‘Like fire running across the sky.’ Skygazers record fireball plummeting over Florida

Nearly two dozen witnesses have reported seeing a fireball over Florida’s west coast around 9 p.m. on Sunday, March 12, and some acted fast enough to get video.

The American Meteor Society says records have stretched across more than 450 miles, from Everglades City in South Florida to Freeport in the Panhandle.

Most of the witnesses were between Tampa and Fort Myers, including a man who saw it while fishing in Chokoloskee, west of the Everglades.

Witnesses described it as changing from orange to yellow to red as it sailed south to north along the coast.

“Coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Looked like fire running across the sky,” one witness said.

“Moved in straight line across horizon. Originally thought it was airplane in trouble, judging by the rich orange, but bright orange tail behind it,” another wrote.

Four videos were shared on YouTube, all showing the fireball appeared as a thin streak blazing in the night sky.

None of the witnesses reported sound and no fragment discoveries have been recorded.

Some observers have reported the fireball might have been a SpaceX Dragon Capsule returning to Earth, but the craft splashed down late Saturday, March 11, according to Reuters.com.

“Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day,” the American Meteor Society says.

““The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.”

This story was originally published March 14, 2023 at 8:38 AM with the headline "‘Like fire running across the sky.’ Skygazers record fireball plummeting over Florida."