Fireball lights up the Lowcountry Wednesday night
People across North and South Carolina reported seeing a fireball shoot across the sky shortly before 9pm Wednesday night.
In West Columbia, LP declared it “One of the coolest things I've ever seen!” on the American Meteor Society website.
At least five people in Beaufort County reported the fireball to the AMS website, including three on Hilton Head Island and two just outside of Beaufort.
In Beaufort, Lou C. wrote he was getting ice cream, and “seven people saw the same thing.”
Joseph L. also reported seeing the fireball in Beaufort.
“There was a trail of red/orange trailing the light until it disappeared,” he said. “Also, I am used to seeing planes fly above and this object was nothing I can think of.”
Three more reports were made in the Savannah area. Al J. reported this was the second fireball he’s ever seen.
“First was about 48 years ago,” he said. “That one was much, much larger a lit up the night sky and everything around.”
Just south of Savannah, Kevin S. reported he’d never seen anything like it.
“I thought it was a missile,” he said.
In Chapin, Nick S. reported he and his wife saw it as they were outside looking at Jupiter.
“The fireball looked like a sparkerler streaking across the sky with a glowing tail. It was traveling south east directly over my house it appeared. My wife and I saw it as we were out viewing Jupiter in the sky and happen to catch this amazing sight.”
It was captured on this NestCam in North Carolina.
Caught meteor on Nest Cam this evening @wxbrad pic.twitter.com/M89yESw590
— Earl Ayers (@AyersEarl) April 13, 2017
Meteorologist Ed Petrowski in Myrtle Beach plotted the signtings on his twitter feed.
Plenty of reports of the fireball that streaked across the sky earlier this evening. #scwx #ncwx #gawx pic.twitter.com/Lon41p4pvW
— Ed Piotrowski (@EdPiotrowski) April 13, 2017
Reports on the AMS website describe a bright fireball with trailing orange/red light that was visible between 3 seconds and 45 seconds. Some reports had the fireball moving from left to right, others from right to left.
Willie A. in Charlotte, NC wrote: “I thought it was a low flying plane before I saw the tail. It did not burn out but sailed across the entire visible sky until I lost it in the tree canopy.”
AC in York, SC said “It was awesome to see! A huge ball of fast moving fire, my husband said it could be a missile. We grabbed devices and started searching news sites for meteors & missiles over York SC!”
As of 10:00 a.m. Thursday morning, 190 people had reported seeing this fireball to the American Meteor Society website.
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This story was originally published April 13, 2017 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Fireball lights up the Lowcountry Wednesday night."