Flash of Light in the Sky, Montanans React as NWS Confirms Meteor

Here's the message I got shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday morning:

"Did anyone see the flash in the sky over western Montana? We saw it plane as day in Cut Bank. If the video goes through, this is Essex security camera" (shawn, shelby - 11/13 @ 07:07am)

I started to get more messages, tweets, and calls into the radio studios, so I figured I would shoot a note to the National Weather Service offices to see what they're hearing. But then I quickly thought, wait a minute- I'm gonna check the Montana weather hashtag on X- #MTwx.

We quickly got the answer from NWS Great Falls:

740 am - Shortly after 630 am this morning many reported seeing a brief flash in the sky. The GLM (lightning mapper) caught the apparent meteorite on satellite just north of the Glacier National Park area (circled in blue).

Here's the photos from the satellite:

Here's some other listener reactions we received:

"Saw the light in Helena also" (morgan, Helena - 11/13 @ 08:19am) "Aaron, Saw the light and burn out this morning myself. It was spectacular!" (Evan, Belt - 11/13 @ 08:22am)

"I witnessed that light - I got a REALLY good look at it- it was a meteorite!! It was right above me as I backed into my driveway and I looked up to see it through my sunroof. It was spectacular and left a serious trail of embers behind it that glowed for about three seconds. Maybe meteorite isn't the right word, but nonetheless, it was the brightest, lowest, biggest one I've ever seen. It was at 6:33am." (Ray, Kalispell - 11/13 @ 08:21am)

"I saw the momentary light in Ennis, not sure what it was I was putting out the hounds" (menace from Ennis , ennis - 11/13 @ 08:20am)

"And it completely lit the whole neighborhood (and valley, I assume) from total blackness to complete daylight!" (Ray, Kalispell - 11/13 @ 08:23am)

"This is Lonny from grass Range proximately 633 this morning. I had just got on the highway headed west towards Lewistown and the wife was in front of me in her car. We both saw the bright light one of the most spectacular fallen stars meteors I’ve ever seen." (???, Grass Range MT - 11/13 @ 08:22am)

Just for fun:

"Don't buy the story about a meteor. Clearly cloud seeding from jet contrails in the middle of the night....." (Tim, Savage - 11/13 @ 08:34am)