Updated: Mon Dec. 01 2008 07:26:15

CTV News Staff

The fireball that blazed across the Prairie sky Thursday evening was likely a meteor travelling at an incredible velocity, according to one expert.

Hundreds of residents of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba reported seeing the bright light, which was also captured on security cameras.

The stunning images show the sky light up as a bright point of light blazes into view, then disappears over the horizon.

Brent Skagen was driving outside of Westaskiwin when he saw the flash of light and smelled sulphur.

He said it was too dark to see anything then, but when he went back outside Friday morning, he found a long strip of burned ground.

"I was down over there... when this thing came down," he said. "It just lit everything up. The highway turned white, it was so bright."

The sight has not been confirmed as one of the landing locations for debris.

Paul Delaney, an astronomer from York University, said the object was a meteor that was "cruising through the upper atmosphere, giving us a wonderful lightshow, telling us of course that you should always be outside looking up."

He said the meteor may have disintegrated prior to reaching the ground. But if it is found, it could offer a fascinating look into the history of the solar system.

"It's a wonderful laboratory," he said.

"This is a piece of our past. You're talking about an object that potentially is four-and-a-half billion years old, telling us all about the local environment in our solar system as the solar system was forming.

Even more fascinating, he said, is if the meteor turns out to be a piece of another planet, such as Mars.

"Meteors get blasted off the surfaces of old planets in our solar system, terrestrial planets, and they come to Earth," he said.

Randy Atwood, a space educator, said the meteor was probably no bigger than a grapefruit, and may have broken into small pieces before hitting the ground, or it may have burned up entirely before touching down.

He agreed there may not be much of it left, saying it was travelling at incredible speeds when it was spotted.

"There's a very good chance it was what we call a bolide, which is a meteorite crossing the sky at extremely quick velocity -- very, very fast -- and as it hits the atmosphere at about 400,000 feet, travelling at about 60 kilometres per second, this is the incredible light show that it creates," said Atwood.

Astronomers and universities across Western Canada have cameras recording activity in the sky, Atwood said. If the meteor was captured by more than one of the cameras, it may be possible over the next couple of days to triangulate exactly where it touched down -- if it did.

Phone lines at CTV began to light up just minutes after the event, with residents seeking more information on what happened.

Dan Charrois, who lives about 50 kilometres north of Edmonton, said security cameras set up at his home managed to capture some grainy footage showing a big flare in the night sky.

"It happened so fast I don't think anyone would have had the reaction time to get it," he said, adding that his computer software business has written programs that track meteors.

Though Charrois didn't see the fireball himself, he decided to check the security tapes after his friends and neighbours called him to find out where the light may have came from.

"I only had to rewind a couple of minutes and it was there," he said, noting the security time stamped the flash at 5:26 p.m. local time.

"You kind of see a flash, which lasts about two seconds or so," he said.

CTV Calgary has also received several calls about the fireball, and one witness said it was so bright that it was visible from the Deerfoot freeway in the city's core.

Other witnesses in Lloydminster said the light was so strong that it appeared to be daylight when it passed over the area.

And locals at the Red Pheasant First Nation, 100 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, said the walls of their band office shook when the fireball streaked overhead.

Comments are now closed for this story

Matt Holland
Driving beside the school on Winterburn Road (215st) the light was seen to the ENE direction.

Vince Martin
I saw a flash from my basement window in Red Deer and thought it was lightning. Unfortunately it was only a flash and my line of sight is limited from the basement, soI can't say it is related to this story or not, but the timimg is right.

michael Chesworth
Saw landing of fireball in the west end of edmonton, north of yellowhead highway and south of 137 avenue between 170 street and 184 street at 5:30. Sorry I never had my video camera.
Michael

kylee dziwenko
i saw it it was hedding south eastern i live in lamont it seemed to have hedding towards the schools

Jessica
wtf was that?!?!
Optimus Prime?!!?!

Alex
I saw that huge ball in the sky. It caught my attention because the whole sky became illuminated. I've seen a lot of meteorites in my life but never as huge as this one. This fireball was followed by a large orange tail. At some point I thought it could of been a plane on fire but it was going down too fast to be it in my opinion. It really gave me goose bump that's for sure!

Jennifer Benson
On the South edge of Lacombe, I a very large 'shooting star' to the East. Orangey color, brighter as it fell, then suddenly black. I also had to look at the road so I didn't drive into anything. I thought it was the fellows in the auto wrecker's yard playing with a flare gun? My husband thought I was nuts, but who has the last laugh now? Love your CTV news... remember Valerie Ozkowski(? sorry!) from days in Red Deer.

Bonnie
I saw it out my east window-probably on its last part of the fall. I live in garneau- so if people are looking for it I think it landed south east sherwood park area or beyond

linda
this is also reported as far as 1 hour east of saskatoon

Jason
Man i cant believe i missed it, think it will come my way? i live south of camrose

Lucille Smalley
I was at Canadian Tire on 178st and 100 ave in the Westend when the sky lit up a huge yellow/orange fireball with a tail came from northwest and went across the sky to the southeast quadrant of Edmonton. Just before it looked like it may have landed it seemed to explode or difuse itself in a green/white mass of light. Awesome to see...not a falling star...that's for sure.

Yan
I saw the ball of light flashing down the sky out of no wher from my neighbourhood in South Brooks.

Lori Trudgeon
I saw this fireball too. I was driving east bound on 167th Avenue around 5:35 p.m. It was so big and bright that I felt a surge of panic as I watched it fall. Then in a bright flash it disappeared at what seemed like just above the ground. I felt like something must have landed in the Ozerna neighbourhood. Pretty amazing!

Kate
Saw this in Cold Lake North at around 5:30, lit up the whole sky and my apartment!

Brice Laidler
I saw what looked like a asteroid crash or a explosion. I live on 135Av and 137st it looked like it landed east of were i live, towards 127st and 132av approx.

Brice Laidler
I saw what looked like a asteroid crash or a explosion. I live on 135Av and 137st it looked like it landed east of were i live, towards 127st and 132av approx.

Brayden Vetter
Hi. I just seen your fireball story on the 6:00 news and would like to report a sighting of it.
I live in west central Saskatchwan by a village called Denzil..

