'Huge fireball': Meteor streaks over Vancouver Island sky

Suspected meteor flies over Vancouver Island Several lucky islanders were able to film what they believed was a large meteor streaking through the sky.

A cosmic show lit up both the skies over Vancouver Island as well as social media Sunday evening.

People started reporting seeing what they believed was a meteor streaking over the island headed south around 5 p.m. Some believed it may have actually come down on a mountain near Port Alberni.

Michelle Dick was in Port Alberni in a lineup of vehicles picking up turkey dinners and was sending live Facebook updates about the event when a meteor passed overhead.

"I was keeping people entertained and actually it was more than what I had expected," she says.

Dick believes the celestial event happened around 5:40 p.m. and was witnessed by others in the lineup around her. But, nobody else had captured the object on video.

"It was kind of crazy. The camera on my phone is not that great but in person it was humungous, it was like a great big huge fireball," Dick says.

Her recollection about the timing of the event differs from that of Campbell River’s Sean Mark who captured an object paralleling his route along the South Island Highway in the Willow Point area.

His dashcam shows a meteor appearing in the cloudless sky above Campbell River and then heading down the island. His posting on Facebook says it was the "coolest thing ever."

The timestamp on his video shows 5:23 p.m., but in another online posting he estimates it took place at 5:01 p.m.

Maya Cotton tells CTV News she was in a hot tub with friends when a bright orange, green, blue and white light went from east to west over them in North Saanich.

Cotton says two minutes later they heard a giant boom and rumble.

The meteor actually appeared to make a hissing noise as it crossed over their field of view, says Cotton.

The differences in times and actions of the meteor could come from the possibility that people were seeing different meteors.

According to NASA, we are currently in a peak viewing time for the Geminid meteor shower which happens at this time of year.

Watts believes the meteor she spotted was heading south and she’s seen social media posts that it may have hit Mount Arrowsmith, though the one she saw was far away from the mountain.

Regardless, she’s thrilled at being able to see the event.

"To catch it on video and to actually just see it, it was amazing to see and it was a clear blue sky," she says. "It was so clear it was amazing to see."