meteor sighting

[Cleo]

Could a meteor cause a car signal to start flickering? I'm pretty sure what I saw in late February of this year was a meteor. My sister seems to think it was a meteor as well.

I created a post about it a month or so after the sighting, but then never posted it. The timing of it is still bothersome to me, thought I'd go ahead though and post about it. It was at night, my sister was driving and I was in the passenger seat. My niece and nephew in the backseat didn't see it, because of their vantage point. We were driving along, heading west in the town we live in (in Oregon) when we saw a flash of white light quickly streak down in a sort of slight zig zag manner, then (apparently) disintegrate in mid air. There was no sound accompanying it. Shortly after the sighting, the passenger side airbag light came on. I remember her saying something about it being the first time she'd seen that particular light come on in her car.

 

[Lilou]

I don't know if what you saw could affect the electronics in a car or not, but the passenger airbag light will be on in my car when I have a passenger or even something a bit heavy, like a book bag sitting in the seat. I've also had glitches with the light being on when nothing is sitting in the seat.

If you can remember the date, you can always check this site http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/fireball-report/ to see if there were other reports of a fireball/meteor sightings in the area at that time.

 

[Cleo]

Thanks Lilou for the link. I looked into it and found a report that matches the town I live in and the day and time that I believe I may have saw it. At this point I'm trying to remember what time of late evening/early morning it was and whether it matches. The person who reported their sighting described the meteor as white and like a giant snowball, which seems about right in a way.

 

[Niall]

Yes, meteors affect electronics. They're substantially an electrical phenomenon, which is why they can glow brighter than the Sun. Whatever rock they're riding in on is usually tiny. The plasma surrounding it is far bigger, and then the surrounding electrical fields they disturb are even bigger in size.

So while the rock is safely 'up there' in the upper atmosphere, depending on its trajectory relative to you it can interact directly with you and your car down on the ground.

We had a large overhead boom the other day, after which I sensed 'more electricity' in the air, as if a storm were imminent (it was overcast but not stormy).

 

[Cleo]

Kniall, thought there may be a decent chance the two were connected. Have also really doubted the possible meteor to have such a distant impact. Something I've speculated about without looking too much into so thanks for the information. Have started to read up a bit more on the phenomenon.

Just recently, I looked again at the report from the American Meteor Society website. Found it interesting that about three hours south of my town, there is another report at the same time of early morning that day, by someone looking towards what seems to be about the same direction (towards west). Also, thought I'd correct what I originally wrote about how it was described; the person called the meteor a gigantic snowball, not a giant snowball.