Allison
My sister and friend saw it from the 9th floor of a highrise downtown. My sister saw orange flame/light and then bright white as it flared down to the east. She thought it was well past Refinery Row and maybe as far as Saskatchewan. She thinks it was a comet.

Martina Brewer
I was driving home from work on Baseline road in Sherwood Park and all of a sudden the sky lit up and I saw a ball of orange light/flames with a long tail fall diagonally through the sky. If something hit the ground, it may have been south east of Sherwood Park.

Al Lechelt
Yeah I was driving home and the sky started to light up over me. I honestly thought it was gonna land about a mile infront of me the way this burning thing came over my car. I feared it was wreckage of something so I watched for something glowing in the field for the next mile but I didn't see anything. Do I go back and look?

Louise
Seen travelling close to the ground heading Southeast of Morinville.

Donna Grant
I think that I saw the meteor - I was just coming home from work at about 5:25- travelling south from Armena and then east to Camrose. Just as I turned the corner of Hwy 13 and Hwy 21 - the sky lit up - I thought it was a flare!

tashya Dreveski
My brother and I were driving east on Graminia road coming up to the stop sign of Fleming Road. Looked up saw this big ball of blue and then it all of a sudden changed orange.

Ian
I saw something that looked like a big signal flare come out of the north sky. It appeared to land in the Quarry Ridge Golf Course that is under construction . 167 Ave 3st NE Edmonton

E Marshall
I was just listening to the radio and someone in Saskatchewan has seen it, so if it was heading east I’m guessing it didn't land in Edmonton. I also saw it as was driving home on 34th street just north of the Whitemud and would have sworn that it landed just east of the city, but I must have been wrong.

Kirsten J
I was travelling east of Sherwood Park to Range Road 220 and I saw the fireball light up the sky in front of me. It was travelling in a South direction. It looked like it landed but obviously it didnt if it was spotted south of Lamont. It must have been massive.

Judy Topolnsiki
We were in the tv room watching tv when my husband spotted the flash of light which lit up the room while I, from my vantage point in my chair, actually saw the flash and a stream of some sort drop down north east of Smiths Crossing....waited to see if it would ignite any trees, but no repercussions.

Quite spectacular from our fourth floor view facing east. Something I had never seen before. My thought was that it could be a meteorite or comet, but I'm not well versed on those matters.

Tonya Davison
I just finish walking off the LRT at the clearview station and saw a bright blue purple color in the sky (explosion type color) at first I thought a transformer blew in that area but power was on everywhere.

Jenny
I am in Lac La Biche and we saw what looked like a huge flash and lighting of the sky at 5:28 - it was amazing and scary at the same time. WOW I wish I had my video camerea!!!

Geoff Turnquist
I live a half hour south of Peace River and saw this fireball...what a sight... ESE was the direction in which we viewed this magnum meteorite object...Hope no one was hurt

Christa
It looked like a flare was shot just outside of Nabors drilling in Nisku. It was so close and seemed to be right in front of me heading east to Beaumont.

Loren Bilinski
I was in Red Deer and about 5:25ish I saw a flash of lightning, or so I thought, it was to the north, then about 5 min's later I saw a huge flash of light which lit up the entire east and more, I thought it was a lightning flash again. Thanks to CTV I now know it was something else.

Jay Ott
Could not believe the sheer light that came from this event. My exact words (having no idea what it could have been, transmission lines blowing, plane crash etc...) "wtf was that?".

Odd though, it seemed as though air traffic had some kind of warning as the patterns at Municipal were jammed...airplane lights everywhere at the time.

Karen
Around 5:28 p.m. I was driving home from Lac La Biche, AB to Boyne Lake and near the Grandin Cemetary I witnessed the area light up with a blue light, it looked like daylight and a fireball appeared falling straight down disappearing in the trees not far from my vehicle. The whole area lit up like daylight before I saw the fireball.

kari
My husband saw it at approx. 6:25pm shooting through the clouds heading towards the ground west of Grande Prairie.

Jeff Janzen
I was heading south on highway 2 between Edmonton and Leduc and saw a huge flaming ball pretty much due east. Initially I thought an engine from an Air Canada plane on approach to the International Airport had burst into flames and fallen off!!

Raymond Lee
saw it at 68st and 144ave while waiting for the bus. Was a nice sight to see.

Roxane Bretzlaff
Roxane Bretzlaff
I live in Bonnyville, AB and the meteor look to burnout before getting to the ground from my vantage point a couple miles south of Bonnyville.

Jen
On hwy 12 heading east just past lacombe saw it heading towards Clive looked much closer to the ground then it apperently was. pretty insane!

Betty Kucher
I live near Vilna Ab. Saw the large bright light in the SSW sky. It was very big, very bright and vey fast. Like sheet lightening

Eleanor
I was glancing out our kitchen window at 5:25 in Millwoods and saw a big greenish coloured ball with a yellow tail falling out of the sky. It looked like it would land around Millwood's Town Centre...reminded me of a piece off HUGE fireworks when they blow up and whistle down to the ground! No time for a camera..Wow!!

Bev Quinney
I saw it. Amazing!!!
It looked like it land on the East side of Edmonton.

kari
oops!! It was approx 5:25pm that my husband saw it 35 km west of Grande Prairie.

Wayne Krechuniak
Mr. Wayne Krechuniak and family were walking the dog in an alley in Barrhead and the alley was lit up by a bright light. We looked east out of town and saw a thick red trail, that appeared to be no more than a mile distant.

Nicole
I was in Fort Saskatchewan when I saw it, it looked like it came from the southeast. I thought it was lighting that just lit up the whole sky. Kinda spooked me, I thought maybe I was seeing things until I heard a caller on the the Bear talking about a few minutes later.

gail
i saw a flash in our kitchen window and thought the bar b q was on fire,my husband laughed and said it's probably a meteor..ha ha..on him ..as it was..we live 18 miles from sask border near provost

Rosa
I live in Sherwood Park - SE corner (close to Wye Road)- I was saying goodbye to my hubby and noticed a bright ball of fire falling from the sky. Then it seemed to 'fizzle' out. I thought that I was seeing things. I can only hope that the wish I made comes true.

