American Meteor Society
Over 65 witnesses have reported a bright fireball over Alabama Saturday night around 10:20 PM Eastern Time. Witnesses from Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Kentucky reported the phenomena shortly after it occurred. The fireball was captured on three of the All Sky Cameras operated by NASA’s Meteoroid Environmental Office and Bill Cooke stated an asteroidal origin after analyzing the videos and plotting the trajectory and orbit.
Here is a video of the fireball from one of Bill Cooke’s Meteor Cameras:
Below is a 3D trajectory of the fireball’s entry through the solar system, plotted by the AMS using data from the witness sightings.
3D Trajectory of Alabama Fireball 2014-08-02
Here is a 2D trajectory of the fireball. The red line is the AMS trajectory plotted from witness reports and the yellow line is Bill Cooke’s trajectory plotted from the All Sky Cameras.
2D Trajectory Of Alabama Fireball 2014-08-02
If you saw this fireball, please fill out an official fireball report with the AMS. To learn more about fireball meteors read our Fireball FAQ.
We encourage witnesses who saw this fireball to also download the AMS Mobile App for iPhone or Android and submit an enhanced fireball report using your mobile device. The data we can collect from the mobile App is more accurate and allows us to determine the velocity of the fireball. If you already submitted a web based report, please also complete the mobile report.
Could you please tell me how close it was to Pulaski, Tn?? I need to know for my family who lives in Pulaski! Thank you so much!
Cindy,
As far as we can tell, while over Tennessee this object was still very high in the atmosphere, at least 50 miles up. It was not until it crossed into Alabama that the fireball extinguished, probably still at a high altitude. It is currently not known whether any fragments of this object survived all the way to the ground.
Robert Lunsford
American Meteor Society
Hello I believe I’ve recovered some meteorites from this fall
Saw meteor over Nashville Saturday night between 10 and 11pm. Headed in a South by Southwest direction. Started orange but turned green before it extinguished.
My wife and I and a friend, witnessed the AL/GA event at 11:20 PM ET from Holly Springs GA. Appearing the WNW sky travelling south at about 20-25 degrees off the horizon. Lasting about 4-5 seconds, very bright with green and white light, breaking up into several parts before disappearing.
Saw this VERY clearly from the Phish concert in Pelham Alabama, Oak Mountain Amphitheatre. Long, slow, and bright, with a green fireball ending. Hundreds if not thousands of concert attendees saw it, from the sound of the crowd.
Me and four other witness saw a green fireball explode in the sky on Aug 2, 2014 around 9:20pm central time. We were sitting outside on my cousin back porch. The location was Anniston, Alabama.
I witnessed the meteor from the bluff over looking the Tennessee river near Swearengin, AL at 10:20 PM CT. It was traveling in a south easterly direction toward the Ft. Payne area and I first thought it was going down hit in the river. It was a brilliant white that lit up the yard before turning pink then blue. Approximately 1-2 minutes later I heard two sonic booms in succession after the meteor disappeared.
My wife and I saw the fireball Saturday night around 10:20 cdt in Lincoln Alabama. It was traveling from the north to the southeast toward Anniston Alabama. It started as a large fireball and got smaller and changed colors as it moved away from us.
Found a fan video of the Phish concert with the meteor clearly visible around the 4:30 mark.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ue0MqtduDqI
I don’t know the exact time but we saw it clearly during Blues Traveler’s concert at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at Encore Park in Alpharetta, GA.
I saw the meteor on Saturday nite/August 2, 2014. I was in Big Canoe, Georgia (mountains of north Georgia.) I was at 2150 feet altitude. There is no light pollution where I viewed the object. It was white and blue in color. It also had a trail of white and blue as it was traveling through the sky. It appeared to be traveling horizontally with a small curve to it’s path. It appeared to fall towards the earth right as it went out of view.
We saw this in the sky at Columbus Ms too!!
Saw this Fireball from Oxford/Anniston Alabama. Was amazingly bright and fragmented at last visibility. I have never seen anything this bright falling…
I’ve been wondering what it was that i saw that night!! This must be it! It was only a few seconds long, and it looked green to me. it just appeared and then disappeared just as fast going across the sky. I was in Lawrenceville, GA at the time. I thought it might be a shooting star, it really was very beautiful.
Quite visible around 9:20 last night in Hayden Alabama
My wife and I were attending a wedding in camphill alabama and saw this amazing site. It was sometime after 9pm central time and will absolutly be a memorable site!!
sorry i did not notice the date of this article! We did witness a metor Sat. nite 10-8-2016 in camphill alabama sometime after 9 pm central time!!