NUFORC Sighting 02628

Occurred: 1997-08-03 22:03 Local
Reported: 1997-08-03 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 15 secs
No of observers: 2

Location: Bakersville, NC, USA

Shape: light

Summary : A bright light with a long tail (presumed to be a meteroite) was sited moving slowly across the eastern sky, in a south to north direction. The object faded out and the mountain valley had the odor of smoke.

My brothers were standing on the back porch, around 10:00 pm. One of them noticed a slow moving firey orange light traveling in a north to south direction in the eastern sky. He called it to the attention of my other brother, so both of them witnessed the site. My brothers noticed that our horses became excited as the intensity of the object's brightness decreased. The object appeared to burn out and the mountain valley appeared to become foggy. The odor smoke was quite strong and noted by others who had no idea of what had just happened. I, myself, witnessed the smokey odor and the fogginess of the mountian valley (as seen through the security lights at night). Because of the smokiness, we were concerned about the possibility of a fire, so we reported this event to the sheriff's office by calling 911. No noise was noted when the object disappeared, so we assumed that the object disintegrated in the air and that there was no impact. We believe this object was possibly a meteriote, and would like to report this to whoever would be interested. Please forward this report to the proper parties.

Posted 1999-01-28