[meteorite-list] Blue flash in Ohio sky still a mystery

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:05 2004
Message-ID: <20020801231133.42545.qmail_at_web10408.mail.yahoo.com>

Hey Al,

This is what I mean by "at this time of year, as we
get closer to the Perseid meteor shower, we get many
reports of fireballs." Here's are some reports from
the Cincinnati area.

It's too bad that there weren't any reports of a
"sonic boom"! :-(

Bob V.

----------------------------------------------------
http://www.cincypost.com/2002/jul/31/flash073102.html

Blue flash in sky a mystery
By Craig Garretson
The Cincinnati Post
July 31, 2002

Was it a meteor, a flash of lightning or something not
quite of this world that streaked across the skies of
Greater Cincinnati at about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday?

The National Weather Service received "a good number"
of phone calls around that time from people around the
tri-state, reporting the unusual phenomenon.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside of Dayton also
received calls about "blue lights in the sky," said
spokesperson Andrea Attaway-Young, but they couldn't
be seen from the base.

National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Tipton
said callers described it as a "blue streak moving
across the sky."

Some said it was a "blue-white explosion" but not
accompanied by any sound. Others said it had a tail,
like a comet, Tipton said. Another described it as "a
bolt of blue lightning arcing above the clouds."

Area amateur astronomers who didn't see the meteor
didn't want to speculate on what it could have been,
but the American Meteor Society's Web site says
meteors are frequently reported as being blue-white in
color, are often described as "explosions" and
sometimes have a tail - technically, a "train," a
glowing trail of superheated oxygen.

Thousands of meteors streak across the sky every day,
but most aren't seen either because they happen during
the day or over an uninhabited area, such as the
ocean. Last year, there were over 200 sightings of
so-called
"fireballs" that were big enough to be seen with the
naked eye, the society's Web site said.


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Received on Thu 01 Aug 2002 07:11:33 PM PDT