NUFORC Sighting 114178

Occurred: 2014-10-01 21:30 Local
Reported: 2014-10-03 17:43 Pacific
Duration: Instant
No of observers: 2

Location: St. Petersburg Beach, FL, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Aircraft nearby

Fireball over Tampa Bay inlet - Egmont Key - St. Pete Coast.

Girlfriend and I were sitting at the Bon-Aire tiki bar while watching the bay channel markers and Egmont Key lighthouse (roughly 210 degrees from our vantage point), when we saw an *EXTREMELY* bright fireball that looked to illuminate the cloud base that was hovering nearby...

If you were to hold a quarter at arm's length, that would be the close diameter to what we saw as the initial fireball (like I said, it illuminated the cloud base). I would say it was in the 3500K scale. It lasted less then a half second, with multiple bursts of light. I've seen military flares... this was not one of them.

We suspected USCG helicopter maneuvers up north towards Clearwater (unconfirmed), but the farthest south we saw the helis was due west (270 degrees), approximately 30 minutes before the fireball (only 1 running spotlight on the water). I would base the sighting at roughly 215 - 235 degrees from our vantage point at the Bon-Aire.

Did anyone else see this event!? We talked to our bartender and she thought we were crazy!

Posted 2014-10-10