Bright lights reported over Midwest skies
From southeastern Wisconsin to as far as Des Moines, Iowa and St. Louis, people reported seeing balls of fire, possibly meteors, streaking across the sky Sunday night.
Associated Press
Last update: February 05, 2007 – 8:19 AM
Printer friendly
E-mail this story
Save to del.icio.us
Local
Bright lights reported over Midwest skies
NWA plane lands safely in N.D. after in-flight problems
Farm worker held in slayings of family in Waseca
Duluth police take toddler found in cold car to the hospital
Communities seek more ways to put a stop to speeding
MILWAUKEE — From southeastern Wisconsin to as far as Des Moines, Iowa and St. Louis, people reported seeing balls of fire, possibly meteors, streaking across the sky last night.
No major meteor showers were expected in the northern hemisphere on Sunday night, said Jim Lattis, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison astronomy department's Space Place. But he said it was possible that a minor shower may have been what prompted calls to authorities.
The National Weather Service's Sullivan office said reports were called in from Iowa, northern Illinois and on up to Green Bay.
Dozens of people throughout the St. Louis region and Illinois reported small objects that looked like bright lights or something burning, with flaming tails behind some of them, said Ken Tretter, with the Missouri State Highway Patrol in St. Louis.
In Wisconsin, a Waukesha County dispatch supervisor said two callers reported a sighting around 8:15 p.m.
The Winnebago County Sheriff's Department said it received calls from Oshkosh, Ripon, Appleton, Neenah, and Pulaski, among others.
A preliminary report Sunday indicated that the lights were from a meteor, said Maj. April Cunningham, a spokeswoman for North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, which watches for airborne threats to the United States and Canada.
"We had a pilot reporting seeing a meteor and that's really all the information we have tonight," Cunningham said.
Subscribe
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/981396.html
Spectacle in Midwestern sky was probably meteor, military says
02/05/2007
Scores of people all over the central United States reported seeing flames and fiery explosions in the sky Sunday night.
Calls flooded 911 operators and area police departments, the Missouri Highway Patrol said. Callers described the spectacle in various ways, some saying it looked like a plane crash and others calling it a ball of fire in the sky.
A preliminary report Sunday indicated that the lights were from a meteor, said Maj. April Cunningham, a spokeswoman for North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, which watches for airborne threats to the United States and Canada.
"We had a pilot reporting seeing a meteor, and that's really all the information we have tonight," Cunningham said.
Advertisement
<a href="http://oascentral.stltoday.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.stltoday.com/news/stlouiscitycounty/695945081/Frame1/Postnet/BigAdStLCityCounty300x250-020107/SLUProfREC.html/34316130336635663435353762646330?http://professionalstudies.slu.edu/"><IMG SRC="http://oascentral.stltoday.com/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/Postnet/BigAdStLCityCounty300x250-020107/tile_ad.gif" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 BORDER=0></a>
Reports came from residents in central Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Wisconsin and Minnesota, the Highway Patrol said.
The patrol forwarded the information to the Federal Aviation Administration and had no reports of damage or landings from the potential meteor or space debris.
spacer
Top of page
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stor...55?OpenDocument