NUFORC Sighting 70490

Occurred: 2008-08-11 22:30 Local
Reported: 2009-06-13 14:17 Pacific
Duration: > one hour
No of observers: 2

Location: Erie, PA, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Landed

Fireballs slowly descend from the sky and disappear into Lake Erie

Evening of 08/11/08: late night over lake erie. low slung storm cloud on the horizon. I and a friend were positioned facing north looking out over the lake. light rain, cool temperature for early part of August. With the naked eye, I confirmed with my friend that there were lights out on the lake (28 miles across) as seen first with the naked eye. Then I asked my friend if he had a pair of binoculars.

Through the binoculars it was determined at first that a small boat appeared on fire. This first bright light was furthest East in its proximity. Then, on closer inspection I noticed and confirmed with my friend that what we were witnessing was NOT a little boat on fire, but fire balls descending extremely slow from the underside of this low slung storm cloud. No identifiable sounds were heard in the vacinity. No helicopters, scrambled jets nor weather planes. The story here is eiree as the fireballs continued to fall from the sky and as the first one went down behind the horizon, another one immediately appeared and began to fall. This happened for a period of an hour to 90 minutes. I was a little concerned, not knowing what was happening and decided to leave the neighborhood where this sighting was occurring-- a quiet neighborhood that lines the shore of Lake Erie.

After witnessing at least thirteen of these fireballs, I left the area (my friend lives in the house overlooking the lake and was concerned as well, but not as much as I was.) I hoped that the local news had picked up on this story, but no one has ever reported any similar sightings at the same location, nor did I feel compelled to inform the Lawrence Park police. I did not want to bring attention to the quiet little neighborhood, plus it was raining and the folks all seemed to be sleeping and not witnessing this.

Too bad, this is definitely one for the books. I wished that I had had a powerful video camera to capture this phenomenon.

Posted 2009-08-05

© 2023 National UFO Reporting Center. All rights reserved. Use or reproduction within any application without written consent is prohibited.