Fireball over North Idaho

By MARY MALONE

Hagadone News Network

SANDPOINT — The American Meteor Society received more than 250 reports by Tuesday afternoon of a fireball seen over Idaho, Montana, Washington, British Columbia and Alberta Monday night.

The event occurred shortly after 10 p.m. and was seen primarily from British Columbia, according to AMS. Local Facebook posts indicate several people in Sandpoint saw what AMS describes as a fireball headed toward Canada.

"The air quality is the worst I've ever seen it," a Sandpoint man wrote on Facebook Tuesday morning. "The good news is I saw a meteor enter the atmosphere at about 10 p.m. last night. Wish I caught it on video, but not so lucky with that part."

One woman wrote, "I thought it was lightning," while another asked if anyone else in Sandpoint saw something orange, "like maybe a meteor" in the sky.

While many of the Facebook posts allege it landed in North Idaho, AMS estimates the trajectory of the fireball as traveling in a southeast to northwest direction entering the atmosphere near the town of Boswell, terminating near Meadow Creek, British Columbia.

A fireball is defined as a "large bright meteor," and according to AMS, is "brighter than the planet Venus." A meteor is a meteoroid — a small particle from an asteroid or comet orbiting the sun — that is observed as it burns up in the Earth's atmosphere. A meteor becomes a meteorite if it survives passing through Earth's atmosphere and hits the ground.  

Some people reported hearing a "sonic boom" from the fireball, which according to AMS is rare, but it is not from the fireball touching down. If a very bright fireball penetrates the stratosphere and explodes as a bolide — a large meteor that explodes in the atmosphere — there is a chance sonic booms may be heard on the ground below, according to AMS.

Because sound travels quite slowly, at only about 20 km per minute, it can be several minutes after the visual explosion before any sonic boom can be heard. AMS encourages observers who witness such events to listen for a full five minutes after the fireball for potential sonic booms.

Information: amsmeteors.org

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.