Meteorite Streaks Across Western Sky

A bright, blue-green meteorite flashed through the skies over Southern California on Tuesday, setting off a celestial light show visible from San Francisco to Mexico, officials said.

Michael McDermott, a staff member at Los Angeles’ Griffith Park Observatory, said he saw the streaking light at about 9 p.m. and that the observatory had received “just hundreds of calls.”

Dozens of calls also poured into police stations throughout Orange County, authorities said.

McDermott said the light was probably caused by a meteor fragment entering the atmosphere.

A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Los Angeles said the agency had received reports of the meteorite from “literally scores of pilots from Riverside to the coast.”