Jenny, Spruce Grove
I saw it Spruce Grove, I thought that it was an explosion the way it lit up the sky. When I turned and looked in the direction of it I just caught a glimpse of it. I seriously thought it was an airplane blowing up in the air!!! I would love to see some video footage of it.

Mack Lewis
I was standing outside and everything around me lit up, almost as it were a flare. I've never seen anything so awing in my life.

Matthew Melnyk
I was sitting my family room eating supper and I kinda glanced out the east window only to see this green ball streaking down from the sky with a gold tail (the gold tail is the metal that was sheared off during the meteor/meteorite's decent.) After about a second the green light exploded in to this white light that was at least 5-6 times brighter than the full moon. Then it turned a really dark orange, then I lost sight of it behind some houses. I could have sworn I heard a bit of a sound like thunder when it came down, but I'm not sure. I live in Clareview which is north east of edmonton, not to far from Sherwood Park. The meteor/meteorite was spotted east, north east of my house. I really thought it was coming in my direction because of bright it got, it lit up the whole sky and my backyard! Amazing!!!

Cheryl
I didn't seen it but I am positive it was our economy crashing down!

Dan
I'm located in the heart of downtown near the City Center Aiport...the ball of fire was directly east of downtown...first thought it was a plane going down but then noticed it was going straight down...and yes the night sky can play tricks on you however when a ball of fire that big is just over the horizon it hit somewhere close...I've watched alot of meteor showers and this one by far was the brightest and the biggest I have ever seen...can't wait to find out what it was and where it hit...

Don & Brenda
We saw this in LLoydminster. I was talking to my husband on the phone and the whole sky lit up. He was just getting in our car and saw the bright ball going southward across the sky. He said it then dissapated like fireworks would and then he saw a trail of smoke.

marci
I saw it south west of Alberta Beach and a friend saw it east of Edson.

bader
all i saw was i giant flash of white... the whole sky was white it was like day out i could see everything

Chris Bell
Meteor was sighted in Saskatoon, Sk at 6:27pm to the North and East of the city. Sustained light for 3 seconds. Decent orange tail with blue/green hue to the actual object.

Randy Albrecht
My husband was coming home from work at approx 5:30 going west on Hwy 15 through the town of Fort Sask. where he saw the fireball light up the sky and when it hit he saw sparks flying south of Ft Sask.

Adam
I was south on Goldenspike Rd in Spruce Grove 1km north of 79ave, As it entered the atmosphere, it had a bright orange tail that went a bright white with green blue colors on the outside and then it exploded and lit the sky up a bright green. I also saw little orange balls fly off, like hot coals. I was on high ground and it exlpoded above a radio tower far off to the east in line with south sherwood park. Gave me goose bumps.

John
I was heading East on the Henday at Cameron Heights looking when I saw it. It was a distinct ball of very bright light with a very intense tail. It then appeared to break up into several pieces before it burned out. It was eerily similar to the video footage of the space shuttle when it broke up on re-entry. Perhaps it was a satellite? It was very large compared to any other meteorites I have seen. Wickedly cool in a very humbling sort of way!

bilal
omg wtf was that an alien or metroid prime? my dad thought my sis was crazy but omg peace lol

Donna Coombs
fireball was seen by myself out my kitchen window shortly after 530 It was due east of Camrose hard to tell how far but very very bright light with tail and pieces burning off it ....I was worried it was a small plane coming down off the east of Camrose

Andrew B. Carlson
I was driving just east of Viking on hwy-14. The asteroid came down northest of Viking somehwhere. It came straight down towards the ground. It lit up the sky like a nuclear bomb! I almost crashed my car it was so huge!I had seen a small one a couple minutes before just south of hwy-14. As far as I could tell it didn't make it to the ground. Maybe a mile above or less.

Michelle Ginther
We live in a town called Dalmeny in Saskatchewan which is 15 minutes NW of Saskatoon and it looks like it landed in a field close to my house. Had to have been a different one though. Big as a helicopter!

colin
My brother said he just saw a huge flash, like a lightening flash, near the High Prairie area. he thought it might be just north of the lesser slave lake area?

James
We saw the flash of light driving down the highway. I grabbed my binoculers and looked i thought i read N.A.S.A on the side i think its the missing tool bag from the space station

Laura Aberg
I saw it as I was driving East on 112 Ave. It looked as though it landed in the Football Coliseum. My Mom lives in Riverbend and she saw it go down out of her East window.

It was bright, streaking, yellow, orange, and green. Wow!!

Armin Tanzarian
I was driving home on the south edge of Edmonton right beside highway 2 when a HUGE fireball of light in front of me lit up the entire night sky and appeared to be falling rapidly while changing colors, the light was so bright it was like looking at something as bright as the sun

Donna
I was driving on the QE2 (heading north) when I saw a ball of fire fall from the sky but it was really close to the ground. I did not see it actually land (trees in the distance) The sighting was relatively close to the QE2. I would say it was approximately 2 miles East of the QE2 and just south of Leduc. I initially thought it was a plane crashing.

Janelle
I saw it around 5:30 here in Lloydminster.
I was walking my dog. Quite a few people asked me about it as they drove by.
My Grandpa in Bonnyville AB also saw it.

Gordon McAndrew
I was walking about 1/2 mile south of highway 16 on RR164 and saw the object coming down south south east of me. I was coming down east to west and about 15 to 20 degrees from verticle. I appeared to get low enough that it might have hit the ground. I guess it wasn't very close because I didn't hear a sound from it.

Ruru
I saw it and was shocked by the sight didn't really know what was happening
sitting living room in nw edmonton something lit the sky and caught my attention.
Every one around me thought i was crazy
but in the end i was the one that saw it, not them.

Don F.
I was driving back from work on the Cold Lake Air Weapons range and saw the fire ball to the east of me. From where I was it seemed to come down completely vertically. For about 2 seconds it was completely day light again!

