Daytime meteor streaks over Jersey, Channel Islands - Update: Sonic boom reported

ITV News
Sat, 20 Mar 2021 17:42 UTC

© AMS (screen capture)

Event 1767-2021 observers map

A meteor has been spotted over Jersey.

At around 3pm, a report was made from the island's north coast of a streak of white light moving downward through the skies above the island.

Police and the coastguard were called but the island's harbourmaster said following inspection, and judging by images on social media, he was satisfied that it was in fact a meteor.

This dashcam footage sent in by Ian Dryhurst shows the white streak visible moving through the sky while he was driving along Victoria Avenue. The flash of light can be seen clearly in the centre of the screen.

Meteors are pieces of rock which burn up on entry to the Earth's atmosphere. According to NASA, an estimated 48.5 tons of meteoritic material falls on the Earth each day.

Comment: The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 68 reports (event 1767-2021) about a meteor fireball seen over Île-de-France, Bretagne, Centre-Val de Loire, England, Hauts-de-France, Normandie, Pays de la Loire, St. Ouen, Vlaanderen and Wales on Saturday, March 20th 2021 around 14:53 UT.

Across the English Channel a loud bang and 'earthquake-like' tremors were reported by residents in Dorset according to the Bournemouth Echo. The Ministry of Defence quashed rumours that RAF planes caused the boom reports the Dorset Echo.

Update: On 21 March Yahoo News UK reports:

A loud boom that was heard across four counties was likely caused by a meteor, it has emerged.

Residents in parts of Devon, Dorset, Cornwall and Somerset heard the sonic boom at around 3pm on Saturday afternoon.

Experts have confirmed that the loud bang was likely to have been related to the fireball meteor seen in Jersey.

The British Geological Survey tweeted on Saturday afternoon of a "probable sonic event" over Somerset, Devon and Dorset.

Richard Kacerek, co-founder of the UK Meteor Observation Network, told Yahoo News: "This is a meteor we see on the pictures and videos.

"The reports we got seem to support this was a fireball meteor. The loud bang heard after this event seems likely to be related."

Seeing a fireball in the daytime is "extremely rare", he said, and would have to be "a very large bolide class to be visible during the day".

Another meteor fireball was widely observed blazing across UK earlier this month, with a sonic boom reported.

Meanwhile a record number of asteroids were observed flying past Earth last year - despite lockdowns interrupting surveys!