[Calvin Locke]

I believe that about the time of the first Gulf War, there was a high altitude burst that set warning bells off in a number of
advanced nations, until it was identified as a meteor/asteroid induced explosion.

[DavemeisterP]

Several years back I watched one of the large meteor showers(can't remember which one) out in the countryside. There were several meteors that went from one horizon all the way to the other horizon. This was in a flat part of Texas. There were several that actually came straight at us and exploded in a white flash like the concussion fireworks. At arms-length, the explosion was as big as the distance between your thumb and index fingers. Seemed like they made a boom, like a sonic boom, but they didn't happen very often.
I saw a meteor hit the ground a few years back, too. Very cool. It was dawn, I was driving on the interstate, and it passed though a layer of clouds right in front of me. It lit up the clouds green and then flashed purple and red and several other colors real fast, and then came out the bottom side and passed behind the horizon. It flashed when it hit on the far side. Turned out later that several other people I know saw it and it had fallen about 5 miles from me. As far as I know, no one ever found the meteorite, although there really wouldn't be anyone around there that would go look.(REAL small town America.)