BL Info 12

Possible Meteor/Fireball or 'Geophysical Meteor' Event ?

'The Big Rumble'

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 3.08AM EDT 2nd Feb 2005 (16.08 1/2/05 UTC)
Mystery still surrounds this event. Many people across Melbourne observed a very bright flash of light and heard a thunder like noise but described it as unlike normal thunder - more like a drawn out explosion or sonic boom. Buildings shook and rattled over a wide area.

Perhaps a Meteor or a 'Geophysical Meteor' is a more likely explanation of this event rather than any ordinary type of lightning. It was heard by many to be travelling overhead (NNW to SSW) over a great distance - from Swan Hill to McCrae (near Dromana). Thick cloud at the time seems to have prevented many 'clear air' visual accounts of the object except for a very powerful flash of light.

One observer saw an instantaneous flash of light travelling horizontally across the sky ; "I saw the 'lightning' around 3am followed by a very loud thunder like noise, which felt like an earthquake shaking the house. The 'lightning' was different to a normal one and it travelled horizontally to the sky with a thick bandwith across. It appeared to be not in cloud but in clear air in front of the cloud. It started to rain a few minutes afterwards. From my bed I was looking toward the northern Geelong area (SW)." The observer was at Tarneit (near Hoppers Crossing / Werribee). Some people also reported electrical appliances mysteriously 'switching on' at the time of the event.

The Weather Bureau says that no lightning was detected in the area at the time.

Air Traffic Control at Melbourne Airport has said that nothing was seen on radar at the time however it is unlikely as their equipment is specifically tuned only for aircraft and filtering is used for other objects i.e. rain, birds, trucks etc. Their long distance radar only detects transponders on aircraft.

At the time I was lying awake/half asleep in bed and I saw a flash reflect off glass windows on the other side of the room in the almost pitch darkness. I got up thinking at first it was a very powerful lightning flash and then from an outside balcony I heard the rumble from here in Kangaroo Ground. The noise came from a low level on the horizon and specifically from an area to the west of me. I thought at the time that it didn't sound like normal thunder. No lightning or thunder was seen or heard before or after that. I heard no 'electrophonic sounds' (resonance from nearby metal objects) at the time of the flash but it would possibly have been heard/felt closer along its path.

Seismagraph stations around Melbourne registered the rumble as possibly up to 1.3 in magnitude but Geoscience Australia said it was not earthquake related.

In some cases a rumble was heard preceding the flash as well as afterwards. At around the same time a power pole and tranformer disintegrated at Toolern Vale near Melton. The power company has said that a lightning strike is possibly to blame and cannot offer any other explanation. In at least one case it rattled a picture off the wall inside a house but no structural damage to buildings was reported in the media. There were also reports from McCrae on the Mornington Peninsula which suggest an object passed overhead.

The Astronomical Society of Victoria has suggested that it was not a meteor or fireball as the travel time of the sound through the suburbs was too slow. They also suggest it would have impacted if it was causing the noise and that it would have lit up the clouds. However they also said 'the possibility (that it was a meteor) cannot be discounted'.

If you witnessed this event please let us know of what you heard or saw and your location.

For more information on what Geophysical Meteors are (and their possible relationship with Ball Lightning) please go to Andrei Ol'khovatov's informative site here: http://www.geocities.com/olkhov/gr1997.htm
Map of area showing apparent NNW to SSE path and with rainfall radar image overlayed. It also appears from some reports that the object/s may have passed over the Mornington Peninsula and out to sea.
On the 2nd Feb 2005 massive Dust Storms stretched over 2000 kms from Birchip in Victoria to northern Queensland and the Northern Territory. Conditions seemed favourable for a highly charged 'Geometeor' event to occur. In Queensland alone 5 million tons of top soil was raised into the atmosphere and blown northwards. A huge plume of salt and silt can be seen in the photo rising from Lake Eyre. It is speculated that this would have created a very high charge in the atmosphere perhaps resulting in the formation of a 'geometeor'. Dust Storms in 1902 triggered ball lightning across Victoria and possibly a 'geometeor' (or some type of lightning) that struck in Toowoomba Queensland killing one person in a mysterious massive explosion.

Even after more than 100 years of documentation the realm of such objects as 'geophysical meteors' and 'ball lightning' is only at a speculative 'frontier science' level and is still to be understood fully.

The large dust storm was connected to a powerful storm that also brought heavy rain, strong winds, and snow to Australia  Image Acquired:  February 02, 2005

A massive low-pressure system treated eastern Australia to wild weather on February 2, 2005. The storm brought destructive winds, heavy rain, low temperatures, and even snow to parts of Australia when the southern continent should be at the peak of summer. This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image, captured at 2:10 p.m. Queensland time by NASAís Aqua satellite, shows the effects of strong winds on Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia, and New South Wales. Clouds of dust cover the scene, particularly in Queensland where an estimated five million tons of top soil was blown away. In the lower left corner of the image, the storm is pulling two long plumes of silt from the dry salt pan lake bed of Lake Eyre.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

For higher resolution images go to NASA Earth Observatory - Dust Storms in Australia.
Satellite and radar imagery around the time of the event 16.00 1/2/05 UTC.
Satellite and radar imagery 24hrs later when a record daily rainfall was recorded for Melbourne of 120mm with some suburbs recieving up to 165mm.
Imagery courtesy of Bureau of Meteorology.
More accounts of the event here : BL Info 15_2