Possible Meteor Spotted over East Coast (Updated)

By Tom Sofield
Online Editor – (tsofield@buxmontnews.com)

2/15/11 1:47 p.m.: Thank you everyone for the e-mails, comments and phone calls!

The Philadelphia Inquirer has the full story.

The American Meteor Society has a form set up for those people who want to file reports of spotting the meteor.

More reader comments:

One man left us a phone message telling us he was in Long Island, NY when he saw the meteor cross the sky yesterday. He was very happy to hear he was not the only one to see it.

Sharon Bath writes:

My husband saw this HUGE, Amazing “fireball” while working on the NJ Turnpike yesterday afternoon. He said he looked up and saw “something on fire, shootingb through the sky, before it left a trail of smoke behind and fizzled out”. He thought it was a plane crashing at first. No one else on the entire job saw this and they thought he was seeing things. I googled this fireball for him lastnight and low and behold, found this article!

One person e-mailed us this report:

I was on rt. 4 in Englewood, NJ  around 12:30 yesterday Feb. 14th when I saw this gold/green shining thing with a long white tail. I was completely taken by it. I am so glad to see I was not the only one to see it. It was very cool.

Spencer Reinhard commented:

guess what I saw yesterday. I went outside after lunch early because it was nice out. I went and sat in front of education and waited for our boss to show up. I was reading when my mexican buddy showed up. we sat and talked for a while, but around 12 20 or so, I was looking to his right while he talked and over the gym, I saw this bright yellow light pass from above the gym down behind it. it was a split second ” I just saw something” I said, it looked like a falling star. “a meteorite” he said and I said yeah but it was so fast that I wasnt really sure I had seen anything, maybe it was just the sun hitting the back of a seagull I thought, and with that doubt I all but forgot about it. it wasnt untill later in the day when this dude scott came in the room “people are seeing fireballs falling out of the sky” then I remembered ” I saw that!” I said and explained to them what i had seen, and of course my bunky said I was crazy, but I pointed to the direction that i saw it in, and scott said that yes it was seen in the north east. today he tells me it was brighter than the sun, and softball size, but they havent found it yet, but they think it landed somewhere on long island. I would have forgotten all about it. It was a valentines day meteorite. Im sure it was between 12 and 12 30

A reader left a comment that stated:

My daughter saw a object falling from sky at 12- something pm from Pine Hill NJ as she was picking the kids up from school! Also another 2 people were talking about this while I was in the store as they both saw the same thing. One women said her husband thinks she fell off her rocker because she was frantic when she saw it falling! Both of the other witness’s are from the Clementon, Pine Hill, Berlin area.

Charlie said:

I saw this event from Millersville Maryland. It occurred at 12:34pm by my clock. I glanced out my car window looking to the east and saw the fireball as it approached the earth. I lost sight of it as it fell below the tree line. My sense was that it was a lot closer to me than now reported (hundreds of yards to a few miles). As it turns out, as we now know, it was out over the Atlantic Ocean off of the east coast. I’ve seen nothing on the news about this. It was very cool that I was able to witness this.

Christine told us:

My 9 year old daughter and I both saw it in Hampton, Virginia. We were driving NE on Mercury Blvd and saw a bright object falling. I called my local news station twice to see if they had any idea what it was or if anyone else reported it…

Kate Freedman commented on our site:

I saw it when driving from Philadelphia towards Camden, I didn’t believe my eyes at first.

Janet e-mailed us this report:

I saw what looked like a small flare falling from the sky at 12:40 pm.  I was traveling east on route 22 in Bridgewater, NJ

Read more submitted comments.

2/14/11 5:28 p.m.: Robert Lunsford from the American Meteor Society said this:

So far we have 30 reports of a fireball moving in a general west to east direction as seen from the northeastern USA. Daylight fireballs are rare and must be exceedingly bright to be noticed with the sun in the sky. This was most likely a random event not associated with any known meteor shower. This object was most likely the size of a small car before striking the upper atmosphere. With it terminating over the Atlantic Ocean, there is no hope for recovering any possible debris.

Terry called to tell us:

She was on her way back from lunch in Little Egg Harbor, NJ when she say the fireball. She said she was “glad others saw it too.”

Rodney comments:

I saw it too in Ocean County NJ. Was falling downward with a definite Green tail and flash at the end

It was over the water as well for me. I didn’t see the object just the long green tail after it and a flash at the end.

Steve Goldman in NJ e-mail us this:

I saw the fire ball falling from the sky around 12:30ish.  I was facing south and I was in Bergen County, NJ.   Quite a site to behold.

Another commenter says:

Saw it driving East on Rt. 10 near Parsippany, NJ

2/14/11 3:29 p.m.: Tim Connor commented on our post with this report:

I saw it while I was in Camden, NJ. It was East (towards Flying W Airport) and was a metallic silver colored object with a tail traveling vertically at a high rate. It definitely wasn’t over Philadelphia, just to clear that up.

On our Facebook page Lisa Rundles Crandall posted a report of what her husband told her he saw:

“a huge ball of fire” which he thought was a comet… he was driving on the PA turnpike, and said it had to have come down close, as in eastern PA or the Jersey border at the furthest… he said he had “never seen anything like it…”

Mike Hankey of Mike’sAstroPhotos.com posted a map of where the object was sighted from. Hankey made the map based on the 20 or so reports that were filed with the American Meteor Society within an hour of the object streaking across the sky.

(MikesAstroPhotos.com)

2/14/11 2:14 p.m.: Many Twitter users up and down the east coast, Egypt along with FOX 29 out of Philadelphia are reporting that a bright light was spotted in the sky around 12:45 this afternoon.

Twitter users across the globe are posting reports of the sighting:

(No Location Given) @REL ONE: I think I just say a #meteorite or something else falling from the sky.

(New Jersey) @philmdunn: We got a call that someone saw a meteor? Anyone else catch a glimpse?

(Egypt) @carlosnilefm: it’s 7 PM & the sky got brighter & brighter till it’s like broad daylight ,I look & i saw the Biggest Brightest meteor i’ve seen in my life

(New York) @HLDeVore: Wow… Just saw daytime meteor over New York!!!! Moving west to east…. Burned up. Or firework??? WTF was that???

(No Location Given) @tcnolan: Looks like a lot of people saw that #meteor over NYC at around 12:40 pm EST today… thought I was going crazy for a bit there…

(Connecticut) @eyetalic: I just saw a meteor flash through the sky a few minutes ago, in broad daylight!!

(Philadelphia) @gerardodm: Just saw the most amazing meteor/falling star ever on plain day light! It had green/orange light burning. Incredible! Happy Valentines!

If you spotted the object drop us a line via. phone – 267-281-4BMN (4266), e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.

This post will be updated when more information is available.