[meteorite-list] Probable electrical short; was, "fireball in the sky (fwd)"

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:13:09 2004
Message-ID: <20030424074558.74970.qmail_at_web80502.mail.yahoo.com>

--------------- Forward Message ---------------
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 09:31:00 +0200 (CEST)
From: RainerArlt <rarlt_at_aip.de>
Subject: (meteorobs) fireball in the sky (fwd)

Hi folks,

I received this message of an apparent fireball. Since
I forward this without permission of the sender, I
erased personal information.
Please let me know if someone knows more about the
event. The description gets specially weird at the
end...

Best wishes,
Rainer

- ------------------------
To whom it may concern,

I was asked by my parents to inquire as to what may
have happened on the 16 of April 2003 in Drumheller,
Alberta. What took place on that morning was indeed
strange, in fact the strangest thing that they have
ever witnessed in their married lives. At approx 6:45
AM my mom saw the oddest thing happen.

My parents are early risers, they had gotten up at
around 5:30 AM that morning, and after their ritual of
making and consuming several cups of coffee, they were
ready for the day. My dad headed for his workshop in
the backyard, to split some firewood for their wood
stove. My mom was doing a few dishes and generally
putting around in the kitchen. She had decided to put
on a couple of eggs to boil and hollered out the back
door and asked if my dad was going to join her for
some breakfast. His reply was not right at the moment.


Mom had returned to the stove, when something caught
her attention at the window in the kitchen. There was
a fire right outside the window!!

She immediatley went to the back-door and asked dad if
he was burning something in the backyard. He said, no.

When mom got back into the house and looked again
outside through the window, she had to turn away as
the light from this burning ember was so bright it
hurt her eyes. She said it was like glancing at
someone welding. She watched this thing burn and smoke
away until it had disipated into an object no bigger
than a dime. My dad at this time had come from the
garage with their big Golden Retriever and asked what
the hell was going on. Tha dog apparently had heard or
smelled something, because he was shaking and cowling
like he had been terribly frightened.

My dad asked again what was going on, my mom had
filled him in on what she had just witnessed. They
both continued to look at this smoldering object in
the side of their back yard, wondering where this
thing had come from.

After about 2 hours they both went outside to
investigate further. Where this object had landed, was
on a portion of the yard my dad was trying to rake up,
but it still had a little ice and was extremely wet,
so it made it impossible to rake up. Not now, this
spot was burnt and all the leaves around it were
charred and the soil was bone dry. The heat must have
been horrific.

What they found was an object no bigger than a dime.
It was smooth on one side and rather bumpy on the
other. On the bumpy side, it shone like diamonds in
the sun!!
They scooped it up and put it into a glass jar and now
have it on their kitchen table as a conversation
piece. Indeed what a conversation piece.
- ----------------



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Received on Thu 24 Apr 2003 03:45:58 AM PDT