Fireball in the sky reported across Washington, British Columbia, and Oregon

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Caught on camera, a bright light streaking through the night sky over Western Washington. We received several videos from people who captured the unusual site. KOMO's Claire Weber joins us live now tonight with more on the mystery object that has a lot of people buzzing. Claire.

[00:00:18]Well Molly, that light is called a fireball or very bright meteor. And experts tell me fireballs are actually fairly common, but they can happen during the day or over an ocean, so they often go undetected. That of course wasn't the case here. Take another look at some of the video viewers sent us from early this morning. It happened around 12:15 a.m. over Vancouver Island.

[00:00:39]And so far, more than 130 people reported sightings to the American Meteor Society. The fireball occurs when rocks or debris from space soar into Earth's atmosphere at roughly 20 to 30,000 miles an hour and superheat. You can see in some of these videos bright green color, which experts say is tied to elements like nickel and magnesium found in the debris. Well, meteor and fireball sightings are reportedly on the rise. I'm told that has more to do with our technology than what's actually happening in space.

[00:01:09]And we do seem to be seeing more of them, but the the general consensus among scientists is that the the main reason we're seeing more of them is because we have more of these doggone things um around. And people have their ring cameras and these other sorts of cameras.

[00:01:24]Now the more reported sightings and video, the better for experts at the AMS, where they're now compiling data to learn about this meteor's path.

[00:01:31]Eventually, the organization will likely be able to record where in space the debris came from and how high up in the Earth's atmosphere it blew up. And these fireballs happen fast. Most people estimate this one lasted just about 3 and 1/2 seconds. Live in Seattle tonight, Claire Weber, KOMO 2 News. Also interesting, Claire. Thank you. As you just saw, your pictures and video are helping us tell this story. So, keep them coming. Upload your images to chime in by scanning the QR code on your screen. That'll take you directly to the chime in section of komonews.com.