Joan Gregorwich
I live on a farm 40 km southeast of Camrose. I saw the ball, huge, bright as a full moon with heavy trail. Probably the size of a large boulder, resembled a full moon falling to the ground. The fire show behind it was similar to fireworks. Seriously thought it landed in our field! Came from the east, dropped to the south. Awesome sight in a black sky. It actually illuminated my livingroom for about 30 seconds and in the first second of seeing the light, I thought there was a vehicle driving in the field!!

Real
I actually just heard on the radio, they were talking to some meteo station or something, and they were saying it might actually have been more than just one chunk falling from the sky. Heard it on 96,3 in Edmonton

Lindsay
I seen the large orange fireball driving into Peace River tonight, looked quite far away though.....

Kelsey
We saw this just north of Lloydminster. It lasted about 2-4 seconds. Shortly after there was a loud rumbling in the sky and a trail of smoke. It was absolutely amazing!

Russell Ziegler
I saw this while driving home around Range Road 220, just East of Ardrossan on Baseline road. I saw a very bright blue light in the sky (with no tail, oddly enough), which produced an extremely bright blueish green flash just as it passed beyond my line of sight of the tree line.

Truly an epic moment in my life, very honored to have seen it!

Pablo Herrera
I saw a fire ball coming down to earth at 5:25 pm ( I saw the time in the clock of my car just after the incident). I was driving on Anthony Henday to the South. I had passed Yellowhead Trail drive when suddenly the sky went very bright to my left. When I turned my head, towards east of my position, I could see a fire ball coming down to the city, disappearing in probably 2 seconds leaving behind a trail of light for probably 2 more seconds like the one left by a rocket from NASA. Its the best that I can describe from what I saw. The movement was very fast and this fireball was falling or moving almost in a vertical direction. It disappeared behind the trees that were at the location from where I was driving.
It was amazing. Something spectacular. I thought it was a meteor and I thought it would fall some where in the northwest of Edmonton. I started to look for a radio station to listen if somebody had more news.
I'm highly interested to know what really that was. I can only say/ WOW!!!

Chelsey
I was sitting in the living room in my house Just East of Holden Ab. I saw a bright white light that lit everything up. My dad was looking out the kitchen window at the time and saw the whole sky light up. There was also a huge fire ball straight East of out house at about 5:27.

Jessie Fiddler
We are West of Slave Lake,20km and we saw the brightest lime green streak of light falling out of the sky.It followed a orange ball.It was as long as the Calgary tower or bigger.It looked 2 miles away.But we know it was futher.

Barry St. Jean
I was driving south bound on highway 63 leaving Wandering River and at 5:27 pm I seen a green ball with a long tail then lit up the sky, field and highway it changed colour from orange to yellow then hit the ground!!!!! This occured on the east side of highway 63.

Jessika
I live in Whitecourt and my friend was driving ten minutes out of town and said they saw a huge flas going down and it was green turning to a yellowy-red colour. Im excited!! Ahh!! :)

Derek
My wife an I saw it, we live in gibbons.

Joel L'Abbe
My sister was coming home from the u of a on wye road in sherwood park and said the sky right in front of her lit up. drove out to wye and highway 21 and there was nothing, drove around the area and there was still nothing so unless it landed in a huge field (which it could have easily done) it might be alot farther out

Shayl
I was working on my homework when i saw a flash what looked like lightening. For a second i thought i was on something. So I watched the news. Turns out its true.

LDK
Saw the whole meteor (?) at approx. 5:25pm while sitting at a stop light facing NE in St. Albert. It started out as a bright white ball high in the northern sky that fell in an arc toward the southeast. As it fell, it went from bright white to a brilliant blue-green then flared orange with a tail of light and smoke as it entered the atmosphere.... then it disappeared below the horizon. Took about 3-4 seconds... slower, bigger and brighter than any other meteor I have ever seen...

Benn
We live 20 minutes WSW of Saskatoon. My son saw a large bright light that really scared him. He thought it was a plane crashing. He was very excited to say the least.

Todd MacKenzie Athabasca
I saw something like this close to house river between wandering river and Mariana lakes. The object appeared to be shooting straight downward and crashed in the brush to the east of Highway 63.

Lori
We saw it out our window in Gibbons, also!!

Cori Clark
My kids and I saw this from St. Albert, to the South East over downtown Edmonton (or in that direction, anyway...) the kids both shrieked and pointed. It was very interesting. Orange fire, with a tail. The whole sky got very golden and orange for a minute.

paul
i saw it from my shop in sherwood park. it was just like a big fireball.

Jeff Kuefler
I was heading east on highway 37 between st. albert and fort saskatchewan just north of edmonton. It appeared almost in front of me to the south. It looks like it landed on sherwood park. It was the most amazing thing i ever saw!

Robin
I witnessed the meteorite as it landed. I saw it going down and saw it land. It happened at 5:30 pm. I was travelling on highway 2A, just south of Leduc, near Kavanah. I saw an almost vertical streak of light, followed by a tear shaped fireball, which phased itself out just above the horizon and it all disappeared right at the horizon.

chuck swanson
I seen the meteor straight north of Provost

Warne Noyce
I live 13 miles north of Lloydminster just inside the SK border! My daughter and I saw the flash in the yard just like someone had driven in and spun around and then drove out! For a minute we thought someone was in our yard! after 30 sec to a min or so We went outside to look for a vehicle.
Straight above us was a smoke or vapour trail leading from the north to the south!
It was definitly big and travelling extremely fast at a high altitude!
It'll be interesting to see where it landed if there is anything left by then⁄

marilyn Conner
Marilyn of Edmonton

At 5:24 pm I was driving north on highway 2A in Millet, AB. The sky lit up white and then I saw a huge mass of fire falling quickly to what appeared to be just east of Millet.

fcb
While sitting in our living room,looking east at 6:28 PM +or- the entire eastern sky lit up. Like blue lighting, I didn't see the fire ball so am speculating it burned up east of here - Cut Knife, Sask. I heard what I thought was a truck rumbling up the road soon after. It made me think it was a lighting storm, but unlikey at this temp.

Thomas Kyplain Jr
6:30 pm Ile-a-la-crosse, Saskatchewan. My mom was sitting downstairs when see noticed a big ball of fire, with a long tail. Was going too fast to make out what it was. Spotted heading SouthWest.

