WASHINGTON – People all over the D.C. region reported seeing a green streak of light flash across the north sky Friday night.
What was described as a green meteor was seen by WTOP listeners in Arlington, Woodbridge, Bethesda and Colesville just before 8 p.m. Twitter uses reported seeing the phenomenon along the East Coast and even into New York City.
WTOP has reached out to NASA expert Greg Redfern and NOAA Friday night looking for answers. But as of 10 p.m. it remained unclear what the green flash was.
Kim Samperton, of Montgomery County, was driving past a golf course when she saw something zipping rapidly across the sky. At first she thought it was a plane.
“It was sort of a round green glow, but a really pretty green, like a yellowy green,” Samperton says. “You couldn’t help but think it was like a shooting star or something like that.”
But she said the bright flash was larger than a shooting star.
“it was beautiful. You couldn’t help noticing it,” she says.
Samperton and Harriett Sellows, of Arlington, both said the flash traveled west to east.
Sellows was walking along 16th Street in Arlington with friends when she saw it.
“Suddenly it turned green and we realized we were looking at a comet or a whatever. It was really quite something,” she says.
David Johnson, of Woodbridge, was on the Prince William County Parkway near Interstate 95 when he saw a blue-green ball with a white sparking trail.
“It lit up the whole sky,” Johnson says.
.@wtop Saw it in Gaithersburg.
— amccaf1 (@amccaf1) March 23, 2013
@wtop Saw it in Frederick, MD
— Scott Low (@Scott_Low) March 23, 2013
@wtop wow I sawit on way home I thought it was a fawling star near cb #Awesome
— scott parker (@Hillbillyhicks) March 23, 2013
Whoa! Sure looked like a bolide/very bright #meteor low in NE at 7:53 pm ET from Bethesda, MD, just inside the n DC Beltway. Anybody else?
— Richard Kerr (@rkerr46) March 22, 2013
A #Meteor just passed over my head in #NYC! Felt it rumble. That’s one big wish!! Does that mean I won the lotto?!?
— Robert Zepeda (@RobertZepeda) March 22, 2013
Did I just see a meteor or the brightest falling star ever?In the East toward Philly. #meteor
— Sharon Mester (@wahoomes) March 22, 2013
Did I just see a green long-tailed #meteor over #RVA? @andrewfreiden that was super cool looking!
— Karen Tucker (@KT_10S) March 22, 2013
WTOP’s Kyle Cooper and Amanda Iacone contributed to this report. Follow @WTOP on Twitter.
