Meteor Events

June 3, 2023

Strewnify

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Winchcombe, England, U.K.

1 min read

Winchcombe, England, U.K. – February 28, 2021, 9:54 PM local time, hundreds of people witnessed a meteor, travelling east from Wales, and ending above the town of Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire, England. Soon after, a 300-gram meteorite was found in Winchcombe, the first carbonaceous chondrite ever found in England.

Event ID:Y20210228_21Z_30U
Entry Date/Time:2021-02-28 21:27:04 UTC
End Location:near Cheltenham, England
Reference Coordinates:51.952°N 2.144°W
Reference Altitude:30 km above sea level
Energy / Mass Estimate:<0.01kt TNT / < 50kg
Reference Speed:11 km/s
Bearing:84° E
Slope:60° from vertical
TKW:548 grams
Classification:Carbonaceous
Event Links:MetBull
UKMON
AMS Event 1202-2021

Has It’s Own Song!

The meteor made such an impression on the people of Gloucestershire, there was even a song written about it by a local artist, The Television of Cruelty Click “Listen in Browser” below, to listen while you read more about the Winchcombe meteor and a very special meteorite fall!

Song about the Winchcombe meteorite, by The Television of Cruelty

Video and News

Many videos of the event were submitted to the American Meteor Society for this event and they can be found on the AMS Event Page and YouTube. The videos referenced to calculate the search area are linked here.

© American Meteor Society, Prestbury, Cheshire, England

© American Meteor Society, Woodseat, South Yorkshire, England

© Michael Reeve, Burbage, Leicestershire, England

© American Meteor Society, Wrecclesham, Surrey, England

Search Efforts

It was announced on March 8, 2021, that a 300-gram carbonaceous meteorite was found near Winchcombe! You can read the article here:


A strewn field was first calculated by the UK Fireball Alliance. Their press release can be found here: UKFall. Don’t forget that the UK is national lockdown for the pandemic and travel is not advised.

If you are searching for meteorites in Gloucestershire, we would encourage you to join the discussion on social media:

Winchcombe Discord Channel

Strewnify Europe Facebook Group


StrewnLAB Search Area

We have solved a trajectory for this event, from the YouTube videos above, and this data has been run through the StrewnLAB software to predict a search area. We have fair confidence in the trajectory, but the general location of the Winchcombe find was also used to narrow the possibilities. Please download and review the Google Earth files below for detailed maps of the search area.



StrewnLAB V2
Critical search area extending from Cleeve Hill, through Winchcombe, and on to Ford. Heavier masses would have travelled further to the east (if they exist).

Weather Data

The weather data below is sourced from weather balloons, and publicly available via NOAA’s Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA). This data is downloaded and post-processed by the StrewnLAB algorithm, to account for changing weather patterns and weather balloon drift. The plots have altitude on the y-axis, in kilometers above sea level. The wind speed below 10km has large effect on the drift of meteorites.

There was very little wind, so drift was minimal
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