Updated: Fri Nov. 21 2008 10:56:01

ctvcalgary.ca

It's clear what most people across Alberta, Saskatchewan, even pockets of residents in Manitoba and North Dakota were talking about Thursday night.

Shortly after 5:30 p.m. local Mountain Time, CTV newsrooms and various media outlets were inundated with calls and emails that a giant fireball had streaked across the sky.

It's believed to be a meteor, but according to Alan Dyer with the Telus World of Science in Calgary, confirmation of what it was and where it landed may not be known for a few more days.

Nevertheless, the spectacular light display in the night sky demanded the attention of many who were either at home, driving or just outside.

"All of a sudden the sky just lit up and I saw this huge ball of fire coming down from the sky." said Albertan Sandy Wallin.

It seemed, depending on where people caught the light show, there were varying descriptions. Most witnesses described the event at first as a reddish or orange light that blazed across the sky and then exploded into a fireball.

Rob Westland witnessed the object while driving his son home from volleyball practice in Patricia, Alberta, He described the fireball as white, blue and green and the entire event lasted only seconds.

People living in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan believed the light streaked near the provinces' borders and made contact with earth there.

"I saw this brilliant light coming down from the sky to the south and... it was so bright that it almost blinded me to look at it." said Donna Wesley who was driving at the time.

Davidson Family was driving from Red Deer to Edmonton when he saw the luminous object that he said had a tail.

"I hear like this thing, it's like a jet or something, and I look and it's like this big white flash."

"As it goes through the atmosphere at ultrasonic speeds, huge speeds, it causes the air around it to glow and light up." Alan Dyer said. He believes the object is likely a meteor or "meteorite" if it hit the earth. "This by all reports, it was very quick, very fast, and so that suggests it's from the asteroid belt, it's a piece of natural space debris."

Dyer says there's a number of cameras across the province for university researchers and it will take time for them to go through the photos to figure out what it was.

Officials at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed whatever was seen was not man-made and does not pose a threat to security.

Please Add Comments

Shauna - Calgary
Am I the ONLY person who thinks its odd that this "fireball" was seen in so many random locations?
Seriously, pinpoint all the locations here on a map, and tell me how this "meteor" managed to be seen in each area, that close to the ground.
Manitoba, Alberta, North Dakota, and not in a straight line, as a falling object would be.

Wayne Lyon
We saw the fire show as we were travelling eastbound on highway 616 just west of Breton alberta. the meteor travelled on a steep southeast track across in front of us and disappeared on the horizon, slightly south of our line of travel. Most spectacular. Very bright and very fast.

Brent
The aliens have landed and planted their pods. In 50 years there will be an invasion. They want our oilsands too!!!

Kevin from Calgary
Driving home from Edmonton down Highway 2, I saw the same thing. It looked like it hit the ground east of the highway between Leduc and Wetaskiwin

Carmen
My husband saw the ball of fire fall from the sky while driving in Fernie BC. He said it seemed very close which seems to be a common comment, it must have been very large.

Sparwood BC

Kathleen Klemen
I was driving home from work last night going North on Highway 36 heading to my home NW of Vauxhall. I had just crossed the Old Man River and was heading up the hill when I saw in the NE what I at first thought was a "falling star" except it was quite low in the sky already and was very big and birght. Then it appeared to almost explode and become bigger and started glowing green as it descended and may have turned orange before it appeared to hit the earth in a huge fireball. I couldn't tell how close or far away it was but it did take me a few moments to compute what I had just seen, as it was like nothing I had ever seen before. I had no idea what it was and I was very shaken.

john dionne Wanless MB co p.cook
my kids and i were traveling to the pas from wanless around the 54 parellel we saw the light. it detonated towards the border of sask. it looked like a masive bomb exploding in a mushroom fireball it was scary but my son seen coming down better becaues of his vantage point in the backseat looing towards sask

Jennifer
I saw the flash of light from down town Regina. It only lasted about 2 or 3 seconds. I thought that it kinda looked like a big fire work, but thought that it was an odd time of year to have fire works. When I saw the video on line it was the same thing that I saw.

tracy
we live in South Eastern alberta and saw the fireball as well, while driving on highway 120, south of Medicine Hat, it lit up the entire sky, green then orange. It was quite fantastic, I'd love to know if any of it hit the earth.

Marc
5:21 PM diving Northbound on Highway 2 between Highway 611 and 13, my coworker and I saw the clouds light up(2-4 seconds) followed by a bright light spot like at the end of a firework explosion. We estimate the explosion occurred 600 m - 800m high over the horizon and might have been about 40 km East of highway 2.
Houston, does anybody have a toolbox missing?

Heather
I was traveling home at approx 5:26 pm and had just left Airdrie on HWY 567 headed east. The entire sky to the north east lit up. It looked like something had exploded in the sky and then fell to the earth. At first I thought it was a plane exploding because there were some aircraft in the sky . It was quite a sight. Wow.

Joan
My daughter lives in Lloydminster and she said her whole back yard lite up and she thought that someone had gone through the back fence and it was lights from the vehicle. It was around 5:15 when this happened. She said the whole back area of the house was alight.

curtis
Does anyone know exacally where it landed yet?

