Video Captures 'Insane' Meteor That Stunned Onlookers: 'It Seemed So Close'

A meteor witnessed early Tuesday morning by hundreds of people in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia has been captured in spectacular video footage. Witnesses of the meteor reported hearing a “huge boom” after watching the meteor tear through the night sky.

“Well, that was different: while sitting on a patio in #NelsonBC the entire sky lit up and a meteorite came down,” witness Kevin Skrepnek‏ tweeted Tuesday. “Huge boom about 1m later.”

Video of what one witness described as “insane” was captured in security footage from several different locations and was seen lighting up the night sky. The meteor could also be seen exploding with a bright flash in the footage, which one expert said constitutes a fireball.

“I don't think there's any doubt that this was a fireball,” Jaymie Matthews, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of British Columbia, told CBC. “This is a fireball.”

Fireball is a term applied to an extremely bright meteor, according to the American Meteor Society. CBC noted they generally explode at the end as was seen in the above video with Tuesday’s meteor.

Skrepnek, the chief fire information officer for British Columbia, said he initially believed the area had suffered a massive power surge and that “all the streetlights were shorting at once.”

“Then, to the east, I saw a reddish fireball streak and break up (almost like a sideways firework) going south to north,” Skrepnek added in a later statement on Twitter. “Nothing happened afterward, but then within 60 seconds there was a massive sound (like a long, rolling thunderclap) for about five seconds.

“It was insane,” witness Jimmy-Lee Vennard told the Globe and Mail. “It lit up the neighbourhood … and then it just disappeared.”

Mary-Beth Gyurindak told the Calgary Herald that the meteor “seemed so close” as she and her husband witnessed it fly over them while they were sitting in their hot tub in Calgary.

“This green streak came across and there was a fireball on the end of it,” she said. “Then there was a flash, like it disintegrated.”