Driving home from work, fireball at about tree top level
I saw a fireball coming in for a landing as I was driving home from work around midnite. I was headed southwest on Route 3 and was a half mile south of the Rappahannock River bridge. It travelled at right angles to the road I was on. I would estimate its height as between two of three tree lengths above ground. It was a 5 ft diameter reddish orange sphere coming across my field of vision. I wished there was a place to pull over and that there wasn't oncoming traffic. It is a two lane 55 MPH road.
As it got closer I could see sparks coming off of it. It must have impacted within a minute but I didn't see any smoke from fires - it might have gone in the river. Two unusual things (at least to me): it seemed to move slowly for a meteor and it didn't have a steep downwards trajectory as I might have expected. It travelled mostly horizontally. Instead of steep, I would estimate the angle of decline as 10-20 degrees away from the horizontal. It travelled more like an airplane slowly decreasing altitude for a landing. It did have the appearance of a fireball - perfectly spherical.
I was going to report it here but then opted for American Meteorological Society. I have a long-standing interest (40 years) in UFOs but didn't want to clutter your database with fireballs. I have scientific training but I'm not a particularly observant individual.
((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD))
((NUFORC Note: This sighting report was first posted, in error, with a date for the year of 1935. We have corrected the date above, and repost it, as of March 09, 2014. We apologize for the error. PD))
I saw a fireball coming in for a landing as I was driving home from work around midnite. I was headed southwest on Route 3 and was a half mile south of the Rappahannock River bridge. It travelled at right angles to the road I was on. I would estimate its height as between two of three tree lengths above ground. It was a 5 ft diameter reddish orange sphere coming across my field of vision. I wished there was a place to pull over and that there wasn't oncoming traffic. It is a two lane 55 MPH road.
As it got closer I could see sparks coming off of it. It must have impacted within a minute but I didn't see any smoke from fires - it might have gone in the river. Two unusual things (at least to me): it seemed to move slowly for a meteor and it didn't have a steep downwards trajectory as I might have expected. It travelled mostly horizontally. Instead of steep, I would estimate the angle of decline as 10-20 degrees away from the horizontal. It travelled more like an airplane slowly decreasing altitude for a landing. It did have the appearance of a fireball - perfectly spherical.
I was going to report it here but then opted for American Meteorological Society. I have a long-standing interest (40 years) in UFOs but didn't want to clutter your database with fireballs. I have scientific training but I'm not a particularly observant individual.
((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD))
((NUFORC Note: This sighting report was first posted, in error, with a date for the year of 1935. We have corrected the date above, and repost it, as of March 09, 2014. We apologize for the error. PD))
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Grey's Point in Topping
USA
6 seconds
6 seconds
fireball
VA
Occurred : 1/30/2011 23:45 (Entered as : 013011 23:45) Reported: 6/18/2012 4:28:52 PM 16:28 Posted: 6/20/2012 Location: Grey's Point in Topping, VA Shape: Fireball Duration: 6 seconds
Driving home from work, fireball at about tree top level