It's Raining Fireballs (or Space Junk?) on Texas

UPDATE: watch a video of the South Texas fireball.

"Every color of the rainbow has been reported with orange and yellow being most mentioned ... may be the re-entry of a Chinese rocket"
AMSMeteors.org

AMSMeteors.com

• When: February 27, 2013, 3AM
• Where: Southeast Texas and western Louisiana
• What: Multiple fireballs, meteor fragments seen for miles

The American Meteor Society received a boat load of meteor (or rocket debris) reports this morning, most from the southeast/Houston, Texas area (as well as some of western Louisiana). But it wasn't just the AMS abuzz with speculation - forums like GodLikeProductions.com,  Here are some of the better descriptions, which all seem to tell the same story: multiple fireballs zooming through the sky, possibly without sound (which is curious), and in formation until splitting up into fragments.

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I counted eight meteor looking small fireballs streaking in formation right to left from a 123 degree angle, for about 2 minutes. 3 of the meteors or comets exploded the other eight kept a perfect formation. I never witnessed such a moment at 3am central time 2/27/13 I was jogging in Sweeny, Tx on 1108 early st. 77480, looking from north to south, they appeared from a southerly direction and lasted about 2 min. heading and dissapearing in a northerly direction. - Lester D. of Sweeny, TX

I have studied the heavens since I was approximately 8 years old ...at first I thought it was a group of military transport planes in formation. Then I thought it was space junk however, it was moving at a high rate of speed. There were several trucks on the road at the time of the appearance so I'm certain someone else saw what I saw. - Dennis L. of Kirvin, TX

Between 12-20 fireballs, packed in a group, with glowing tails on each. Traveling around the same speed as a low flying jet. No sound, only sight. Mike C. of Prairieville, LA

I think this was the reentry of rocket body CZ-4B. - William B. of Houston, TX

I am an airline pilot and was at 38000 feet enroute from bogota Columbia to Houston tx during the event ... An illuminated smoke trail glowing in the moonlight. - Karl K

And a UFO sighting out of Baytown submitted to MUFON which was clearly of this same phenomenon:

I woke up at approx 3.00am, used the restroom and was looking out of a large window which has a view of Cotton Lake and beyond to Trinity Bay in Chambers county, I noticed lights approaching over the lake from the southeast. The lights 10 to 20 were configured in a cigar shaped line, moving rapidly, heading in a northwest direction. At first I thought it may be a group of helicopters, we often see helicopters doing night maneuvers in this area. As the lights got closer I realized that they were not helicopter or aircraft lights. The lights were white/blue and varied continously in intensity and position in the line, it was hard to judge how far away the object or objects were from me, there was no sound associated.I last saw the lights as they pasted on the northeast side of my home. I wondered if I was seeing a meteor shower, but the sighting lasted about 30 seconds and was not moving as rapidly as I would expect for meteor, it also appeared to be close

As suggested by another witness to this event (read quotes above), someone chimed in on an astronomy group forum at Yahoo with his interpretation of the event:

I suspect that this fireball was the re-entry of the Chinese CZ-4B rocket that launched Yaogan 14 on May 10 last year. This has a NORAD catalog ID of 38259 and an international designation of 2012-021C. The latest TIP message on Spacetrack (issued at 12:16 UTC) suggests that this decayed just after crossing the equator northbound near 3degN
88.6degW on February 27 at 09:06 UTC (03:06 CST).

If it survived a little longer in orbit, then the following ground-track
should represent its motion northwards in the vicinity of Galveston:

UTC Latitude(degN) Longitude (degW)
09:08 24.7 92.8
09:09 28.8 93.7
09:10 32.9 94.6
09:11 37.0 95.6
09:12 41.1 96.8

Regards,
Alan Pickup

Even more witness reports can be read at lunameteoritehunters.blogspot.com.

Could this be related to recent Houston UFO flap or meteor outbreak all over the world?

Read a more recent blog theorizing about this sighting.