2nd bright meteor in a row spotted in Manitoba Wednesday night

Manitobans got back-to-back surprises with fireballs that streaked across the night sky.

“They’re both pretty much once-in-a-lifetime kinds of sightings, so the odds of them happening two in a row right after each other is really, really amazing,” said Scott Young, planetary astronomer at the Manitoba Museum.

Parts of western Manitoba and Saskatchewan had a similar sight on Tuesday night.

The fireball on Wednesday happened around 9:45 p.m. Sightings of the meteor falling through the sky were reported from people in the northern Interlake region through Winnipeg and south to Niverville.

So far, there have been 50 sightings of Wednesday’s meteor sent to the International Meteor Organization, Young said.

On Tuesday, people reported sightings from as far north as The Pas, but also in locations in southern Saskatchewan and North Dakota.

WATCH | Meteor fireball lights up southern Manitoba sky

Meteor fireball lights up southern Manitoba sky

Manitobans got back-to-back surprises with meteor that streaked across the night sky. 0:39

The odds of seeing such a bright meteor in the same region two nights in a row are astronomical, Young said.

“It’s kind of just the luck of the draw that they happen after each other like this,” he said.

“But there’s also something else that happens — it’s called the spring fireballs — for some reason, and we don’t know exactly why. There’s more of these bright meteors in the spring.”

Many images of the fireball posted on social media came from outdoor cameras, such as doorbell security cameras, which Young called a “boon” to astronomers.

Trevor Bryant’s doorbell camera caught this rare meteor sighting on Tuesday night, just before 10 p.m. in the Brandon, Man., area. (Submitted by Trevor Bryant)

In the past, they would have to rely on the second-hand descriptions of people who saw the flash. Now with the proliferation of video recording technology, they can pinpoint the exact path the meteor was taking across the sky, including the one on Wednesday.

“It looks like a very steep trajectory. This wasn’t coming in sort of at a glancing angle. So it was coming sort of straight down,” Young said.

“If we get some more reports from, you know, farther north, that would be awesome, because that helps to see it from the other side of its path, basically.”

It’s unlikely there will be a third one Thursday night, but Young said he’ll be watching the sky.