January 16th I was driving back to northern Michigan after dropping my daughter off in Detroit. The day was long, 4 1/2 hours drive each direction, and slushy wet snow from Lansing to Detroit. As I merged from I 96 to M127 in Lansing there was suddenly a bright flash. My first thought was to wonder if it was from lightning in a rare event called thundersnow. I immediately looked at my phone to look at the radar. No there was no significant storm, just light snow at this time. I turned the phone off, and suddenly there was a loud crack. My first thought was there must be an issue with my vehicle. Nope, it felt fine, no issues driving. So I continued on, mulling over what caused the bright flash. An explosion, or just a bright light from a vehicle on an overpass? I just couldn't wrap my head around it. I remember looking at the time, thinking if it was an explosion when did it occur? 8:07 pm, still had 3.25 hours of travel to go.
Thankfully not far out of Lansing the snow stopped, the roads cleared and I found a great radio station that was playing oldies from the 80's. Just 2 miles from home, there was an accident, the road was closed. I took a two-track road, which was deep in snow, praying it was clear enough to make it home. I made it. Upon arrival, my daughter texted me...."Are you home yet? ....did you see the meteorite?" Woah....it all made sense then. Jumping on the internet the news was just breaking that yes there was a confirmed meteorite widely seen across Michigan and neighboring states. The loud crack I felt/heard was the sonic boom, the flash was the meteor exploding as it entered the atmosphere.
Here are a couple of links from some footage found on the web.
http://whnt.com/2017/02/06/meteor-over-lake-michigan-lights-up-sky-in-several-states/
I had one other fascinating meteorite experience in my life. My children were young 5 and 7 ish, and it was the annual perseid meteor shower. We brought our sleeping bags out to the dock to watch from an open vantage point. The sky was yet to be dark, was early dusk. We were barely set up when suddenly a huge bright meteorite came across the sky, with what looked like sparks flying off of it every. It almost looked like a massive giant sparkler. It looked so close we expected to see a splash from it landing in the lake, but no such thing, it just as quickly disappeared. My children were super excited, thinking we would see many more similar meteors, as this was the peak of the meteor shower. No such luck. Lots of shooting stars, with long blazing tails.
I hope those of you who read this get to see such an amazing site sometime in your life.
