Daytime ‘fireball’ over central New Zealand, explosions heard – Eyewitness reports
7/07/2022 3:00am
> From the WeatherWatch archives
A possible meteor or space debris has made a dramatic entry into earth’s orbit over central New Zealand this afternoon.
WeatherWatch.co.nz has received dozens of eyewitness reports about the rare daytime fireball seen – and heard – across a number of regions, in particular around the lower half of the North Island and upper South Island.
It occurred around 1:50pm.
“At lunch today we saw an orange light coming down from the sky on a diagonal, with smoke coming out behind it” wrote ‘Pukeko Class’ on the WeatherWatch.co.nz Meteors Page this afternoon.
Another eyewitness report from ‘Michelle’ said “I’m in Paraparaumu near the beach and I’ve just seen out my kitchen window a long fast streak of light following by what looked like an explosion towards the Hutt Valley going in an East to West direction. It is overcast so it was under the cloud cover. The explosion looked about four times bigger than the sun is in the sky”.
At the time we published this story 45 eyewitness reports have been sent in to us. This has never occurred before for a daytime meteor and we’ve had our Meteors Page running for over a decade now.
View eyewitness reports here.
- WeatherWatch.co.nz
Comments
Before you add a new comment, take note this story was published on 7 Jul 2022.
Latest Video
High pressure moves closer, but wind & showers don’t completely ease for all (+3 Maps)
A south-west to westerly flow covers most of NZ this weekend as high pressure over the Tasman Sea inches a…
Related Articles
High pressure moves closer, but wind & showers don’t completely ease for all (+3 Maps)
A south-west to westerly flow covers most of NZ this weekend as high pressure over the Tasman Sea inches a…
VIDEO: NZ’s 7 Day Rainfall + 3 big northern hemisphere storms
We track the regions most (and least) likely to receive rain over the next week while major storms hit the…
VIDEO: High pressure flirts with NZ, we track the showers & wind
High pressure moves closer to NZ this weekend and brushes northern parts of the country next week. Despite the high…
Add new comment
Axel R on 7/07/2022 7:42am
today in the afternoon I saw a big bright streak of light (yellow) go through the sky which was moving diagonally. After a few seconds the streak of light disappeared from visibility. I saw this on Alex Moore park Johnsonville while playing football with my friends. I thought I was seeing things but other people saw it as well and was amazed by this once and a life time occurrence.
Reply
Vendicar Decarian on 7/07/2022 1:53pm
If you pay attention, – Several times in a lifetime.
So pay attention to the sky. Look up and note what is there.
Reply
Steve on 7/07/2022 4:40am
Worked outside on deck in New Plymouth around that time, didn’t hear or see anything like this.
Reply
Shannon on 7/07/2022 4:13am
OMG me and my sister seen this…but really thought we were seeing things…we are in Picton top of the south island
Reply
Vendicar Decarian on 7/07/2022 1:52pm
If you pay attention you should see several during your lifetime.
When I was younger, one evening I saw the snow field I was standing in, and the entire city to the horizon light up like daylight.
I knew what it was immediately and looked up, right above me and saw a tiny trail the angular diameter of the moon – or so – ending in a little puff, where the meteor exploded.
4 years ago I saw another over Michigan, one morning, knowing it’s direction, and having an estimate of it’s direction and path and angular extent, and an image taken by a trucker in the U.S. I was able to correctly estimate it’s direction, altitude, and velocity.
A friend of mine saw one that passed overhead moving almost from horizon to horizon.
Pay attention, and you see interesting things.
Reply
Wayne on 7/07/2022 3:29am
Seen from in featherston in direction of lake wairarapa large fire ball and flaming tail appeared infront of my eyes and some sort of vapor trail behind.
Reply