PACIFIC NORTHWEST — Early Monday morning, a bright green fireball streaked across the sky in southwestern Washington, thrilling residents and capturing the attention of meteor enthusiasts.
Jason Jenkins, driving to work about 20 miles north of Portland, Oregon, recorded the event on his dashboard camera at 6:06 a.m. “It kind of reminded me of a lightning strike because it was so bright,” Jenkins said. “The video doesn’t do justice to how close and brilliant it seemed.”
Experts from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland confirmed the sighting was a fireball—a meteor so bright it can be seen from up to 80 miles above Earth. Green fireballs often owe their color to magnesium, which emits a vivid blue-green glow when heated in the atmosphere; nickel can also contribute to the hue.
This sighting follows multiple fireball reports across the U.S. in recent days. Over the weekend, a meteor lit up Northern California skies, drawing hundreds of viewer reports. Last week, a 7-ton meteor exploded in the Ohio sky with a thunderous boom, startling residents across 10 states, Washington, D.C., and Ontario, Canada. NASA confirmed fragments from that meteor reached the ground.
In Texas, another meteor traveling 35,000 miles per hour broke apart north of Houston. Weighing about 1 ton and three feet across, it caused loud booms, and one fragment reportedly crashed through a resident’s roof.
Jim Todd, director of space science education at the museum, said fireballs are spectacular but rarely survive to reach the Earth’s surface. “Even if a fragment lands, it often looks like an ordinary rock, making it nearly impossible to find unless it hits a house or leaves debris behind,” he explained.
The growing prevalence of dashcams, doorbell cameras, and smartphones has led to an increase in fireball sightings. Jenkins said he was glad to have caught the moment on camera. “I won’t go without a dashcam ever again. I need to go buy a lottery ticket now,” he joked.