A mysterious, large fireball seen soaring through the night sky in Alberta on Wednesday was a meteor, an astronomer has confirmed.
“We do know that last night at about 5:22 p.m. there was a bright meteor, sometimes called a fireball or bolide, seen off towards the northeast of Edmonton, at least from the local reports,” Frank Florian, as astronomer at TELUS World of Science, told CTV Edmonton on Thursday.
After 5:20 p.m. Wednesday evening, CTV Edmonton started receiving calls and tweets from viewers located north of Fort McMurray, Alta. and in the Edmonton area about a spectacular flash of light in the sky.
Dashcam video sent in from a motorist who witnessed the fireball while driving north of Fort McMurray shows a bright, round light descending through the sky before it disappears out of sight on the horizon. More footage from the Edmonton-area shows a similar ball of light dropping through the evening sky.
There were numerous reports of fireball sightings posted on the American Meteor Society’s website on Wednesday evening from other regions of Alberta including, Lloydminster, Fort Saskatchewan, Morinville and Lacombe.
Just a heads up #alberta #meteor sightings have come in across alberta from northern to central. #yeg #yyc #Alberta #MeteoritesightingAlberta
— Kent Ashbey (@BullTheBouncerr) January 18, 2018
Possible meteor strike outside of #morinville #alberta
— Kent Ashbey (@BullTheBouncerr) January 18, 2018
@ctvedmonton any news as to what the giant fireball falling from the sky was all about. We were travelling down Fox drive and a giant ball of fire fell from the sky in behind the tree line
— Sarah Martin (@Sarwa101) January 18, 2018