NUFORC Sighting 43534

Occurred: 2005-04-04 03:00 Local
Reported: 2005-04-17 22:22 Pacific
Duration: 3-4 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Wentzville, MO, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Left a trail

Blue/white streak in Southern sky traveling East to West parallel to the horizon.

I have reviewed your recent listings of UFO sighings in the hopes that someone else saw what I did on April 4. It seems that someone did see this fireball in Nashville, TN the same night.

We live in a rural area about 50 miles west of St. Louis. I am 55 years old and a bookkeeper for my husband's business.

I'm not real sure about the time, I know my clock said 3:00 am but I can't remember if I had turned the clock forward in my bedroom since daylight savings time started that previous Saturday. I know it was a couple of nights before I remembered to change it. (One of the advantages to working from your home, I am not chained to my clock.) I was having a hard time getting to sleep that night and was laying facing my window which faces the South. I saw a large blue/white streak going parallel to the horizon traveling through the sky from the East to the West at about the 2 o'clock position. The Nashville report did not state the direction the object was traveling.

I have seen many meteor showers before and this was quite different. It didn't travel in a completely straight path - seemed so sort of "wiggle" slightly up and down and get slightly thinner and fatter along its path. It almost looked like it was an object tumbling slightly along. The width of the streak was quite a bit wider than the width of a normal meteor shower streak. (Maybe about the width of a pencil at arm's length.) The object traveled very fast. It was only in the view of my window for approximately 2 to 3 seconds, but was so bright that it left a glowing blue trail behind it. I can remember seeing the entire length of its path, including its slight up and down movements for a second or two after it passed by. Normal meteors fade almost as quickly as they are seen. Unusual also was the fact that I don't recall seeing a meteor travel almost perfectly parallel to the horizon like this before.

My feeling is it was probably something like space junk re-entering the atmosphere. Hopefully that would be something easily checked out.

Posted 2005-05-11