CLEVELAND — Several Ohio Department of Transportation cameras captured an apparent meteor flash Wednesday morning.
The astronomical event was seen throughout Ohio, with some Twitter users reporting their first sighting at around 6:30 a.m. local time.
In the southeast portion of the state, Luke Starner of Lancaster, Ohio, captured a dazzling video of the fireball streaking across the sky from a camera at his home.
Saw one during my jog this morning in Brunswick. Just a big flash of color and gone. Lit up the ground and left a small smoke trail that looked like a cheese puff
— chaser (@chaser84) September 30, 2020
ODOT cameras caught a brief, bright flash of light, with sightings reported brighter in eastern Ohio.
Here's a shot of the meteor flash from an https://t.co/y2mdfibYhI camera in Columbus this morning. pic.twitter.com/CmVhbBSAWn
— Matt Bruning (@mbruning81) September 30, 2020
The flash was captured on an ODOT camera near Youngstown, in the northeast part of Ohio.
You can't see the meteor, but you can see the flash. This is from one of our https://t.co/y2mdfibYhI cameras in the Youngstown area. pic.twitter.com/XISDwshr1K
— Matt Bruning (@mbruning81) September 30, 2020
According to the American Meteor Society (AMS), the event was spotted all over the East Coast and Midwest, including Ohio, D.C., Kentucky, New York, Ontario and West Virginia.
The AMS received more than 260 reports about what it calls a "fireball event" over Ohio at around 6:24 a.m. EDT.
The current meteor shower is called Southern Taurids, which is active now through Nov. 20, according to AMS.
The AMS said several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth's atmosphere each day. The vast majority occur over oceans and uninhabited areas. When fireballs occur at night, they stand little chance of being seen due to the lower number of persons out to notice them.
This story was originally published by Kaylyn Hlavaty on WEWS in Cleveland.
