NUFORC Sighting 158250

Occurred: 2020-08-07 23:00 Local
Reported: 2020-08-07 10:38 Pacific
Duration: 4 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Riverview, FL, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Left a trail

Fireball with noticeable tail moving through sky, stops leaving just a dot then disappears.

Last night I was driving with 2 friends along Providence rd. We were driving with the passenger window down when my friend sitting in the passenger seat noticed an orange "fireball" in the sky. I describe it as a fireball because the part that was moving and the tail both had a strong orange tinge.

My friend pointed it out to me and our other friend sitting in the back seat. All 3 of us observed the orange "fireball" moving quickly through the night sky with a noticeable but not very long tail behind it approximately 3-4x longer than the actual object itself. My friend recorded a short video at this point.

We were trying to figure out what it could be when approximately 2-3 minutes later, the "fireball" ceased all motion. As it abruptly stopped, the tail also dissipated leaving it as just an orange dot in the sky. It stayed in the same spot for maybe 30 seconds before disappearing all together. It was like the orange light just turned off. Unfortunately we only got it moving on camera and did not record it stopping and disappearing.

I have lived in this area for over 10 years. Being around 30 miles from the nearest military base, I have seen many, many airplanes and other things throughout my time here but I have never seen an airplane, nor a meteor, or anything that looked or acted remotely like what I saw last night.

Posted 2020-08-20