American Meteor Society
Over 300 reports from 8 states
The AMS has received over 300 reports so far about of a bright fireball seen above Missouri on Monday, November 11th 2019 around 8:52pm (Nov. 12th 02:54 Universal Time). The event was mainly seen from the Missouri but we also received reports from Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Nevada, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
If you witnessed this event and/or if you have a video or a photo of this event, please
Submit an Official Fireball Report
If you want to learn more about Fireballs: read our Fireball FAQ.
Trajectory
The preliminary 3D trajectory computed based on all the reports submitted to the AMS so far shows that the fireball was traveling from East to West and ended its flight somewhere near Wellsville, MO.
Videos
We also received 3 videos of the event from witnesses – all of them can been seen from the AMS Event #5566-2019 page. The event has also been caught on cameras by numerous security camera in the area and for instance, the Earthcam.com‘s St Louis camera.
I had numerous accounts on my social media feeds of it (or another one) making contact in the middle of Interstate 70 in Blue Springs Missouri. Shower of sparks as a object struck the pavement of the highway causing cars to maneuver around it. It would have been almost perfectly in line with these images. The post was timestamped at 8:57 saying it occurred just a few minutes ago.
I saw this last night as well in the southern sky. I live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.
I saw it in Huntley last night as well! It was so cool!
I saw it last night and I am from Qunemo kansas, my dad saw it as well. I saw it around 9:30 last night.
Surely you meant Missouri, not Ivanhoe, NC? What a sight to see!
I saw this last night while I was scraping ice off of my van in Warrensburg Missouri. I was facing north and saw what I thought was lightning in the reflection of one of my windows which would have been south,
but the meteorite appeared to be racing northeast. I turned around quickly enough to catch a glimpse of it before it disappeared over some trees. I couldn’t believe how bright and wide it was. I almost expecting a boom within a few seconds. Pretty amazing.
I saw this in Milwaukee Wisconsin!!!
My mother saw this in sussex delaware. Thought she was crazy until I just ran acRoss this article. Trippy s#%T!!!!
Kevin, Your sighting could not have been associated with the object seen over Missouri. The distance is just too far.
Robert Lunsford
American Meteor Society
At 852 pm. I seen a silvery light across the sky then a flash. It was over Cantrall, Illinois 62625. Cool to finally seen a meteor.
I witnessed this last night, November 11th, 2019 from a highway near Atlantic Iowa.
I saw this coming home in Kansas while I was on the highway in Overland Park, ks
Saw it in Lawson , Mo.
I saw a green fireball in Brevard County Florida last night around 20:30 EST
My husband and I saw this from our living room picture window…amazing!! The sonic boom was so loud it shook us out of our chairs. We thought we were having an earthquake…didn’t know what the heck was happening. We saw the news later on TV which explained everything.
We live in Sullivan, MO in Franklin County off of Hwy K. We are 50 miles Southwest of St. Louis, MO.
Viewed from Wentzville, Missouri, under path of Meteor. Lite up sky brighter than brighties lightening ever experienced. Ground underfoot shook like jello, every fiber of 6500 sq ft house was shaking and rattling. Quick and short but unforgettable.
I saw it last night and I am from Qunemo kansas, my dad saw it as well. I saw it around 9:30 last night.
I also spotted this last night in Davenport, Iowa. I was exiting off of I-74 east heading South on the 53rd street exit. I wasn’t sure what I saw so I Googled meteor in Iowa and found this site. The time lines up perfectly.
I live in Davenport, too. I saw it driving south on Hwy 61 from Maquoketa! I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw this!
In the video, the meteor appears south of Arch. Troy and Wellsville are north of the Arch.
Even though the Arch is about 18 degrees off North-South longitude, it seems like the path of the meteor should be farther south than indicated on the map.
The lightning mapper on the GOES-16 satellite caught the fireball over New Florence, Missouri, at 02:52 UT.
I was outside when it happened! Looked Ike it was right in front of me. I’ve seen showers before but this was incredible. Went outside multiple times after that to try to catch another one!
My husband saw something like this at about 1:30 am Sunday in Georgia.
