NUFORC Sighting 24377

Occurred: 2001-10-15 21:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2002-08-12 11:33 Pacific
Duration: 2 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Garden Valley, CA, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Left a trail

Witnessed bright green "fireball" object moving over a hilltop while driving.

My wife and myself were driving home from visiting her parents who live in Garden Valley, a small town between Auburn and Placerville on Highway 193. The terrain is fairly rugged and hilly, and being around 9:00pm, it was quite dark. We might not have noticed the object otherwise. All I can say is we both witnessed a "fireball" shaped object. The encounter could be described the exact way one might witness a shooting star. It streaked briefly over a hilltop to our left and dissapeared. Now I would love to assume it was just that, a shooting star. The two reasons I cannot are the color and the size of the object. The color of the streaking object was bright green, like some sort of flare. I would like to assume it was a flare, but again I cannot. Flares do not streak low across the sky with such speed. (I have considered the possibility of a firework, though we heard no sound whatsoever, no pop or similar explosive sound) Secondly, it was large, low to the ground, and I could almost be sure that the green light was reflecting off of the hill it passed over. I immediately turned to my wife to ask he if she had seen it, and she confirmed she had. Neither of us can explain it, and I just happened to come upon your website and remebered the odd experience. We haven't spoken of it since. I just wanted to share, I do not wish to be contacted.

NUFORC Note:

Date is approximate. PD

Posted 2002-08-16