On the night of April 14th, 2010, there was a meteor shower across the Midwest. Our skies were cloudy so we could not see anything. The video below is from the dash cam of a cop car and it captures a very large meteor falling trough the sky. Enjoy! — First Alert Meteorologist Conley Isom

Orionid Meteor Shower

If you happen to be up early this morning before sunrise and stepped outside, you might of seen several shooting stars. This is what our General Sales Manager, Jeff Armstrong saw on his morning run. This annual meteor shower is caused by debris left from Haley’s comet long ago. As the Earth moves through this debris clouds, particles are vaporized in the atmosphere, leading to shooting stars. The peak for this meteor shower is early Wednesday morning from 1AM to dawn. Of course, the best place to see the event is away from city lights in the country. Now here is the bad news. We will likely see cloudy conditions develop overnight so we will likely not see much. However, you might see a few shooting stars if we have breaks in the cloud cover. If you miss it this year, do not worry. This happens every year so we can hope for better weather then. — First Alert 25 Meteorologist Conley Isom

This years annual Perseid meteor shower will peak on Tuesday night and last until Wednesday morning. The Earth is passing through the a stream of debris from the Comet Swift-Tuttle, which is where the Perseid meteor showers come from. During the peak of the shower, you may see dozens of meteors per hour. The best place to watch the meteor shower is far away from the city lights. Once you find a spot, lay down and watch the sky. The meteors can occur anywhere in the sky with their tails pointing back to the constellation Perseus. If are fast enough to catch a picture of a meteor, we would love to see it. You can email your weather photos to weatherpics@kxxv.com. –First Alert 25 Meteorologist Conley Isom

Source: NASA Science News

An asteroid about the size of one that blasted Siberia a century ago just buzzed by Earth. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported that the asteroid zoomed past Monday morning.

The asteroid named 2009 DD45 was about 48,800 miles from Earth. That is just twice the height of some telecommunications satellites and about a fifth of the distance to the Moon.

The space ball measured between 69 feet and 154 feet in diameter. The Planetary Society said that made it the same size as an asteroid that exploded over Siberia in 1908 and leveled more than 800 square miles of forest.

Most people probably didn’t notice the cosmic close call. The asteroid was only spotted two days ago and at its closest point passed over the Pacific Ocean near Tahiti. — Copyright Associated Press 2009

Radar image of the "Fireball."

Late Sunday morning, we received numerous phone calls reporting a bright flash in the sky and a loud boom. Other reports similar to this were being reported from Texas to New Mexico. In Austin, a photographer caught one fireball on camera! Was it a meteorite or something else? No one has presented evidence of debris making it to the ground, although local officials are looking. The best guess we have is that it was debris from the two satellites that crashed in outer space last week. Which means we could see more debris falling down to Earth and burning up in our atmosphere. — First Alert 25 Meteorologist Conley Isom