File photo of the meteor fireball that lit up northern Spain in September 2014
A meteor crossed the sky over Tarn-et-Garonne on Tuesday evening. Witnesses in the area have generally been cautious about coming forward, afraid of not being taken seriously. Mr Charrier of Saint-Aignan for his part didn't hesitate to tell us what he saw as he was driving on the Route de Castelmayaran (see yesterday's edition). This led to other witnesses coming forward, like Gabrielle, a resident of Montech:
"I was enjoying my favourite TV show when I saw this spot in the sky. It was at around 7.30pm. At first I thought it was a plane flying low in the sky. But it didn't have the same colour," confided the clearly shaken pensioner. Gabrielle next heard an abrupt sound. "I thought an apple had fallen or something. But there was nothing on the ground," she said. I saw my kitchen towel flap against the fruit bowl, before righting itself naturally. And I felt a light trembling."
An earthquake?
She next thought it might have been "a little earthquake. I've felt them before in the Pyrenees. This was kind of different. And that doesn't explain the trail in the sky." The testimony of Mr. Charrier also supports that of a resident of Lamothe-Cumont, confirming the previous two versions:
"I was in my living room when I saw a fireball. It was followed by sparks and was moving very fast before disappearing from view behind the nearby hills."
No sign of impact has been detected on the ground. The gendarmes say they haven't received any accounts about this event, but our fearless witnesses swear they didn't dream up the incident.
Comment: The American Meteor Society recorded 29 accounts within a 15 minute window for this fireball. In addition, there were many reports for the time period of 6:00-6:30 PM in the San Francisco Bay area as well.
Overall there have been 165 reports from January 1 to 31, 2015, in California (1 month) and 1216 reports for all of 2014 (CA).
Look up and observe! The skies are telling us something important!