Very bright fireball over northern California, U.S.
Image credit: Tom Wright @whoistomwright
A very bright fireball streaked through the night sky over northern California at 02:27 UTC on November 5, 2022 (19:27 PDT, November 4).
The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 103 reports from California, Nevada, and Oregon.1
Analysis of these accounts places the fireball over northern California, with the first sighting occurring when the meteor was 77 km (48 miles) above the town of Fort Jones.2
The object moved to the south at 51 500 km/h (32 000 mph), traveling around 46 km (29 miles) in the upper atmosphere before fragmenting at an altitude of 45 km (28 miles) above the hills just to the west of Callahan.
Unlike most of the sightings reported this week, this meteor was not part of the Taurid meteor shower.
References:
1 AMS event #8060-2022 – American Meteor Society – November 5, 2022
2 Fireball over northern California – NASA Meteor Watch – November 5, 2022
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
