Texas meteor: Fireball spotted over Houston area and beyond

Monday, July 26, 2021
HOUSTON -- The stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas, but apparently so are the fireballs!

On Sunday night, some Texans reported seeing something bright with a green tail streaking across the sky, and it looks like it was a fireball.
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So far, there have been at least 149 reports of a fireball seen in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Missouri, according to a page dedicated to the sighting on the American Meteor Society website.

ABC7Chicago's sister station KTRK received a call to the newsroom. A check of Twitter showed some people describing hearing an explosion.

KTRK Chief Meteorologist Travis Herzog asked viewers on Facebook what they saw.

Amid more than 1,000 comments, there were reports from Austin to Katy, Briar Forest and Dairy Ashford, to Liberty, Texas.



"A lady sitting behind us on our flight to Dallas saw something, and I heard her saying to her husband, 'Did you see that? It was like a ball of fire?'" one person said.
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You can report a fireball on the AMS website complete with details and adding photos and videos, if you have it.

But the AMS wants you to keep a few things in mind.

  • Don't report a sighting that lasted more than 30 seconds. The vast majority of fireballs are only visible for a few seconds. If it wasn't a fireball, it may have been a contrail, which is different.
  • Also, don't report recurring events. AMS says seeing a fireball is extremely rare and often a once in a lifetime event.
  • Don't report slow blinking objects or lights crossing the sky. A fireball looks like a big shooting star.
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