Mason-Dixon Fireball On Radar?
UPDATE: One of my blog readers asked if the meteor was caught by the U.S. Government's NEXRAD radars. The short answer is: Probably not. I've saved off the radar loops here if you want to download* them. You can see maps of the reports here, here, and here (new) but they seemed to be centered in York County, Pennsylvania and Baltimore County, Maryland, near the Maryland border.
Looking in the archive from AccuWeather.com RadarPlus, the radar image above from 1 AM (and those before and after it in the loop) show nothing of interest. The colored data in the lower left hand corner of the image is consistent clutter caused by the radar beam bouncing in-between layers in the atmosphere (happens ever night during the Summer).
The problem with the weather radars in question is that 1.) They only slowly scan the skies once every 10 minutes (in Clear Air mode) for less than a second (Doppler University). and 2.) They only capture a slice of the sky (though the further out from the radar you go, the smaller the cone of silence is).
We'll have a much better chance looking at security cameras, says Roylance today. P.S.: The meteor also created a sonic boom.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: I don't have much to add to the good coverage out there of the fireball over northern Maryland last night (thanks Joseph for the tip). Weather blogger Frank Roylance probably has the most comprehensive blog entry but several sources on Google News are covering it.
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