Fireball seen streaking across sky over WA, OR, B.C.

A flash of "greenish" light blazed through Gerald Tracy's windows early Wednesday morning, lighting up his apartment in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood.

It was like someone turned the overheads on, but it was the middle of the night, Tracy said.

"At first, I thought it was lightning or something," Tracy said.

He had been lying awake in the dark and immediately turned to Reddit to check if anyone else saw what he had. It was a fireball.

Users on Reddit posted videos of a bluish-green streak across the sky after 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. More than 100 people across Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, Canada, reported the event on the American Meteor Society's website.

In their reports, people called it "magnificent," "spectacular" and "an incredible sight to see." Many were in awe, others startled.

One person said, they'd "never seen anything quite like that." It was "very bright and so alarming," said another.

The fireball "made me shoot out of bed," someone else said. "What in the world was that!"

Meteors actually aren't that uncommon, but we're in the middle of "peak fireball season," according to NASA. Sightings of bright fireballs around the northern hemisphere increase by 10% to 30% from February through April.

There were at least three fireball sightings in Washington last month. Dozens of fireball events were reported across the U.S. on the American Meteor Society's website in April alone.

Rocks only a few inches thick, called meteors, superheat the air into a glowing plasma as they blast through Earth's atmosphere at speeds over 200,000 mph, University of Washington professor Chris Laws told The Seattle Times during a recent event. That's the "fireball" we see.

The increase in recent sightings could be a result of the Earth passing through larger debris this time of year, or simply because more people have cameras at the ready with smartphones and doorbell and dashboard cameras, NASA said.

Speaking of, we'd like to see any videos you caught of the fireball. If you'd like to share one with us, email your video to video@seattletimes.com with your full name and a caption.

You can also report fireball sightings to the American Meteor Society online.

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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 4:54 PM.