[meteorite-list] Fireballs From The Sky: Bombarded

[MeteorHntr at aol.com]

Hello List,

Here is my take on the recent falls in North  America.  While there actually 
may be more now, as it seems like we had a  long drought since Park Forest, I 
am wandering if much of this can be traced  back to Buzzard Coulee.

The Canadian event gained strong media attention  shortly after it fell, and 
then the drama provided some great follow up stories  as meteorites were 
actually found.  

Remember, Park Forest happened  a couple weeks into our invasion into Iraq, 
and as such did not get anything  near what it should have in media coverage.  
Monahans fell a couple of days  after the Oklahoma City Bombings.  Other falls 
just didn't get much  coverage either.

I remember in late 2005 (maybe very early 2006) a  photographer for the 
Wichita Eagle came back to take photos for a follow up  Brenham story a month or so 
after the release of the Main Mass find.  He  told me that the first story 
about the Main Mass got more hits on the  newspaper's web site than any other 
story in the history of the paper!  And  I checked back after each story and it 
seemed each of the 4 or so follow up  meteorite stories in the Wichita paper 
were getting the top number of hits  in the given month the stories ran.

Who would have ever thought  meteorites were that interesting?

All of a sudden the Canadian  meteor(ite) story gets great coverage, as do 
the follow up stories, so editors  everywhere now know that local fireball 
sightings are good news stories.   Not only that, the might even lead to even 
bigger stories where meteorites are  recovered.

All in all, I think this is a case that meteorites are rising  in stature in 
the pop culture.  

Maybe before, there were just as  many fireballs, just fewer people may have 
reported them, and even fewer editors  found them newsworthy.  
 
I am just hoping for a 1933 rate of local falls with recoveries to hit the  
U.S. again!

Then again, someone up there might be mad at us and is  throwing rocks at us!

Steve Arnold
Arkansas
 
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