NUFORC Sighting 50387

Occurred: 1998-07-15 01:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2006-05-02 12:17 Pacific
Duration: 1-2 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Albuquerque, NM, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Lights on object

Green Fireball Sighted Near Albuquerque Moving Directly Up From the Ground

Around July of 1998 my wife and I were driving from Bernalillo, a little suburb of Albuquerque on the way home from work. We had one car at the time, so she was picking me up, although I was driving. On the way we were enjoying the cool air with the windows down. The interstate we were on was essentially empty, only a few cars going by at that time of night ( this was about 1:30 in the morning). As we were driving she was looking out the window, and said “What the (expletive) is that?” When she said that, I looked out the passenger side window also. Because the road was so empty, I slowed the car down considerably so I could see what she was looking at.

Coming directly up from the ground was a ball of green light. It looked somewhat like a roman candle, but this was far too big to be anything like that. It flew straight from a spot we could not see near the ground, straight up in the air before vanishing. It was very large and moving extremely fast. We were maybe 1000 to 1500 yards from it. The only thing in the vicinity is pueblo tribal land with some small livestock. Our first thought was, “shooting star”, except that it was an intensely bright green, and obviously meteors don’t move upwards from the ground.

We both saw it very clearly, and it never changed colors or faded. It simply went up and disappeared, without ever making a sound. Since then, we recently saw another object just like this. This one was a little over a week ago now (4/23/06), and was moving downwards this time. However this time it went through a color change from dull yellow to bright green, then disappeared before it touched the ground. Between us we have seen a number of objects over the years, but this one was very odd. I have never seen anything this intensely green or bright before. I wanted to submit this report because these “green light” objects don’t seem too common, and it was a bit unnerving.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the incident is approximate. PD

Posted 2006-05-15