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 The direction of travel of the meteoroid, relative to the ground, in clockwise degrees from North. The terms "heading" and "bearing" may be used interchangeably for projectile motion....: | 84° E |
| Slope: | 60° from vertical |
| TKW: | 300 grams |
| Predicted Strewn Mass: | < 25 kilograms |
| Classification: | Carbonaceous |
| Event Links: | 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!
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.
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
The geographic area where meteorites landed, from a specific meteor event. The strewn field size and shape are affected by the size of the event, the slope of the meteor,... 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:
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.
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
A computer simulation program, written by Jim Goodall. For more information, please visit the StrewnLAB Page.... 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.
My name is Jim Goodall, and I am an automotive controls engineer in Michigan, but my passion is physics. I started this website as a hobby, to support the global network of meteorite hunters.
Feel free to contact me, if you have any questions about the products on this website. Jim Goodall | Hartland, Michigan, USA | james.a.goodall@gmail.com | +1 586 709 5888