"Lit Up the Entire Neighborhood" - More Giant Meteors Visit Texas

• When: December 28th and 29th, 2013
• Where: All over Texas (Central to North mainly), as well as Oklahoma
• What: Meteor sighting

Texans - (from Austin to Houston to Dallas) looking up at the night sky on the nights of December 28th and 29th were in for quite a treat, as shooting stars were definitely making some grand appearances. As with other recent meteor sightings in Texas and the world, the fireballs were gigantic and close to the ground! 2013 was a record setting year for meteors and so far, it looks like records will continue to get broken in 2014.

Folks who spotted the shooting stars flooded AMSMeteors.org and TUS with their reports.

Here's the map from the bigger sighting on the 28th (from AMSMeteors.org):

As well as a few witness reports from the December 28th sighting:

The entire sky lit up green and I saw a large green fireball with a fiery tail shoot across the sky over Oklahoma and then completely disappear a couple seconds later. Never seen one so close before.- Meida L, Oklahoma

"It was very low and close to the ground when it puffed out." - CL, Paradise

"Lit up the entire neighborhood" - Matt L, Murphy

"I wanted to investigate further but I didn't want to search the grassy field I presumed the fragment landed. I have been told each time you experience a meteorological event something good happens." - Brooks K, Dallas

"I am not the witness to this event but am reporting it for my grandfather. HE called me on my cell phone at 11:00PM December 28th 2013. HE said that some activity was going on. He has security cameras and at that time he was reveiwing them for activity that he witnessed at 10:00PM. HE told me that he woke up because his dogs were barking. He woke up and went staraight to the cameras. He said he didnt see anything so he rewound the camera to see what may have disrupted them . That is when he saw lights on the top of his house. Like something traveled from the south to northwest direction over the house. The lights were very bright and swift. The whole event lasted one minute. As soon as the lights moved the camera turned back to the same gray color" - Littlefield

And some from December 29th:

"It was one of the best meteors I have seen to date, and I've been watching at least 3-4 per year for the last 7 years" - Brandon B, Cleburne

"well i was standing out front of my home and saw a star like objec was headed my way and it was lower then most stars in the ski..anyway i went in and got my family all five of us wached it fly by and disapear.." - Ronny Courney, Sumner (TUS reader)

During the same time range, Texans in Anthony, Redwater, and George West, TX saw UFOs as well, but UFOs that clearly were not meteors... I'll be investigating these sightings and sharing those details shortly - not sure yet if they're related. For all we know, the December 28th and 29th mass meteor sightings were really mass UFO sightings. : )

Please let TUS know if you have anything at all to add to this story - surely these dramatic fireballs were spotted by Texans all over!