A very bright fireball was seen and recorded for northwestern Montana at 06:33 LT (13:33 UTC) on November 13, 2024.
The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 115 reports by 18:30 UTC from people in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan in Canada, as well as Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming in the United States.
Trajectory based on those events shows the fireball entering our atmosphere over Columbia Falls, moving ESE toward Heart Butte.
An eyewitness from Frenchtown, Montana, described the event as “breathtaking,” saying it “turned early morning into day. So bright it lit up the ground and the interior of my semi in a green glow…many red pieces…fragmentation in a long straight line. Incredible and a little scary…happened abruptly…no warning…stunning. I wonder if some fragments reached the ground.”
A person from Missoula, Montana, described it as “a bright blue fireball, which then turned into orange and faded to yellow-white.”
“It was bright white and then bright blue,” another witness shared. “The whole sky lit up so bright before it shot across the sky,” added a person from Lolo, Montana.
Another individual from Missoula reported a persistent train lasting about 60 seconds, describing it as a “glowing train of white-orange ‘dust’ that faded and appeared to fall slightly as it dissipated.”
A witness from Darby, Montana, noted, “It was only a bit of morning twilight, no lights on inside yet. I was facing a northerly direction inside the house; it was like a headlight brightness coming through a window. When I looked up, I saw the trail. The window only showed me a part of the trail, and I was far back from the window…it was bright and left a slowly fading trail that lasted 2 or 3 seconds. I don’t know if it was a meteor or a piece of space debris…either way, it was impressive.”
The latter part of 2024 has seen a notable increase in fireball sightings across the United States, with several significant events illuminating skies over multiple states and generating hundreds of reports.
On October 26, the U.S. East Coast experienced a very bright fireball that lit up the night sky spanning six states: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. This fireball left a vivid trail and was widely visible, allowing many to witness its passage.
On October 21, another bright fireball streaked across the sky over Lake Erie, near Ashtabula, Ohio. This event occurred during twilight hours, maximizing its visual impact as it fragmented and disintegrated, leaving a glowing vapor trail that lingered in the sky.
October 6 brought one of the most intensely reported fireball sightings of the year, illuminating skies across the Midwest. This exceptionally bright meteor, thought to be a fragment from a Jupiter-family comet, was observed by hundreds across 11 states and parts of Canada, making it one of the most widely seen fireballs in recent memory.
A couple of weeks prior, on September 25, another bright fireball was observed over the Mexico-Texas border. Lasting several seconds, this fireball illuminated the area, providing a memorable show to observers on both sides of the border.
References:
1 Fireball event 6873-2024 – AMS – November 13, 2024