Video: Fireball Streaked Across Parts of the Eastern US and Canada Last Night

Did you happen to see it?

Last night, hundreds of witnesses in parts of Canada and the Eastern US reported seeing a massive fireball (a very bright meteor) light up the skies.

The event occurred around 10:36 pm EST, and sparked rumors that a plane had crashed.

The American Meteor Society (AMS) has received reports – 390 as of the time of this writing – of the fireball sighting:

The fireball was seen primarily from Ontario but witnesses from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington DC, Michigan, West Virginia, Delaware, Massachusetts, Virginia and Québec also reported the event.

The University of Toronto Scarborough observatory webcam caught the fireball on video.

AMS shared this dash cam video taken by Kristopher Brown from Vestal, NY.

This AMS map shows the locations of observers.

If you saw this fireball and want to notify AMS, you can do so here: Report a Fireball

According to AMS:

Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.

So, if you are lucky enough to see one, hopefully you’ll have your camera ready in time!