NUFORC Sighting 24484

Occurred: 2002-08-15 03:30 Local
Reported: 2002-08-16 01:25 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute

Location: Lake Stevens, WA, USA

Shape: Flash
Characteristics: Left a trail

Huge flash, followed by noise and upward contrail

I work a late shift in which I get home around 3 am. With the hot days I have been watering my lawn by hand when I get home. Around 3:30am I was watering the north part of my lawn. When I was saw a huge flash. The flash was large enough to light up both of my neighbors houses and my house. About 2 to 3 seconds later a heard a noise, like a jet plane hitting its afterburners. I looked up into the direction that the flash and noise came from. I saw what I can only call contrails, but being at night they where lite up. Simalar to what the tail or a star or metorite might leave. The really odd thing was the trail of now disapating light went from the lower star in the Big Dippers ladel to the first star in the handle of the Big Dipper. Which from my angle means that what I saw went up into the atmospher, not down like a star or metorite.

NUFORC Note:

Case has been forwarded to a group of astronomers in the Pacific Northwest who maintain a series of sky cameras. PD

Posted 2002-08-16