Seattle resident Gerald Tracy woke to a flash of greenish light that lit up his apartment in the historic First Hill neighborhood, located on a hill about 100 meters above sea level, early Wednesday morning. He initially thought it was lightning, but immediately checked Reddit — and found that dozens of people across the region had seen the same thing: a bright fireball streaking across the sky. More than 100 witnesses from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia have already reported the incident to the American Meteor Society. Witnesses described the event as "magnificent," "spectacular" and "incredible" — some were thrilled, others admitted they were quite frightened.
Meteors are actually not rare, but we are in the midst of "fireball season," NASA explains. From February through April, sightings of fireballs in the Northern Hemisphere increase by 10–30%. Scientists explain that small rocks only a few centimeters across slam into Earth's atmosphere at speeds over 320,000 km/h, heating the air to glowing plasma — what we see as a bright flash. Activity in the Pacific Northwest is especially high thanks to a combination of seasonal meteor streams, such as the Quadrantids in January, and clearer winter–spring skies, when cold air masses bring lower humidity compared with summer fog and cloud cover from the Pacific. In addition, active local astronomy clubs, like the Pacific Astronomical Society, encourage interest in observations and increase the number of reports.
Just last month Washington recorded at least three similar incidents, and in April the American Meteor Society website received dozens of fireball reports across the country. The uptick in sightings may be due both to Earth passing through denser clusters of space debris at this time of year and to the fact that people now have more cameras — smartphones, doorbell cameras and dash cams capture every bright event.
If you also witnessed the sky show and managed to record video, the editors of the local paper The Seattle Times invite you to share footage by email. You can report a fireball sighting to the American Meteor Society website — every report helps scientists track these events more precisely.
Based on: Fireball seen streaking across sky over WA, OR, B.C.