Janine
We were driving on our way to 170th street edmonton, when the light lit up and I thought it was lightning then we saw the ball and the tail. It was amazing and my heart skipped a beat of the excitement.

Jim
I live in an apartment in downtown Edmonton. From My 8th floor east facing living room window I saw at around 5:50pm the sky turn very bright with a greenish glow and then a fireball appeared with a flaming trail heading south east. It appeared to burn out well above the ground.

Vanessa
Saw this in Meadow Lake Sask as well

Deanna Cooney
I was travelling East on Sherwood Park Freeway when it lit up the sky. It looked like it landed in Sherwood park, or just east of it. Everyone hit the brakes, but it was gone so quickly.

Craig
I was driving east on 98 ave and about 95 st and saw a bright light coming down from the sky. It would have been about 50 to 100 yards from where I was driving and definitely would have hit the ground in the cloverdale neighbourhood. When it was about 50 feet from the ground it lit up in colors of green yellow and blue

Arlene
I was coming home from work at 5:30 and saw iton 23rd Ave and Millwoods Rd S in Edmonton....it appeared to be 1/2 a block away...and disappeared behind some houses...it was big & bright and had a long white tail.

jljkehewin
facebook was all lit up too with reports as far as saskatoon to kehewin all the way to BC and as far north as ft.Chip and as far south as the border, what is going on here...its either a msg from above LOL or somthing thats covered up, one onliner said it was one of those frozen meteors like on joe dirt....

shawn
my sister lives half an hour northeast of regina and she saw it land in the field and burst into flames and there was fire everywhere

Jan P. Morton, Edmonton
Hunting party near Lac la Biche located at N54 40.364 W 111 14.848' Sighted fireball trail (approx. 30 degrees above the horizon) travelling between points bearing 120 to 165 degrees from observation point above tree tops. Fell below horizon when it reached bearing 170 degrees from observer position. It was bright green with a visible tail and burnt out 11 to 12 degrees above the local horizon. There was a noise similar to a distant jet.
Who collects such meteorite data here in Edmonton?

Carter
Driving home north on Hwy 2a 5 miles south of Carstairs in the direction of N.N.E we saw the meteorite - stream of orange and then a big flash! Amazing!

Jeremy Nelson
I saw it plain as day. I was in the Cineplex Odeon Parking lot on 137th and St. Albert Trail (Edmonton). And it was clear as day and looks to have hit in north end behind the theater. It was so amazing and huge and looked so close to us. But who knows where or if it hit.

Geoff Falconar
I was driving due East on 20 Ave about to turn left onto 94 St. Directly in front of me, almost perfectly centered in my windshield I saw the large, brilliant orange ball with bright blue tail behind it coming down nearly vertically. At first I thought it was a flare or large firework coming down. Then I realized it was way too big and bright. But imagine a bright flare, pure white in the centre with bright orange ball around it, surrounded by electric blue with a long, bright blue streak, but WAY bigger - and that's it! As it came down, a couple times it flashed, lighting up the sky. When I saw clouds around it light up for what appeared to be a couple km radius, that's when I could get some estimate of scale of this thing. I have no idea, but my best guess would be 5 - 20 meters in diameter. From where I was, it looked like it was headed to the south-east quadrant of Millwoods, but when I hear people from hundreds of kms away seeing, I realize it could be anywhere. the whole event lasted about 3 seconds at most. I've never seen anything go down that fast. I noticed there were several aircraft in the vicinity, most headed south toward the international airport. Some were over in the vicinity of what appeared to be the meteorite. About an hour later, I notices many airplanes flying around, lots more than usual. I guess every pilot that saw it went up for a look-see. It was completely unlike anything I have ever seen and I was amazed at how good and clear of a view I got of it.

Bridget Fanta
I live in Wetaskiwn, and I saw this bright greenish light in the sky, followed by an orange ball, looks like it had sparks. It fell to the ground, looked like not far away. It lit up the whole sky, and it was huge. I thought of Aliens right away or thought it might be a UFO. But it must have been a meteor. This was around 5:15 pm.

Tammy Chrusch
I seen it in Saskatoon close to downtown thought someone was messing with a flare gun or something damn that was bright though.

Ravi S
I can't believe I was shopping at Super Store when this happened!

Teena Pasay
I was driving home, near Redwater, when the sky light up. I looked out the window and saw what looked like a ball of flames fall toward the horizon.

Marrianne and Brandon
My son and I were heading east on 23 Avenue, and stopped at the lights near the construction on Gateway Blvd. A bright flash of light caught our attention and we saw a yellow/orange/white firball flash with a sparking tail. It appeared to head southeast over South Common. It happened so fast, no time to react and catch a picture, but what a sight!

deb
we live in melfort, saskatchewan which is 2 hours northeast of saskatoon, and we saw a very bright flash and wondered what it was! thought a plane had crashed or something like that.

Curtis
when it passed over us it was so bright outside- it almost looked like someone was shining great white lights into our yard.

ChrisG
1) Generally, people's sense of distance is horrible... taking the east side of the Henday traveling south (just about to hit the off ramp for the Whitemud Fwy) it was directly to our left. In other words, far to the east, outside the city limits.
2) I thought _maybe_ people's sense of direction could be just as off, but now I'm wondering if we witnessed one of many "bits"?
3) I've seen lots of shooting stars before, and they all burn up in the atmosphere as horizontal arches of fire. This bright explosion and being able to watch the vertical tail as it falls below the horizon definitely is not normal for me.
4) There _was_ an inordinately high amount of planes queued up. We saw four just in our line of sight.

Sloan
I was driving south on the range road that passes through Josephburg (sub highway 830) and had just passed Josephburg when I saw a bright organge light with a large white-ish oval-shaped tail fall diagonally down from the sky. It was due east of me (directly outside my driver's side window). I thought it was some form of fireworks at first, but then realized it was much brighter and larger. I noticed it lose it's light as it framented into many "orange embers" that then fizzled out before it reached the ground.

linda
In Lloydminster there was a thunderous loud noise minutes after the flash of light, did anywhere else hear the noise?

mo7
THERE HERE!!!

Pam
I saw the flash as I was driving towards Fort Saskatechwan on Hwy 21.

