. After around 10 to 15 seconds there were 2 booms in the distant that kind of sounded like thunder.
I also saw/heard this meteor last night, the same time as everyone else. I live close to Denton, Tx, which is along I-35 before reaching Gainesville, Tx. The problem is, that’s not the first one. Approximately Monday, mid afternoon, I heard a boom, similar to that and it was enough to shake my house. This came from the west of my location. I thought a gas well had blown, or something similar, but never heard any sirens, etc. Never saw any news reports either.
I was flying from Norman OK to Denton TX. When I saw it pass over my wind shield it looked pretty much the same as it is on the picture here. I’d say it’s authentic even though the date says otherwise, because this is how it looked from 5500ft up in the air.
We out on a hike in Duncanville on a wooded area when the everything lit up around us like a spotlight was turned on. We looked straight overhead. Right on top of us. It started like the photo and then you could see different colored flames in the tail and eventually after a few seconds it burned up. Almost looked like it spil at the end. Absolutely beautiful. It seemed so very low, that some in the ground thought it might have been a bottle rocket that failed in flight. It really must have been low, because right after we heard crackling sounds like a sparkler firework then a few seconds later the boom. Not sure if sonice or that it landed. It sure seemed too long afterwards to have been a sonic boom. But who knows.
I’m a student at Texas A&M and my friends and I were playing soccer last night when we saw it.
I was walking my dog at the corner of Greenville Ave and Alta in old east Dallas. Looked up at what I thought was a very low flying helicopter light. When it was directly above, the tail began to send a long plume of green sparks. The color of the meteor itself was yellow-orange. It was moving due east, and the time was 7:57. At7:59 I heard a faint boom. For a moment I thought it was the coolest roman candle I’d ever seen!
… so the transformers are real after all… lol
I live in Mesquite off 635 and 30. Four other ppl and I saw it… It was awesome, had never seen anything like it before… looked real close to the picture above. It was traveling from w to e. and we also heard the sonic booms after it passed by….
Sitting in recliner and saw it through window in the eastern sky. Looked green.
I saw it from Robert Lee, Tx. It looked just like the pic only it looked more blue.
I first saw this meteor on Sunday night while driving on I-35 North in DeSoto.
I SAW IT! It flashed right across the top of our home. Looked like a scene from a movie. You could hear it as well zip across the sky, vanished then a boom!
Well apparently I didn’t see it, but I’ve heard the big boom!!! My brother and I were in the living room, we felt the floor kinda shake. Their have been some weird things already begin to happen in this year 2012. I believe there will be more action to come……good luck everyone.
My dad saw it!!!I wish i did,people in Arkansas even saw it!
And this 2012 thing that everybody is talking bout is stupid!
READ THA BIBLE (ima christan)
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I didn’t see the fireball… but I think I saw the low flying plane Cheryl mentioned in her post. I happened to look out a west facing window and a very low flying plane appeared to have gone right over my house heading west… the strange thing is I didn’t hear any sound… a big plane flying that low over my house should have made a huge noise… but I heard nothing.
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PS: I’m in Garland [suburb of Dallas.]
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I was a passenger in a vehicle traveling on Rissinger Road near Palmer, Tx, when it caught my attention. It appeared just over our heads. At first it didn’t occur to me that it was a meteorite because it was so large, and so bright, more like a rocket or some fireworks. There was a fiery, blue-green tail and it seemed to last four or five seconds. At the end we saw sparks as it appeared to break up in the atmosphere. I’ve seen lots of meteor showers, but nothing like this!
Also, @MIke, the angle would depend on which direction you were going when you snapped the photo, so it has no bearing on the authenticity.
I also saw this on Weds night (Feb 1. I live in Seminole TX – it was in the SE sky for me. It was a very, very bright light and I did see a green flash as it approached tree top level. It was awesome! Glad I finally found out what it was!!