Jeff
I was leaving the front door of the Marriott River Cree in Edmonton, looking straight east and saw it - it looked like a massive firework. Amazing!

crystal
I was leaving my home in cold lake alberta at about 5:25 pm facing south...the sky lite up like radiant, intense sheet lightining...my son and i screamed and then watched it fall almost like a yellowish flare was set off nearby.It is like nothing i have seen before...my son was was the first to comment that is was an asteriod!!! he was right!WOW-THAT WAS AMAZING!

r g
i was traviling east on hiway 575 just west of drumheller about to enter the valley when the sky lit up bright red. when i looked i saw a huge rock the size of a house with a firey tail about 3-5 miles long in the north sky at about a 45 degree angle it lasted for about 3 seconds

Wayne
I seen it driving east on hwy 1 between Gull lake and Swift Current,Sask @ around 6.30 p.m.It lit the whole sky up.

Jan Laczynski
I live about 12 km SE of Saskatoon, and this evening (Thursday) I was outdoors in my yard. I saw a fireball in the NW sky. It had an intensely bright white light with a "tail" that angled to the ground. There also were orange "flames" that lit up the sky around it. It had a 2 - 4 second duration. Fantastic!

Heather
I was just outside Williston ND and would swear it was no more than 1 or 2 hundred miles away. Amazing!!

Ben Mitchell
My wife and I were going home from work about 5.25pm.We live south of St.Paul about 18klm's.The sky lit up[bright blue/white]just above our car,It was so bright I ducked because I thought it was going to hit our car,when I looked out my side window,I could see what looked like a flare burning out about 50 yards off the road and about 30 feet in the air,when we got home we called our neighbor to see if they were shooting flares,I will have to go out in the daylight to see if any debris is out in that field

curtis and rebbeca doherty
we live in saskatoon,at 6:25 pm me and the wife were driving west when this bright white flash with some blue-green colors in it ,lit the sky up for half second.at first thought we guess lightning,then maybe a power line.got home and checked internet,and to hear that it was seen all over alberta and sask is amazing.

Marc
I saw it on the western horizon of the sky in Saskatoon. It appeared white and orange and very bright with a long tail. It was moving very fast and probably only lasted a couple seconds.

Brian
I just arrived in Vancouver from Toronto by air saw the fireball as well just happened to be looking out the window briefly

Quite startling how large it was in mid air

pb
My parents called my at about 6:25 sask time when they saw a blue/green meteorite come out of the sky and land in a field about a 1/4 of a mile off of the highway they were travelling. They were a few km out of Tisdale travelling highway three heading west towards Melfort. Other people travelling they highway saw it too and pulled over to check it out. My parents said nothing about a fireball but said the meteorite was quite large and bright. Think it's related?

Ali
My sister lives in Western Manitoba and saw the flash of light on her way home from work. A few minutes later her husband was watching Calgary news and saw the story and realized it was the same flash.

bobyourunkle
I was travelling hwy 37 north of edmonton and suddenly had weird silent feeling, then all of a sudden, a huge flash in front of my eyes. Its like time stood still for 2 seconds.
I said "what in the world to my wife" as she saw the same thing.

Gord
I was at home watching the early news my livingroom window faces East. There was a bright light coming down from the top of the window, at first I thought it was fire works or something the light was crystal blue. The object lasted all of 2-3 seconds. It seemed so close that I waited for the ground to shake. Unreal the coolest thing I ever saw.

Arthur
I also saw the fireball. My location is 15 miles north of Delia and I guess that the location to be 45 to 50 degrees East of North from here. Very bright lite and 2-4 seconds duration

Kevin
I also seen the huge fireball just east of Hanna at the intersection of Highway 36 south. It lit up the whole interior of my truck on my drive home. I only caught the last few seconds of your story on TV so not sure exactly what was mentioned about where others thought they were seeing it

m
I also saw the fireball, I saw it light up the sky, I also saw it fall through the clouds and break into open sky. It looked like a flare falling and breaking up as it fell. contact me at 403-457-5453 for me to tell you where and when I seen it, it could not have been far cause i don't think the cloud ceiling was too high.

Mike Clement
i was driving east on highway 54, from Spruce View to Innisfail, at approx 5:30 there was a very bright light, it looked like a comet with a firey tail, it quickly went out.

Nathan
I was driving home after work today and about 5:10 or so I saw the same ball of fire and flames behind it shoot into the sky. I thought it was a flare or something. I was south of Lethbridge at the time.

bill
hey i live in wainwright and about 5.40 pm there was a really big flash of light the lit up the area for couple seconds and i heard a sound before the light happened also the was a smoke trail you could see from the towns lights against the night sky i don't think the was a flare because the trail was almost straight at an extreme angle

Wade
I saw a fireball on Highway 1 heading towards Strathmore around 5:15-5:25. It appeared to have touched the ground to the North-West of the town. I mentioned it to a friend in Edmonton and he said a coworker saw a similar fireball at the same time to the South-East of Edmonton.

Doug
We were traveling west on highway 14 east of Macklin Sask when the sky lit up rapidly. I thought there was a spot light from a helicopter above us, and as I look around form south, west and then north I saw orange flashes, like from the end of fireworks, out of the semi's passanger window. My co-worker Kellie was able to see more but it happend almost right above us. I stopped less than 5 minutes later and could see the smoke trail it left behind! 2 other people we talked to saw it as well.AWESOME!