Calvin Scott
I saw it from the window of my place in Cold Lake....It lit up the entire sky like daylight

Devin Mosiuk
This is just the starting! We have predicted things like this for a while now! more of these are going to be entering the atmosphere VERY SOON! The Leonids Meteor have arrived!

Greg Schmidt
where did it land ? I say close to SASKATOON .. north of there and to the east?

I'm in Bonnyville, Ab.

jada
Travelling north on Highway 21 just before Northern Bear turnoff when a bright light appeared on passenger side of the vehicle. It appeared to be coming straight at us! It lit up the sky and it was almost daylight for a couple of seconds. Was an amazing but scary sight!

Jenn Neufeld
I live just east of Lloydminster,Ab and we saw it...it looked like it was only a few miles south of us...it was crazy and scary...shortly after the light we heard a HUGE rumble and then all of a sudden our house shook.
It scared the crap out of my children and I.

Vicki Freudenreich
I was walking my dog in Buena Vista Park, Edmonton when the whole area suddenly lit up and when we looked up this huge ball of fire was descending and disappeared to the East - strange there was no sound - It was coming straight down and looked like it landed in Mill Woods but that must have been an optical illusion! Being out in the open it was kinda scary! - I had seen one a couple of weeks ago going north on 142 Street at 111 Avenue around 7 p.m. - it seemed to arc down and burn out over St. Albert. It was a lot smaller though.

Heather Lemire
I was driving east on highway 43 near Onoway. It was amazing to see such a rare occurrence. I also was sure it was directly in front of me and thought I would see the impact area in the field ahead, but there was nothing. Now hearing reports it was seen over 3 provinces who knows where it actually hit, if at all.

Julie Gross
Julie
I am from Barrhead and saw the bright ball as well. By far the coolest thing i have ever seen. The color of the ball looked blue and green and a white stream following right behind. It was soooo bright that it lit up the sky. Way too cool, thankyou Lord!!!!!

Shawn Clark
I was driving my bus along 111 ave east bound just before 156 st when the sky lit up it, the streak looked like it was coming from the North West headed to South East. As the Streak neared what looked like only blocks away the it turned into what looked like a blue green ball of fire (burning magnesium bright) the flash was so bright it actually hurt my eyes and gave me a mild headache. I talked to another bus driver that saw it and he said it looked like it hit near the IGA on Stonyplane Rd and 154 st. Ive never seen anything like it. I made a wish and everthing.

Jessica Elliott & Chris Chysk & Taylor & Nick
We saw the light, while driving home from the store,
We figured it was a airplane crashing.

Edmonton,AB

Akbar
I was traveling on 111 Street southbound when I first saw the ball of fire treveling in an Eastern direction. I tried to take footage of this but it was going pretty faster than I anticipated. My first impression was that this was a collection of fireworks, but I knew that it was too big

Tara
We were driving on Hwy 43 by Whitecourt, AB and saw an orange ball with a long orange tail falling from the sky. It happened so quick we had no idea what it was.

Mike K
Amazing how so many see the same thing, and swear it landed in opposite corners of the city / province! Leaving work near Refinery Row, turning S on 117st from 76ave, saw streak of light above horizon to my NNW... Made me think of ground-level explosion lighting up the sky.

Kathleen Klemen
I was driving home from work on Highway 36 North of Taber (Southern Alberta) heading to my home North West of Vauxhall. At approximately 5:25 PM I saw in the NE, fairly low in the sky already, what I thought might be a meteorite falling but then it appeared to almost flash bigger and started to glow a greenish colour as it descended until it looked as if it hit the earth in a huge fireball. It took me a few moments to compute what I had just seen and keep paying attention to my driving. It seemed unreal and was like nothing I had ever seen before. I couldn't tell if it was close or far away and I had no idea what it was I had just seen. I was very shaken.

Michael Ryan
You're all WRONG!!! It was the hockey gods sending a wake-up call to the OILERS.

Colette Genest
I was on 95th ave at 75th street in Edmonton, facing east, at about 5:30pm. I saw the bright yellow streak almost vertical to the ground but coming from the north. It was like a huge comet. I thought it landed in Sherwood Park, and thought I heard a mild thud. Thinking it hit the ground, I drove closer to Sherwood Park but saw no signs of smoke or fire.

Brenda Melnyk
I was just heading east driving home from Lamont when I saw the meteor. At first I didnt know what was happening as the light was absolutely blinding and huge, the whole street lit up like it was day. Then after the bright flash which seemed to last for many seconds you could clearly see the long flaming tail as it streaked to earth. I was so sure it landed just to the east (southeast) side of residential houses in Lamont as the fireball was so HUGE and seemed so CLOSE!
After reading all the comments of how far away this meteor was sighted, it amazes me just how big this meteor must have been! Looking into the sun at high noon on a summer day was about how bright the first flash was! Although I did not see any blue coloring, the fireball was totally amazing! Can't wait to find out where it finally landed!!!

Tina
I also saw the flash of light. I was driving S.W. on Confederation Way in Fort McMurray. At first I thought it was a fire cracker. It was a orange light that seemed to go straight up in the sky, but then as it seemed to fall, the light was green. At the same time there seemed to be a white glow around the brighter light.

Kayla DeBianchi
I was driving home from work, I was on 106th St heading east and saw the fire in the sky. It was amazingly bright. I thought it may have been a jet engine at first. I saw a plane decending very quickly right behind what is now being referred to as the fire in the sky or possibly a meteor. What a sight!

Peggy
I heard rumors that it hit close to Castor, AB, and that the local fire dept. was called out to put out a fire ! TIME will tell if there is any truth in that!

Lawrence and Denise Maygard
My wife and father in law my mother in law think it a meaner right.Even my wife's baby brother think so to.My wife said it a star that died.

ATS RULES
I never saw it but I sure heard about it above top secret dot com. :)

Maybe it was just swamp gas?

Nigel Pronovost
Saw the flash just west of Brooks heading west, traveling the countryside, away from any city lights. Looks like it originated to the north of me. Two distinct flashes, red-orange in colour, lit up the whole sky. All the clouds could be seen distinctly and it was already after sunset.

