{"id":424460,"date":"2026-04-30T02:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/424460\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T02:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T02:56:10","slug":"what-was-that-bright-flash-seen-in-sky-above-washington-state-what-we-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/424460\/","title":{"rendered":"What was that bright flash seen in sky above Washington state? What we know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Did you spot a bright flash of light in the sky above Washington state?<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">People across parts of Canada and the Pacific Northwest reported seeing a <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Washington\/comments\/1syrk0o\/meteor_this_evening\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:bright fireball;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">bright fireball<\/a> in the early morning hours on Wednesday, April 29.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">What was the bright flash?<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Here\u2019s what we know:<\/p>\n<p>What was bright flash in sky above Washington state?<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Just after midnight on Wednesday, the <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amsmeteors.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:American Meteor Society;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">American Meteor Society<\/a> received more than 120 reports of a <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/fireball.amsmeteors.org\/members\/imo_view\/event\/2026\/3168\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:massive fireball;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">massive fireball<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Most of the reports came from site users in Washington state and British Columbia in Columbia. People in Oregon reported seeing the fireball as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Many observers described spotting an exceptionally bright fireball that came from up right and moved down left. Some said the bright light had a green or blue hue, and a few noted hearing a loud sound as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cNever seen anything quite like that,\u201d a person from Victoria, British Columbia, wrote in their submission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amsmeteors.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:American Meteor Society;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">American Meteor Society<\/a> tracks potential meteors through both amateur and professional reports, collecting data on meteors, showers, fireballs and \u201crelated meteoric phenomena.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The society accepts submissions when fireballs are seen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Users can report a phenomenon whenever they see one, including details on location, direction, brightness, color, sound and more. Videos can be attached if available.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Some people who reported spotting a fireball on Wednesday noted how much bigger this phenomenon appeared than standard shooting stars or even common meteor showers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThis was easily the most beautiful and somewhat frightening astrological event I have ever seen, if it really was one,\u201d a site user from Bremerton wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Did a meteor fall over Pacific Northwest?<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Staff at the <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.weather.gov\/pdt\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:National Weather Service\u2019s Pendleton station;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">National Weather Service\u2019s Pendleton station<\/a> said they weren\u2019t aware of the fireball as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They told McClatchy Media that it likely was not a regular meteorological phenomenon or an expected event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">While the <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenewstribune.com\/news\/state\/washington\/article315214797.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Lyrid meteor shower;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Lyrid meteor shower<\/a> was technically active at the time, it is unlikely this fireball was connected to the Lyrids.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Lyrid shower meteor reached peak viewing conditions in Washington state on April 21 and 22, and Lyrid meteors traditionally have a different appearance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Some experts are speculating that sky watchers may have spotted an unrelated sporadic meteor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As of Wednesday, it was unclear what the phenomenon actually was.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The American Meteor Society said it\u2019s investigating the reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you spot a bright flash of light in the sky above Washington state? People across parts of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[153681,185677,156118,2524,61,60,47794,39740,82,247,8996],"class_list":["post-424460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-american-meteor-society","tag-bright-fireball","tag-bright-flash","tag-british-columbia","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-meteor-showers","tag-pacific-northwest","tag-science","tag-space","tag-washington-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}