A mundane act became extraordinary event for Evelyn Bolton yesterday.

Around 1 a.m., Bolton and her daughter were taking the garbage out at their northside home when they saw an intense light appear and then disappear in the night sky.

"Our eyes hurt from the light," she told Sun Media, describing the one-minute blinding flash.

Though she found the event "freaky," Bolton didn't believe she witnessed a UFO.

But what she did see - a large glowing meteor - was rare, says University of Calgary geology professor Alan Hildebrand, co-ordinator of the Canadian Fireball Reporting Centre.

'A SCREAMER'

"It was screamer," said Hildebrand, who's also the Canada Research Chair in Planetary Science.

The light was so bright it was reported in Saskatoon, almost 500 km from our city.

Common meteors are only about the size of a grain of sand, explained Hildebrand.

To produce a "once-in-a- lifetime" spectacle like yesterday's, a meteor would have to be about the size of a soccer ball, he said.

And because there have been no reports of any sound accompanying the light, Hildebrand speculates that the meteor was made of cometary material and would have therefore left no remnants.

An explanation for the phenomenon is welcomed by Bolton.

"It was just too spooky to be nothing," she said.