NUFORC Sighting 30379

Occurred: 2003-07-27 04:03 Local
Reported: 2003-07-27 02:28 Pacific
Duration: 5 seconds
No of observers: 4

Location: Pinellas County, FL, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Left a trail, Changed Colo

Large falling object looked like a shooting star at first but too big to be just one that burned in the atomosphere.

I noticed what appeared to be a falling star (meteor) in the sky to my west. I was about 4 miles from the Gulf of Mexico in the center of Pinellas County. I saw it fall at a high rate and slowing towards the ground. It turned from a bright white color to a blue then greenish color before disappearing on the horizon. I thought it was a meteor which landed in a sub-division about a 1/2 mile ahead since it was so large (as it appeared to the eye). After driving in the subdivision for 10 minutes, I decided to call a friend who drives a taxi on the beach and see if he heard or saw anything. Sure enough, he saw the same thing. We were both kind of embarrased to call anyone since it would of course sound like we were on drugs or something so when I called him and told him that I saw something he would not believe, he told me what he saw... it was the same thing! He was less than 1000' from the gulf coastline and saw it over the water so I knew it was larger and landed or went much further west than I thought. I met up with him and we went to a local pier (Reddington Pier) and asked the gentleman who was tending if he saw anything. He told us he was fishing and saw the same exact thing and pointed to the general direction it went. There were also 2 boats there and he said they were not there prior to the incident. The boats had pretty bright lights on board and were at least a few miles out. The gentleman had stated that he, like us, had lived in the area for his entire life and never saw anything like it. I then got a call from a friend who was with me about an hour prior and told him what I was doing, and coincidentally he saw the exact same thing. He was at least 7-10 miles northeast of my location when I saw the object. There is no doubt in my mind something landed in the water or fell/flew very fast towards it.

ADDITION TO REPORT

"Addition to PINELLAS COUNTY report of same date" I just wanted to respond to the recent report of a green meteor-like display over the water in our area. No sir, you are not nuts, and I guess I'm not either, should this be the only consideration. Aproximately 9 years ago, my wife and I were driving on Coquina Key late at night when I saw, seemingly just beyond the skyway bridge, to the SW, a very bright green "meteor" head apparently into the gulf. I remember thinking it might be a flare, due to the odd colour and the startling brightness,... but I considered the speed, (meteoric), the size, even if it was nearer than I suspected which is unlikely, and concluded that it was indeed some extraordinary low atmosphere event. It happened so quickly that my wife missed it, much to my consternation."

NUFORC Note:

Follow-up correspondence from a person in Florida who read this report. The follow-up report also appears in the NUFORC database for a date in June 1994. PD

Posted 2003-08-01