Video captures rare daytime fireball that may be meteorite, officials say
A fireball seen across the South on June 26 might have been a been a meteorite, according to the National Weather Service.
The NWS office in Charleston, South Carolina said in a post on X that there "were many reports of a fireball" and "that the satellite-based lightning detection shows a streak within cloud free sky over the NC/VA border."
The Newton County Sherriff's Office in Georgia said in a Facebook post that they were notified by the NWS that the fireball was likely a meteor. "They believe more could possibly be on the way," the department said.
The American Meteor Society logged 142 witness reports of a fireball in the region Thursday, mainly in northeastern Georgia and western South Carolina, at around 12:21 p.m. ET.
Dashcam footage appears to have caught the astral event, with Kathryn Farr of South Carolina calling it "not something you see everyday" in a post on Facebook sharing the video.
The spotting of a fireball in the daytime is a rare event, according to the American Meteor Society.
A meteor must be brighter than approximately magnitude -6 – which is brighter than the planet Venus in the night sky – to be noticed in blue skies and must be even brighter when nearer to the sun.
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