NUFORC Sighting 18287

Occurred: 2001-07-03 02:10 Local
Reported: 2001-07-03 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 15 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Shape: Fireball


In the wee hours of July 3rd I saw a giant red fireball fall slowly over the north of Puget Sound.

I am an employee of a major hospital in Seattle Washington, and I work the graveyard shift. I was on my break this morning, on the 6th floor of the hospital on Capitol Hill. The lounge on the 6th floor has a commanding view looking westward, toward Puget Sound. The skies were clear, there was no precipitation. I was sitting on a couch in the lounge reading when out of the corner of my eye I saw something big, red and moving. Looking out the window I saw a very large RED FIREBALL descending rather slowly, apparently over the north Sound area. It was quite large, appearing to be nearly half the size of the almost-full moon. It was extremely bright, a glaring reddish-pink in color. It was definitely burning as it fell, not sparkling or hazy, no diminishment in size as it arced downward through the sky. I watched it as it went behind the 3 radio towers located atop Queen Anne hill - I could clearly see the framework of the towers illuminated from behind as the fireball descended behind them. It then fell out of sight behind Queen Anne hill itself. There were no bits of debris of any sort that flew off the fireball as it fell, no ejecta, just a BIG red ball lazily falling through the night sky. I was miles away, and this thing, whatever it was, was huge. Needless to say, I have no idea what it was I saw.



NUFORC Note:

This report may address an apparent emergency flare that was reported by a tugboat, whose crew reported that they thought it was somewhere over Lake Union. King County (Washington State) Search & Rescue performed a search, as did the U. S. Coast Guard. Also, King Co. performed a "first light" search at dawn. Our gratitude to the U. S. Coast Guard Search & Rescue Unit, Seattle, for making this information available to NUFORC. PD


Posted 2001-08-05

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