Denny Igorence
I was in Cancun, Mexico and I saw a HUGE bright flash and then it disappeared behind the west edmonton mall.

That's one big mall folks.

Anthony
Bright lights make people happy. I mean get a grip, 140 comments about a bright light while mine remains the only comment about a potential 40% tax hike? If they do find a meteor they should name it Economy, since it came crashing down in fall 2008!

Lesley
I thought it was a firework at first except it was heading towards the ground not away from it. the time matches.

Lesley G
I saw something from my kitchen in North East Edmonton at that time, at first I thought it was maybe a firework, now Im not too sure.

Dannita Goulet- Edmonton, AB.
I was turning left onto 34th Ave. @ 5:27pm and saw this bright flash followed by yellow/orange light out the corner on my eye, I look and there's this fireball w/ a curved tail shooting downward @ about a 45 deg.angle. Because I had literally just crossed an intersection that was jammed by a major collision I though it could be a flare then asking myself "aren't flares red or orange?".
I'm glad that others saw it too because I was questioning my sanity for a second. ;) It was honestly the neatest thing I've ever witnessed in my life.

My 2 Cents.

Mike Courtney
Saw this meteor just East of Castor, AB, on Twp Rd 37-4 and by Range Rd 13-4.

East North-East of me, heading Southeast. Flash so bright it lit up sky like day, but the fireball snuffed out in the sky and didn't appear to land.

Optimus Prime
The Autobots Are Here and they came to Edmonton!

trenten st paul alberta
i was just watching out the window because i like to watch the clouds and then a big bright light lit up the hole sky like day time my friend was in st Vincent he said the sky went blue then orange and the sound was loud very loud

Melani
We were driving south east on highway 2 shortly before Killam and it looked like it landed in the field next to us on the North side. Shook me up a bit, thats for sure.

AJ
I was driving on Hwy 16 by Sherwood Park, and I saw it near the CloverBar Road exit around 5:30pm Thursday.

Sue
It was pretty cool, the sky turned kind of green then a long yellow trail, more green then nothing, only took a few seconds; saw it on Hwy East of Kehewin Lake

Danica
I live in whitecourt, and i was walking home from dynamic and seen this humongus green ballat about 5:30, i could even hear it hit.

Ramona Young
my partner and i were driving south here in Wabasca and i seen the sky turn glowing green and i could see the outline of the clouds and i started screaming for him to look into the sky while driving. then all of a sudden i fireball came shooting out of the sky, it was spectacular! i'm glad we had the chance to see that because i made a huge wish! lol

Cathie
I was driving east on the Yellowhead from Sherwood Park heading to Vegreville, when the night sky turned to 'daylight' and a huge orange ball streaked across the highway (Yellowhead). It did 'fizzle' out, but it was definitely east of Mundare/Vegreville. Absolutely amazing! I pulled out my cell phone to snap a shot, but it happened too fast! It will be interesting to see if they find where it landed; it seems so close when you see it; I even put on the brakes when I saw it!

Amarjit Kaur
Just reading the news CTV, I also saw the flash of light when I was driving, I stop at the for-way-stop on 38 Avenue and Kaasa Road, When a bright light caught my eye, a fireball shot from the sky, coming down I saw it for 2 seconds and then it disappeared, behind the houses.

Dixie from Sherwood Park
Are we sure it wasn't the tool box from the space shuttle coming back to earth??

All I saw was the bright lite and seriously I was waiting for a shock wave to hit.

AAzure
Walking East on 53 ave., it appeared 35' above the horizon, due east, about a -7 magnitude. It was bright orange shedding debris in sparks. It traveled for a second east-south-east, then flashed bright white and then turned bright copper-green for another half second, still shedding spark debris before it extinguished itself 10' above the horizon, east-south-east.

Kay
I live in Grouard, and my husband saw the light just above the tower heading west, orange bright light - lite up the sky for a brief moment of course I was already having my after work nap!

Pattie
This ia also reported as far as 1 hour from Swift Current Saskatchewan. South West from Swift Current

Sandy
I was driving home from spruce grove, down Rng. Rd. 274 just about to head onto Sec. Hwy 627 when i saw the bright orange fireball falling from the sky. Sure was spectacular to see. I was heating south, and saw it to the southeast. Gave me the goosebumps too. Love all the footage. First time i've ever seen this. Too bad i had to concentrate on driving, that i couldn't witness the whole thing (especially since it comes out of nowhere and you're not expecting it).
Would be interesting to see if anyone can find a piece of it. (if it hasn't burned up)

Vivian
I saw it on Wednesday night in Vancouver heading to the airport

Valerie Favel
I was driving home, then all of sudden I seen something falling from the sky, it look similar to a falling star, but never burnt out. In seconds, as it got closer to earth, it kept getting bigger and bigger, brighter and brighter, it went from a tail of light to greenish, then yellowish, and then redish then daylight. We were driving at 100 km/h, I really freaked out and slammed on my breaks. My oldest daughter just started crying, shaking and my two year boy kept pointing in the sky and trying to talk over and over he kept pointing. It was really scary in those seconds, i thought it was going hit in front of us.

tony
its in my backyard bitches hahaha

Marco
We Live In Vermilion, A Small Town About Half An Hour From Lloydminster. Me And My Parents Were Sitting In The Kitchen Of My House When This Light Came Through Different Windows. I Saw It Behind My Dad, My Mom Saw It Left Of Me, And My Dad Saw It Behind Me. It Was A Bright Bllue Light, And We Were Thinking For A Bit. It Was INSANE! It Was Extremely Awesome, And I Loved It.

Steve
Did someone call Bruce Willis?

ian
the kids kind of freaked out, the first thing i thought was i hope somthing that big and bright dosent land anywhere just told the boys it was Santa getting ready for christmas

brian
just as long as it wasn't jesus or aliens i guess were all right. well, i guess jesus would be alright

breanne jensen
i was in bonnyville alberta and i saw it fall south of bonnyville.

