A meteor lit up the skies over the Midwest early Monday, a huge ball of flame visible from at least four states including Illinois, meteorologists said.
“It was basically visible for a long distance,” said Ricky Castro, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Chicago office. “It was certainly an interesting event, uncommon for the area.”
Dashboard videos from suburban police, shared with the weather service, show a bright blue-green fireball streaking across the sky around 1:30 a.m.
The American Meteor Society, which monitors meteor showers, said it had received more than 185 reports of sightings as of 7 a.m.
"The fireball was seen primarily from Illinois and Wisconsin but witnesses from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, New York, Kentucky, Minessota and Ontario (Canada) also reported the event," the society said on its website.
From witness reports, the society estimated the trajectory from the southwest to northeast. The meteor "ended its flight on Lake Michigan somewhere between Sheboygan and Manitowoc" in Wisconsin, it said.
The weather service’s Milwaukee office got reports of sonic booms north of the city.
“Up in Wisconsin was ground zero, we just got the fun part of it,” Castro said.
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