“April Fireball” streaks across the daytime sky

Reported by: John Gerard
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Updated: 4/02/2012 9:24 pm

File photo of a previously photographed bolide used only to illustrate today's event. (Scobee Planetarium at San Antonio College)
File photo of a previously photographed bolide used only to illustrate today's event. (Scobee Planetarium at San Antonio College)
SAN ANTONIO - We’ve received a bunch of phone calls Monday about a ball of fire in the sky.

John Haley says that’s exactly what it looked like.

“It was like a fireball falling right out of the sky,” Haley told News 4 WOAI. “It was so bright! It was like a little piece of the sun falling with a big torch behind it.”

I spoke to our astronomer expert Bob Kelley with the Scobee Planetarium, and he explained that it was a phenomenon called "April Fireballs."

Chunks of meteors enter and burn up in our atmosphere. The fireballs are brighter than a shooting star and can happen at any time of the day. For reasons astronomers don't fully understand, they occur in early April.

San Antonians weren't the only ones who saw the April Fireball Monday morning. Sightings were reported in New Braunfels, Kerrville, Floresville and other cities nearby.

“I can chalk that up on the old bucket list -- I saw a meteorite during the day,” laughed Haley.

Did you see it? If so, we'd love to hear from you.

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The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of News 4 WOAI (WOAI.com)

Joey Garza - 4/3/2012 10:09 PM
0 Votes
Born Again is totally retarded. Never seen anything like it. Vote for me if you agree. I am running for president. I alone know the narrow way.

Joey Garza - 4/3/2012 10:08 PM
0 Votes
The facts are simple. YOU can accept the lord chosen by God, his son, as the holy one, and learn to pray for everlasting forgiveness for consorting with other races, or you may receive, as designed, the natural facts of the profound wisdom of the Christ. Consorting with monkeys, even though they sing well and were fake from from the word start, is incorrect behavior. This is why there is a disease named aids, and why that Craig Finn guy sings the Honolulu Blues. There is no getting around this, and it will result in something dark and purple, like a bruise, because freedom routes around constipation.

fjm1061 - 4/3/2012 4:02 PM
0 Votes
I agree with born again, these local weather people are spectacularly wrong on a regular basis and somehow keep their jobs. I was going to wash my car yesterday and didn't bacause we had a %50 chance of rain according to these mooks. Not a drop today, nothing but stifling hot air. If I screwed up as often as these so called expert do, I'd be out of a job.

muddychankla - 4/3/2012 9:15 AM
3 Votes
UGH!!! I picture you as a homeless person with a laptop! Man has been around longer than 6K years. In Genesis God says to Adam and Eve go and replenish the earth. Why would He say "replenish" if they were the 1st ones here? Instead of judging why dont you try leading!

Born Again - 4/3/2012 9:04 AM
3 Votes
The unsaved try to explain fireballs shooting through the sky using science and other modern techniques, such as weather forecasting. These are the same people who said it was going to rain yesterday, last night and today. Look, it is no secret; people have understood for the entire six thousand years of man's existance that those fireballs are sent by God. He hurls fireballs and pillars of fire when he is suddenly angered. The Devil's people would like to redefine known facts, but they are too late. The truth is known and they will not get away with it. I don't know exactly why this fireball was sent, but the culprits probably know and they had better quit their foolishness and get right with Jesus. They have been warned.
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