Heidi Barnes
I saw it in Sherwood Park, just as it was almost gone.I knew what it was because I have seen one before, although this one was alot bigger and had a bigger tail. It seemed to be far north heading east from where I was.

brian
omg.wtf.lmao. now i gotta wash my shorts

Tiffany Olson
I was driving home up 178st just about at 107th ave. at about 1:30 am and I saw a streaming flash of light in the sky on my right hand side. I had no idea what it was, but it was much to close to be a shooting star and much to big!

Andrea
My cousin was coming to Red Deer, from Grand Prairie, and he thought it was another pipe bombing. I saw the story on the news, and told him it was a meteor. He saw it about 60km. north of Red Deer.

Gord Heck
I live in Fairview (Carrie Doll's home town) I was driving east on a gravel road at 5:28 cellphone time and I saw a greenish fireball racing towards the ground. I was waiting for an explosion as it looked like it hit the ground only 40km away but of course nothing. So even up in the Peace Country we saw it.

breanne jensen
i saw the big ball come down straight south of Alberta Canada ... the sky went orange then 3 balls fell from the sky... then it went dark again... it was the coolest thing i've ever seen =)!!!!my dad thinks it was optimus prime =)

James Edmonton
Superman is here, he is come to save our world,our global finance crisis.

Janno Klausner
I saw that fireball in Estonia :S It was so strange, and after all that was so terrible noize. It wasnt lighting.

Kerri
I'm in Northern NJ and I saw the meteor!!

CBS
Sounds very interesting, do any experts have any theories or are they just going with the idea of a comet

Joanne Kenny
I seen an extremely bright flash of white light. It looked like it was coming from the park behind my neighbours house. I live in Cold Lake and was facing southeast when I seen the light. I thought it was fireworks although I didn't hear any noise.

kari
I've heard people say this is so rare to see but on November 14th, 2008 I saw two at different times between 7:30-8:00pm, out north...while we were in northeast edmonton. Did anyone see those? We also saw one a couple years ago. So I guess we're extremely lucky lookers?

ryan
i was outside playing road hockey at about 5:20 pm (same time as the other sightings) and saw big flash out of the corner of my eye however i can not fully say that it was the meteror but i am sure i saw some kin dof flash

Kitty Loberg
WOW! This is amazing. I SAW IT LAST NIGHT. And I live in Northern California, about 2 hours north of San Francisco. I had just got off work sometime after 5:15 p.m. , I left the building in the dark, and had just reached my car, and looked north, and saw this very large fireball. Where I was at, it was going from the east to the west, or in a westerly direction. Knowing how directions can be off, it could have been going partly north west, or even south west, and I probably wouldn’t have known. What I saw, burned ‘out’ before it appeared to hit anything. It went quite a distance across the sky.

So by today, I kind of had forgotten about it, and when I stumbled on the link to the CTV Edmond News video, I said to myself, WOW, that is EXACTLY IT! That is what I saw. Maybe a little smaller looking down here, but it was still large to me. It was a bright white/yellow fireball going across the sky. I’ve calculated the distance from Edmonton to my home and it is about 1,100 miles. I am so amazed, now that I know it was in Canada, that I saw it down here in California! COOL!

Chad
North of Provost and South of Lloydminster. I saw it se of Sherwood Park.

If you saw a "smoke trail" and heard the rumble in Lloydminster, *you can see airliner trailers at 40000-60000 feet, giving you a radius of about 20 square KM below Lloydminster.

You are looking for a tennis ball size black rock. At 50km/s it probably left nice size crater, even at the size of a tennis ball.

Good hunting.

Lindsay Bird
I was at work, but my kids n dad seen it in between Duck Lake N MacDowall,SK. They were so amazed!!the sky lite up with a flash

Heather
Was held up by the train west of Ft. Sask, at first we assumed the flash was from one of the Esso or Shell refineries. It was only this morning we found out what it really was. It really looked like it was over top of them.

Joshua Wasylciw
I pray to God that the meteor landed, intact, in a farmer's field. Thus, according to provincial and federal law it would belong to him, and him alone. Thus any researcher wanting to study it would be subject to the FARMER'S good graces (and perhaps a charge) to see it.

I say cudos! Its about time that Canadians realized that farmers are a formidable force - owning over 95% of non-crown land in this country, and getting next to nothing for it.

Loreen
Driving to airport from Fort McMurray south saw a huge streak of light?? Explosion?

J
My b.f. saw it all the way up in Fort Mac

Kitty Loberg
People in Canada and Edmonton think it crashed, but I think it's possible that it did not.
I saw it from the side, down here in California, and it was going pretty straight across the sky and not heading down much. Though it went for a long distance, the fire ball burned itself out.. kind of broke up at the end.

The people in Edmonton saw it go over the top of their heads, off to the horizon. That makes it look like it's coming 'down', but it was going so far and fast (certainly faster than a space shuttle speed!), that it's hard to understand that when it get's to the horizon it's still some distance up in our atmosphere. If you're standing on the ground, you think it's reached the horizon, but it disappears over the horizon of the earth.

/seen in Northern California, 1100 miles away.

Don Whyte
uhh...I had some trouble with my gas barbecue. If anyone finds the lid I'm offering a reward.

helen
People here in Tallinn Estonia on the other side of the worlds report bright light and a loud sound unlike any other waking them up at ca 5 am, officials said there was no explosion anywhere then said it was winter thunderstorm hm ?

Wray Swanson
Driving 10 Kms north of the Montana border, west of the
Town of Milk River. Suddenly a very huge flaming ball
lit up the clouds, as it quickly plunged towards earth, quickly disappearing over, beyond the horizon of the 'Milk River Ridge'. Thought it must have landed a dozen kms north of me. That was 5:26 PM. Feel sorry for the aliens aboard, but possibly they 'ejected' in time.

Louise
We saw it from the Queen E II about halfway between Edmonton and Red Deer. First there was a flash that lit the sky like a very been lightening bolt. Then we could see the fireball falling to the right of us in an easterly direction. Wow, it was amazing

ladynada
God bless Canada
I believe that it is a sign of blessing.

nada
in Massachusetts USA

Debbie Gifford
We live out by Onoway and were in our shop and heard a loud pop. The sound we heard was around the same time as the sitings. We checked our outdoor video cameras and captured the meteorite passing over at 5:32 pm