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VIDEO: ‘Fireball’ blazes across Fraser Valley night sky

Witnesses reported event as far north as Kamloops and as far south as Portland
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Briefly seen over a road in Kent, Wash., this fireball was seen in multiple places in B.C., including Agassiz, Abbotsford and Peachland. The event was seen on Tuesday, April 26, between 8:45 p.m. and 9:05 p.m. (Screenshot/AMS)

It only appeared for just a second, but Mount Woodside resident Steve Turney remembered it vividly, and it seems he’s not alone.

He and his wife Diane were walking in the Mount Woodside area on the evening of Tuesday, April 26, when a bright light appeared, an airborne fireball apparently streaking down into the valley in the Rosedale area.

“It was an incredibly close object in the sky,” Turney said, believing it may have been a meteor or an aircraft in distress. “We [quickened] our walk up the hill to see if it landed. We could see the flames off it. It really piqued our curiosity.”

According to the American Meteor Society, there have been 44 witness reports of a fireball at about 8:45 p.m.from Kamloops to Portland to Spokane and North Vancouver. Dubbed Event 2579-2022, most witnesses reported seeing the flash for roughly 3.5 seconds. A few saw it for under one second while a lucky few witnessed the display for 7.5 seconds. The trajectory appears to be westward and it’s unclear if it impacted in any significant way.

There is one video of the event, taken via dashcam in Kent, Wash.

The American Meteor Society is a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to collecting information on meteoric astronomy in North America.


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adam.louis@ ahobserver.com

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