Large Fireball Over the United Kingdom 29 January 2022

More than 300 reports from 4 countries in Europe

The International Meteor Organization has received more than 300 reports so far of a fireball event that occurred over the the United Kingdom on 29 January 2022 around 18:48 GMT (Figures 1 & 2). Event 2022-748 was mainly seen from England and Scotland, but we also received reports from Ireland and the Netherlands. It was also recorded by several UK Meteor Network (UKMon) video stations (Figures 3 & 4). The preliminary trajectory indicates a northeast to southwest path over the North Sea, ending over the English coast near between Rothbury and Morpeth.

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Fireball, Bolide?

Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.

Additionally, the brighter the fireball, the more rare is the event. As a general thumb rule, there are only about 1/3 as many fireballs present for each successively brighter magnitude class, following an exponential decrease. Experienced observers can expect to see only about 1 fireball of magnitude -6 or better for every 200 hours of meteor observing, while a fireball of magnitude -4 can be expected about once every 20 hours or so.