Douglas, Wyoming, USA – Monday, April 29, 2024, 2:35 AM local time, a meteor fireball was observed heading northwest at 13 km/s, and ending at a height of 24 km above the ground. The meteor exhibited several bright flashes and extensive fragmentation. Due to this display and the slow speed and deceleration at the end point, a large number of meteorites are expected from this event.
The story of the meteor was covered by local Oil City News. It was a good-sized fireball and slow moving, and it was caught on camera by multiple sources in Wyoming and South Dakota, including a security camera at the National Weather Service station in Rapid City, Wyoming.
“The sky just lit up; it was a like a transformer blew up, but right in the sky above us,”
I analyzed video data to triangulate the path of this meteor and the trajectory solution was run through the StrewnLAB software to predict the search area shown below. Please download and review the Google Earth files below for detailed maps of the search area.
UPDATE V1 2024-05-04 04:09 UTC: Accurate video solution obtained using AMS posted videos from Torrington, Casper, and Rapid City. Stellar solution used for Rapid City video.
Douglas StrewnLAB V1Douglas Critical Search Area V1
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.
Light winds from the west pushed meteorites east of the path
The author and founder of Strewnify.com, an automotive controls engineer, with a passion for physics.
Hancock, Michigan, USA | james.a.goodall@gmail.com | +1 586 709 5888
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