[meteorite-list] northern Louisiana fireball

From: GT40dawg_at_aol.com <GT40dawg_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Jul 8 10:23:38 2004
Message-ID: <4BE1FD2E.0055FDB7.006BD76A_at_aol.com>

Thought some of you may be interested in this:

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL070804labrightlight.2d9ca193b.html


North La. callers report seeing bright light in the sky
07:30 AM CDT on Thursday, July 8, 2004
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SHREVEPORT - More than a dozen people reported seeing a bright light in the sky Wednesday night and bombarded the National Weather Service in Shreveport with calls.
"We really don't know what it was," said Mike Berry, a meteorologist with the service. "We can say it was not weather related. We're trying to confirm it was not a part of an aircraft. We are just about confident it was not an aircraft."
Berry, who said he fielded about 20 calls from people asking about the mysterious light, said meteorologists were watching radar focusing on storms in northern Texas around the time of the incident and did not see anything out of the ordinary.
"We don't know what it was. The running theories right now are meteors or space debris," Berry said.
A meteor or space debris would not be uncommon, said Monroe-based astronomer Stephen Bailey.
"The Earth gets hit all the time," he said. "On rooftops, just around here, you can find a large amount of meteor dust just about anytime of the year."
Bailey said he was outside, struggling to see Venus, and missed the event.
The Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office reported around five calls and forwarded them to the weather office.
Meteorologists in Shreveport concluded the object would have been pretty high in the atmosphere, judging from the location of callers.
"We have gotten calls as far north as Little Rock and as far south as Lufkin, Texas, and then over to Monroe," Berry said.
Lydia Ellett said she saw the object while driving to Sicily Island from Ferriday.
"This thing was big," she said. "It was a huge greenish light; it seemed so close. It was not like a shooting star that is gone as soon as you blink. It was slow-falling."



Cheers,

Randy in N.O.
Received on Thu 08 Jul 2004 10:23:33 AM PDT