Did You See A Bright Fireball Over The Southtowns?

The ride to work can be pretty mundane and lackluster most days. If you take the same route to your job each day you may not even notice the ordinary things on the drive in as you think about what you need to do that day or enjoy your favorite songs or radio shows. The same happens for me, but not Thursday morning.

I was on my way to work at 3:40 Thursday morning and as I drove north toward the City of Buffalo I noticed an extremely bright light dropping from the sky. It looked like a basketball that was glowing brighter than any light we have in the house. It wasn't dropping at a very fast pace. It seemed to just slowly fall as I kept my eye on it before it faded at the horizon.

After I saw this glowing orb drop, I thought about who I could tell. Who is up THAT early? I had to share this experience. Was it a shooting star? A meteor? The only person I know that I could text is Channel 2 Meteorologist, Patrick Hammer! Here is a bit of our text conversation from the morning.

Turns out, I DID see a fireball! There is actually a way to report it and after I wrote this article, I hopped on the website and posted my experience.

There is a meteor shower that is currently underway and the conditions on Thursday were perfect for viewing it.

The Alpha Capricornids are active from July 7 through August 15 with a "plateau-like" maximum centered on July 31st. This shower is not very strong and rarely produces in excess of five shower members per hour. What is notable about this shower is the number of bright fireballs produced during its activity period. This shower is seen equally well on either side of the equator.

Yes, I definitely made a wish after seeing this beautiful, cosmic sight. I feel like my drive is the same old, same old every day. But every now and again I do notice things that those of us who are up in the middle of the night get lucky enough to see. This was a pretty cool experience that sure helped to make the day start a little better. Now I just need to get my kids to believe me when I tell them about it.