Hi
List,
I can confirm
that the fireball was also seen from several places in northern
Portugal.
The portuguese
newspaper "Correio da Manhã" on its issue dated Tuesday 06 Jan 2004 (page 16),
has another article on this fireball.
Here is a
summary of it:
Meteor shower on the
Iberian Peninsula:
METEOR CAUSES
PANIC
Dozens of phone calls alerted
on a "ball of fire". A meteor is the origin of the
phenomena.
The sighting of a strange
flaming object in the sky caused viewers from different points of Portugal,
to enter into an alert, on sunday, on a possible aerial
accident.
Dozens of firemen went out looking for a possible fallen aircraft, untill
the local Civil Protection authorities were informed that it might have been a
meteorite
fall that was visible from several places of the Iberian
Peninsula.
"It was a ball with an
intense light and a kind of a tail. It seemed like something burning",
explained Fernanda Peixoto who at the time was at the town of Viana
do
Castelo
(north of Portugal), where she lives, when she observed the phenomena at around
17h00.
Another woman also from
Viana do Castelo, Alexandra Pereira, admited to have become scared: "It reminded
me of a falling star but it had an enormous
dimention and
a much more intense luminosity", she said. Also Mr. Paulo Vilaverde, an
assessor to the Civil Government of the Viana District, witnessed
the
fall of the
meteorite: "I was coming along the road of Varrosela towards
Viana when I saw an enormous brilliance. It called my attention
because it was still
daylight. It
seemed to me that it was a meteorite and promply I called the Civil Protection
Services".
This same phenomena was also
seen from Ponte de Sor, Viseu and Castro d'Aire (Portugal).
At Viana do
Castelo's Civil Headquarters for Help-line, dozens of phone calls were
received from several places from the Minho province.
From the city of Viseu the
"ball of fire" appeared in full daylight at around 15h30 during a local
soccer game between Academico and Vilafranquense at
Fontelo
Stadium: "I was staring towards one of the goal-lines when I saw a strong light
(brilliance)" said José Morais, coach for Academico. In his
own
words,
it was about "something passing by very fast, like a flash" and "it was so
bright that it was even visible in daylight".
A
comet's trail: Scientifically, this Sunday's phenomena is predictable, since
every year, at the beginning of January, the terrestrial orbit crosses through
a
zone of
cosmic particles which give origin to a meteorite shower.
Seen also from
Spain:
"A
great ball of fire, surrounding a silvery star", that's how one of the spanish
witnesses described what had seen in the sky at the time. According to this
same
witness, the
ball of fire caused a strong explosion followed by the ground shaking". There
were several phone calls made through several spanish provinces,
between 18h00
and 19h00, with a variety of discriptions, including believing to
have seen "an aircraft in flames", while others said that they saw "flaming
stars".
At Galiza, it
was also seen by members of the public and soccer players of both teams of
Santiago de Compostela and of San Sebastian de los Reys.
Also several
phone calls were made to the spanish emergency services, from the areas of
Madrid, Albacete, Valencia, Teruel and Baleares.
(end).
NOTE: The
times given, are local times. At this time of the year, Portugal (and the UK) is
1 hour behind Spain.
I doubt if the report from Viseu (Portugal), given as seen at 15h30 refers to
another fireball or something else not related.
José.
Regards
José
Campos
Portugal
