2013-07-04 - Cheektowaga, NY - Fireball

Many Red/Orange balls over Cheektowaga, NY during 4th of July fireworks.

Date: Thursday, July 4, 2013 Time: 9:40pm – 10:40pm General Location: Cheektowaga, New York Specific Location: Mt. Cavalry Cemetery Mausoleum. Corner of Wherle Dr. and Genesee St.

Reason for being there: I was watching the fireworks show from the Cheektowaga town park. I chose that location because I wanted to view the show with a much smaller crowd around.

My observations: What drew my attention to it was that it was not behaving like an aircraft, and was clearly too high to be a helicopter. Due to the proximity of the buffalo Niagara International airport, I am quite familiar with the flight patterns of aircraft and helicopters. I make my assumption of its altitude because it was clearly above any clouds overhead. In addition, it produced no noise, and no strobe lights and no navigation lights where visible. At the start of their cycle, they where small.

By the time they where overhead, they appeared as a faintly orange ball. By the end of their path, they where large and darker than the midnight blue sky.

I was not the only person to observe these lights. At least 8 or more people saw them too. There was no wind.

Sequence of events: Roughly at about the same time as the show started, I observed a red light followed by an orange light. It first appeared to be coming from the Southwest, slowly traveled with a gentle wavering, passed directly overhead, and continued Northeast.

About 4-5 minutes after it moved out of sight, another one appeared from the same location and slowly made its way to the same destination.

Roughly around the middle of the firework show two of them traveled overhead, and merged close together, then apart, but still held the same course.

These “fly over’s” continued through the firework show. I do not know when they stopped, as I left the area after the firework “grand finale”.