Suspected Meteor Impact Near Calgary - Report

Taken from the RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service in Budapest, Hungary.

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?cid=19949&lang=eng

(See the Event Description)

"Quickly becoming something of a favoured landing zone for all manner of
inbound space debris, the skies above Canada have once again been
treated to a fiery meteor, which takes the recent total to three in the
last couple of months. Putting aside suggestions of an oddly draw out
alien invasion, the latest meteor was spotted rushing through the early
morning clouds south of Calgary on Monday, January 05, with The
Canadian Fireball Reporting Centre (CFRC) receiving around a dozen
eyewitness reports on or around 5:45 a.m. However, according to initial
comments made by Alan Hildebrand, renowned University of Calgary meteor
expert and coordinator of the CFRC, poor visibility conditions on
Monday suggested that sighting confirmation and possible impact points
would be difficult to establish. Despite the potential hindrance to
verification thrown up by the weather, the claimed sightings have been
lent a little credence by Sherri Gallant of the Lethbridge Herald, who
writes that a CFRC volunteer was able to capture around six seconds of
the event on video. Having seen the brief but tantalising black and
white footage, Mr. Hildebrand commented that the blazing ball of fire
appeared in the skies east-southeast of Calgary before then moving off
to the south at a distance of around 200 to 300 kilometres. “It’s hard
to say how bright it was, [due to the black and white footage, but] it
was certainly a significant fireball,” he said, “I can imagine the rock
involved is approximately 10 kilograms, a rock maybe the size of your
head.” Hildebrand has also said speed and trajectory suggest the latest
sighting is unlikely to be part of the annual Quadrantid meteor shower
that rains down upon Western Canada at the beginning of every January.)"


There is also a report of this from the National Post:
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1144834


If it is unlikely that this meteor is part of the annual Quadrantid meteor shower, then possibly the recent meteor activity around Alberta may suggest that there is a number of objects on a similar trajectory. Could this be the last we will see of rogue rocks from the Cosmos for some time? Or is this just one of many objects lurking in the darkness of space, waiting for their turn to touch down over Alberta? Only time will tell. Until then, keep your eyes on the skies!