No Ordinary Shooting Star - Mass Fireball Sighting in Dallas Area

• When: June 22nd, 2013
• Where: Northeast Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth area, but also as far south as Tyler)
• What: Fireballs fragmenting in night sky, possible meteor

Back on June 22nd, a ton of Texans got to see a kick-ass shooting star.... or something. I like sharing stories of identified flying objects, too - in particular, meteors and drones. But the reason I'm sharing this meteor sighting is because I'm not so sure it was a meteor.

According to the many witnesses, a pair of yellow white fireballs fragmented in the night sky. But the silence and brightness of the event is curious, and the witnesses, which include veteran sky gazers who've seen their fair share of shooting stars, were all floored by the sighting, which they compared to a fireworks show.

Did you see this UFO? What do you think it was? Let me know!

Here's AMSMeteors.org's map of the event:

And highlights from witness reports:

It looked like two yellowish balls surrounded by white light next to each other with one white tail. Although it was obviously only a few seconds, it seemed to last a while. Excited to have seen it, but really want to know what it was from because it was huge! Expect lots of reports! - Alec

Three of us saw this event; it looked like a blue-hot roman candle ball. Because of the brightness and fragmentation, we wondered if in fact it was someone shooting fireworks...but saw and heard nothing else before or after. Our time-hack should be fairly accurate, as I noted it off my (geekily accurate) watch just after the event. We were in the driveway of a house, looking east at the house - and the object appeared at the left limb of the house, so the starting azimuth I've marked is where we first saw it (the actual start would have been obscured by the house but almost certainly a more easterly azimuth. I am a casual amateur astronomer, but haven't focused on meteors. - Ashton C

This was the largest, brightest, closest looking shooting star I've ever seen, and it was in the middle of the city. I've only ever seen them in the country, so this was unusual. But also awesome. - Lahaie M

I have never seen anything like this, it was so bright (really beautiful) but so close that I honestly thought it was going to hit the neighbors house. I watch the night sky every night and have seen meteror's before - this one took my breath away - Susie C

It was increadible. Didnt know what to do. Simply amazed. Deff not an ordinary shooting star!  - Tim S