RIVERVIEW, Fla. — There was a “freaky” sight in the skies over West Central Florida on Tuesday. Alex Russell and his daughter Adriana were among the many to sight a bright fireball in the sky shortly after dark.
“All of a sudden I thought it was a plane or a firework or something just going off,” said Alex Russell, who lives in the Summerfield neighborhood of Riverview.
“It came down into the cloud and looked like it lit up the sky,” said his 10-year-old daughter Adriana.
The two realized the stream of light was likely a meteor falling to Earth.
“We were ready to go look for it,” said Alex. “We were going down to Wimauma to see if we could find where it hit!”
After running inside to tell their family, they checked their newly installed home security camera -- and BINGO!
“We caught it on camera. We paid $150 for the camera on Black Friday and we got a great show,” said Alex.
Experts from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center are confirming they received at least 60 eyewitnesses accounts of the meteor, which came streaming down at 6:33 Tuesday evening at a speed of over 30,000 mph before it burned up 34 miles over the Gulf.
“I could watch this all day long,” said Alex’s wife Heather.
The Russells now have one of the few videos capturing the entire event and they plan to spend more time with their eyes to the sky hoping it won’t be the last.
“I’m very happy,” said Alex. “It was amazing.”
