Fireball of November 22

Abstract

IN reference to the letter of Mr. Sheward in last week's NATURE, it may be of interest to mention that whilst talking to a friend in a dark road in this locality on the evening of November 22. the sky at the time being entirely overcast, we were startled by the sudden illumination of the clouds as if by the outburst of a bright light above them. The effect was similar to that which might have been produced by the explosion of a large magnesium shell sufficiently brilliant to illuminate the entire sky. The light appeared suddenly, but faded out gradually, its estimated duration being three seconds. It appeared to me to emanate from a point in the north-east, at an altitude of about 60°. My friend, whose face was turned in the opposite direction, could not localise the outburst, though he remarked that the light suffused the clouds almost equally in the west and south-west. I noted the time as 648 p.m., which so nearly coincides with that mentioned by Mr. Sheward, that although so far apart it seems probable that we were witnesses of the same phenomenon.