What in the world was that Wednesday Night?

By: Chad Franzen - Email

Updated: Fri 3:58 PM, Apr 16, 2010

Update Friday April 16-

THEY FOUND IT! Apparently there is someone that found a fragment from the meteor that is about the size of a peanut.

www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/91059419.html

Now, scientists will test it to see if it is indeed part of this huge meteor that went screaming across the sky. Stay tuned for more on this excitement!

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There were many phone calls to the station Wednesday night as a large, fast and loud moving object went zooming across the night sky. There were 1000's of calls to various tv stations, radio stations and emergency dispatch centers from Missouri, through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan.

While it is common that we see meteor showers from time to time, it is not as common to see the huge meteor go streaking across the night sky and light it up as it did Wednesday night. Normally, most meteors burn up very quickly when they enter the Earth's atmosphere, which is why when you watch a meteor shower, they appear: small, high in the sky and quickly dissapate. Last night's meteor was quite a bit larger than the common meteors we see throughout the year.

As I have mentioned before, Doppler Radars are great for detecting precipitation and can occasionally detect: birds, insects, "man-made" snow, folding in the atmosphere, etc. There were some Doppler Radars that detected this meteor from last night as well.

Here's Dash Cam Video of the meteor last night from Howard County Iowa:

www.youtube.com/watch

Here's a video from WISN in Milwaukee:

www.wisn.com/video/23158086/index.html

Here's great video from the University of Wisconsin:

www.aos.wisc.edu/fireball/2010_04_14_fireball_loop_1024x768_long.gif

Here's some more information from the National Weather Service Offices in and around the area:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=arx&storyid=50886&source=0

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=mkx&storyid=50880&source=0

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=dvn&storyid=50881&source=0

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