Another warning....
other eye witnesses:
“We could hear aftershocks for about 3 minutes!”
“Looks like it hit Tuolumne County near Columbia! People are still reporting seeing brown smoke in that area!”
“We are in Glencoe ( Calaveras county ) our house shake”
“South Lake Tahoe- I thought either my propane tank or one of the neighbors exploded. Shook the whole house.”
“Saw the whole thing burn up in the sky right in front of me. I’m at New Melones Reservoir.”
“A friend in So Cal, Corona/Riverside area said he saw it too and it was so close and pretty big in size.”
“It was very loud in the Hwy 50 canyon, shook the house and rumbled for what seemed like a minute after the initial boom.”
Am watching Armageddon on TV right now. I will pay closer attention. ;)
Odd. I would have expected a local FReeper to beat any news service.
A large meteorite?
On Earth Day!
Calaveras CAL FIRE said they received several calls about the lengthy sonic boom and have sent spotter crews out to investigate. Reports of fires in the region came into the department, but Sunday is a permissive burn day, so CAL FIRE is not sure if the fire calls are related to the explosion.
Debris from Comet Thatcher?
Ping
http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com/2012/03/california-meteor-fireball-10mar2012.html
Found this site. The latest meteorite news.
Meteorite report site lists Upland Ca (!)as the locations.
Wow, just called my friend up on the mountain above Columbia and she said it landed about two hundred yards from their house. She said they heard the boom but thought it was a sonic boom until they heard on the Radio about the earth hit. Fires burning and the Fire Dept. spotter plane is circling the fire as we speak.
No NORAD or NASA warning.
Asteroids have hit Earth before; they will again.
Be prepared.
Forgot to mention, to impart that much energy it was either a few tons weight or was moving very fast (MV2). Some come in at over 100 Km/sec.
Beware of the BLOB!!!!!
Beware of the blob, it creeps
And leaps and glides and slides
Across the floor
Right through the door
And all around the wall
A splotch, a blotch
Be careful of the blob
(Repeats 3x)
Lyrid meteor shower?
http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Local-News/Loud-bang-a-meteor
Loud bang a meteor?
Written by Craig Cassidy, The Union DemocratApril 22, 2012 07:56 am
A chunk of meteor flew over the Central Sierra foothills on Sunday morning, rattling windows and nerves from Placerville and Groveland, to Modesto and Reno.
The loud bang was heard about 8 a.m.
It was followed by a shower of phone calls to fire and law enforcement agencies throughout the region.
A national warning system, called NAWAS, a phone-tree connecting law enforcement and other public-safety agencies across the country, had earlier put out a notice regarding meteor sightings, according to a Sheriff’s Office dispatcher in Tuolumne County.
Stefanie Henry, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sacramento, said meteor sightings were also reported to the state’s version of NAWAS, called CAWAS.
Most were from Southern California, including a big one in Orange County, she said, adding meteor reports came from as far away as the Eastern European republic of Hungary.
The meteors are the product of the Lyrid meteor shower.
The Earth passes though it each year, and this year’s pass was particularly vivid, Henry said.
In the western U.S., the shower peaked about 5 pm. Saturday, she said.
The meteors are floating space debris left by comet Thatcher, which last passed earth in July 1861.
As comets pass the Earth in their routes around the sun, they shed ice and pieces of rock.
When the Earth makes its annual circle around the sun, it collides with the space junk.
Meteors typically vaporize when they fly at supersonic speed through the Earth’s atmosphere — resulting in a bright flash and, in some instaces, a sonic boom like that of a jet fighter.
As of now, Henry said, it doesn’t appear anything reached the ground.
Cal Fire communications officer Maryjo Boon, in Calaveras County, said there was no confirmation that anything hit, though many people thought something must have.
Reports of fires in the Big Hill area of Tuolumne County around the same time were confirmed to be property owners’ private burn piles.
“We received reports of people’s windows rattling and doors coming open,” she said, adding that calls came from Mountain Ranch, Groveland, Tuttetown and Phoenix Lake.
One witness in Arnold told The Democrat that trees were briefly swept from west to east.
Another said she was knocked off her feet.
“I was walking down the stairs in the garage when the whatever happened,” said Arnold’s Erin Girard-Hudson.
“It knocked me off my feet and was shaking the house,” she said, adding her daughter, Elsie, 2, was crying. “It sounded like it was next door.”
Taunya Day Struhs, of Pine Grove, Amador County, was rattled as well.
“Our windows vibrated, we were stymied as to what it was. So bizarre,” she said by email.
Jasmin Yager, of Salida, who just turned 6, actually saw the meteor’s bright flash when she was outside.
“She said she saw a big beautiful bird. It was a red one with lots of rainbows,” said mother, Monica Yager.
“My husband and I were literally having coffee and donuts... We were like, ‘Oh, OK honey.’ “
Scott Bright, of Placeville, said the sound seemed to come from the west.
“It started to rumble then it built incredible energy… like direct hit thunder bolt, then staged-rocket sounds across the sky. In 53 seconds, it was gone,” he said. “It was the loudest thing I ever heard. It screamed across the sky… thousands of miles per hour,” he said.
“We’re lucky it didn’t hit. ... When it happens, you better call the friends you love. I thought we were gone.”
Union Democrat reporter Sean Janssen contributed to this report.
bfl