Bright Flash Streaking Across Northern Minnesota + Wisconsin Seen Thursday Night

I guess I got the chance to see a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence last night. I just got home from work and was walking from my car to my backdoor when the yard just lit up. It was a quick flash and I saw the shadow of our large tree move rapidly across the snowy ground. I looked up quickly, confused, and saw a fast-moving blueish-white ball streaking across the sky.

It was heading from East to West and it seemed to be pretty high in the sky. It lasted for only a few seconds. Before it vanished, it turned bright orange. Then it was gone.

I knew immediately it wasn't a plane. The light that came from it was way too bright, and it was moving way too fast. Unfortunately, there was no way for me to be able to catch this on video. If someone has it on a ring cam, let me know!

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It did look exactly like many of these videos.

I went on a local community page and asked if anyone had seen it. A few others quickly chimed in and said that they had witnessed it as well. Surprisingly, Heather saw it from as far away as Foxboro, Wisconsin. Brett saw it while driving by Perkins in Superior.

Some people saw it in Duluth while by the Miller Hill Mall. One woman said she heard muffled booms right after it passed, which would make sense.

It was really strange to see the yard light up in the dark like that. It was about as bright as a full moon!

I asked our Meteorologist Brandon Weatherz from WDIO what it could possibly be. Immediately he said, "Fireball!" So I looked it up, and it was a fireball. It's a bright meteor that burns up in the atmosphere. To qualify as a fireball it needs to be brighter than the planet Venus in the sky. Considering I've never seen the planet Venus before in the night sky, and this was super bright, I think it's safe to say it was a fireball.

I've reported it to the American Meteor Society. According to their reporting site, it's a very rare event. So If you saw this, consider yourself lucky. Most people never get to see this in their lifetime. It was a little scary for a moment but pretty cool that it's something I got to witness.