Fireball lights up North Idaho sky

SANDPOINT — Social media was abuzz with reports of a bright green flash witnessed in the sky over North Idaho on Wednesday morning.

According to the National Weather Service’s Missoula forecast office, the flash was caused by a meteor located over southwestern Alberta that was picked up on a sensor at 5:34 a.m. PST.

The fireball prompted much discussion on local Facebook pages as people commented where they were when they saw the flash and checked to find out if anyone had captured video of the event.

One Facebook user from Bonners Ferry described the flash as “bright enough to be daylight.” Another commented that it was the brightest meteor they had ever seen.

There are reports of the meteor being spotted in Canada, western Montana, Idaho and eastern Washington.

It is rare to see a meteor as bright as Wednesday’s. That meteor was bright enough to be qualified as a “fireball” which is an unusually bright meteor with a visual magnitude of minus 3 or brighter (roughly as bright as the planet Venus) according to NASA.

It was also a “bollide” or a meteor that explodes as it enters the atmosphere, which causes the distinctive flash witnessed Wednesday morning.

According to the American Meteor Society, the best time to see meteors is just before morning twilight, with two to three times as many visible meteors per hour as the hours just after dusk.

The best time of year to see meteors is September which boasts eight to 16 sporadic meteors visible per hour by morning twilight, the American Meteor Society’s website says.

Now is an especially good time to view meteors with both the Leonid meteor shower, which can produce 10 to 15 sporadic meteors an hour, winding down according to NASA and the Taurid meteor shower, which can also produce 10 to 15 sporadic meteors an hour, having just peaked Nov. 11 according to NPR.