I saw this in DeKalb, Illinois, which is about 65 miles west of Chicago.
I too saw this fireball. I live in Northeast Oklahoma
Don’t you all realize that those were taurids from the meteor shower! Very cool!
I was able to see something In Massachusetts on the same night around 6:30 7 o clock same bright light and then it burns out
I just saw it in Central Jersey. Amazing site
The meteor you witnessed could not have been the same as the one spotted over Missouri. The distance is just too far.
Robert Lunsford
American Meteor Society
I saw a very similar event while traveling east bound on I -70 on the turnpike around the tonganoxie exit . although it seemed somewhat smaller & was traveling west to east…once in a lifetime. Wish i had it on video
I saw something similar at around 10:04 pm, I live in Hagerstown MD.
I triangulated the start & end positions of the visible meteors path, and the point of greatest brightness, based on three widely spaced ground observation videos and the GOES 16 lightning mapper. Those observations all line up reasonably well to put the start point over Byrnes Mill, MO, the brightest flash over Etlah, MO, and the end point just north of Rhineland, MO.
Map here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=15ZEKqqlVXOfdnBNDcIfvGUZ58EgE1WXO&usp=sharing
I took a look at your map and I’m guessing you are fairly accurate. We live in Catawissa, MO, and one of our security camera’s caught the fireball. The best part of our video is that you can clearly see the shadow of our garage move, and the shadow’s position would put the meteorite just north of us. Your map puts it 2 miles from our house.
Wow, that must have been almost directly overhead, all right!
Your triangulation coincides with NASA’s. I knew the Troy to Wellsville path was too far north, it was obvious from the Arch video.
So Brent, I’ve copied your map and added my own trajectory (as well as NASAs) based on calculations from the shadows left on my driveway. You can view all of this over at my blog, along with my video of the meteorite:
http://www.epictales.org/treskillard/2019/11/29/st-louis-meteorite/
My version of your map can be found here: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1HqBdRRRqKylFWB11FsT4iF4yRSxHJT2_&ll=38.60525659345292%2C-91.26173636187787&z=11
I probably saw the after math of that shooting star. I was fishing at San Luis Reservoir.. the shooting star looked more like a straw; twirling in a perfert circle, as If it was the light from a flash light ..slowly twirling for at least 2 to 3 minutes long in the sky ..it kept on going westward. This happened around 630 pm in California.. and that night I saw about 5 other shooting stars .. San Luis Reservoir is one of my favorite fishing area due to it not having light pollution and at night the sky lights up !!
Xiong, Your sighting could not have been associated with the object seen over Missouri. The distance is just too far.
Robert Lunsford
American Meteor Society
Lets say a piece of the 11-11-19 Missouri meteor made it to the ground. Based on your calculations what vicinity would that be in if visibility was lost around Wellsville MO? I assume it was still high enough and still had velocity to continue traveling. Centralia.MO perhaps? My hometown!
It’s gone be a intersting one !
I saw it up in Fairfield Iowa. Incredible how bright it was.
Saw the bright white flash as tho someone had their bright headlights on directed to our window, which is very very rare to happen since it don’t face a road, on the north side of our house. I went to front door to look, then went to window we saw the flash & at that very moment I heard a loud rumble, not a sonic boom, believe me I’ve heard sonic booms hit this house before, and the ground shook like an earthquake, felt like a 3.0 earthquake. We’re directly south of the estimated areas. I’m thinking it’s near New Florence.
Seen in Chariton Iowa
At 11:11pm PST I saw one in Southern California. Hoping someone else saw the same one. It was a trip.
I saw a bright white flash while travelling near West Friendship, MD at 10:05 pm EST 11/12/2019.
https://twitter.com/js_newswatch/status/1198666856502104064?s=20
Meteor captured on 4 different county bus route cameras…..very good shots!
Wasn’t this the comet that NASA told us weeks in advance that it would come very close to us?
James and All,
No, this was an object much smaller than a comet, perhaps the size of a beach ball. Comets are much larger and none that we know of with certainty has struck the earth in modern history.