NUFORC Sighting 69028

Occurred: 2008-11-13 18:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2009-03-02 12:40 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Oakland, IL, USA

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

large fireball with tail

I was going home from babysitting with my grand children. I have about a 20-30 minutes drive home. It was dark and cold, and the road I was driving on is near a park area. There have been many deer accidents on this road, so I always go cautiously especially after dark. While scanning the empty fields on both sides of the road, I noticed a fireball in the sky to my left. It was very large. Behind the ball of fire, was a tail. I believed it to be a meteorite, but had never seen one so large. A shooting star, it wasn't. I slowed down to about 20-30 miles an hour.

The road was dark, and no other travelers either way. I should have stopped the car, but knew there was no place to pull over. I watched the road and the fireball. The fields on the left had been harvested, so my view was clear. The fireball was going the same direction as I was, perpendicular to the road. I watched it for about 3-5 minutes. The fireball went behind some distant trees, then it was gone. I believed it to crash. There were also 3 blinking "strobe like white lights" ahead of the fireball, which I assumed to be on towers of some kind in the distance. The fireball crashed before these lights. I haven't been able to locate these strobe lights since. I looked for them, knowing they would be my reference point. A few weeks later I saw on the news that Canada had a meteor crash to the ground. From the video that they showed, it looked exactly like what I had seen...except mine was more red and orange. Also in the Canadian video, the ground and sky lit up on impact. My fireball did not make any light when it hit the ground. (assuming it hit the ground) If you have information on a meteor in my area, please let me know.

NUFORC Note:

Source of report indicates that the date of the incident is approximate. PD

Posted 2009-03-19