On 6 October 2026, at about 1:03 a.m. local time, a green fireball crossed Arizona; a doorbell camera near Scottsdale and a webcam in Dragoon caught it, and the American Meteor Society thinks the rock was about the size of a small car. Fireballs glow between about 100 and 40 km up, so even one that seems to fall “behind the trees” is usually 100 to several hundred km away, and they shine because they squeeze the air into plasma, not because of friction. Our take: the Taurids, rich in slow, bright fireballs, peak around 5 and 12 November with a new Moon on the 9th.
100→40 kmheight where a fireball glows
≈ 340 kmaway, if it ends 10° above the horizon
5 & 12 NovTaurid fireball peaks, new Moon on 9 Nov
A green flash on the porch camera: what happened over Arizona?
In the early hours of 6 October 2026, a little after 1 a.m. local time, a bright green fireball crossed the sky over Arizona. A doorbell camera near Scottsdale caught it above a residential street, and a railway webcam in Dragoon, south-east of Tucson, recorded it at 1:03:43 a.m. Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society told Space.com the space rock was probably about the size of a small car when it hit the atmosphere. No meteorites have been confirmed.
Videos like this now turn up almost every week. Not because more rocks are falling, but because millions of doorbell and security cameras record all night through wide-angle lenses that take in a slice of sky. In March 2026 NASA traced a daytime fireball over Ohio to a small asteroid about 2 metres across and roughly 7 tonnes; it broke apart and meteorites were reported near Medina County.
It looks like it’s over the next roof. It isn’t
A fireball starts to glow about 100 km up and usually fades out 70 to 40 km above the ground. On a fisheye doorbell lens that looks close, but it is normally 100 to several hundred kilometres away. Our calculation: if the flash ends 10° above your horizon at a height of 70 km, it is about 340 km away. That is why people hundreds of kilometres apart all think it came down “just behind the trees”.
It doesn’t burn because of friction either. The rock arrives at 11 to 72 kilometres per second and squeezes the air in front of it so hard that the air heats to thousands of degrees and turns into glowing plasma, which vaporises the rock’s surface. A green colour often comes from magnesium in the rock and from excited oxygen in the air.
Fireballa meteor brighter than Venus
Speed11–72 km/s
Starts to glow≈ 100 km up
Usually ends≈ 70–40 km up
Arizona6 Oct 2026, ~1:03 a.m. local
Next seasonTaurids · peaks 5 & 12 Nov
What the camera sees, and where the fireball really is
Original Astrometrik animation; heights and Earth’s curvature are exaggerated. Inset: the doorbell view, where the streak seems to end just over the street. Main picture: the same fireball glowing from about 100 km down to about 40 km, far beyond the houses next door.
Meteor, fireball, bolide, meteorite: which is which?
The rock in space is a meteoroid; the streak of light it makes is a meteor. A fireball is a meteor brighter than Venus. A bolide is a fireball that explodes or flares, sometimes followed minutes later by a sonic boom. Only pieces that reach the ground are meteorites, and most fireballs leave none.
Fireball season is starting: the Taurids
The Taurids, debris from comet Encke and related bodies, are slow meteors, about 27 to 29 km per second, and they are rich in fireballs. In 2026 the South Taurids peak around 5 November and the North Taurids around 12 November, and the Moon is new on 9 November, so the sky will be dark. Expect only about five meteors an hour from each stream, but an unusual share of bright ones. The next predicted Taurid “swarm” year, with many more fireballs, is 2032.
Caught one on camera? What to do
Note the exact time, keep the original video file (not just a screen recording) and write down which way the camera points. Then report it on the International Meteor Organization’s fireball form or to the American Meteor Society. Reports from several places let scientists work out the path and, sometimes, where meteorites fell.
What was the green fireball over Arizona on 6 October 2026?
A bright meteor: a space rock, probably the size of a small car according to the American Meteor Society, that lit up the sky at about 1:03 a.m. local time. A doorbell camera near Scottsdale and a webcam in Dragoon caught it.
Why do doorbell cameras catch so many fireballs?
They record all night through wide-angle lenses that see part of the sky. There are not more fireballs than before; there are far more cameras.
How far away is a fireball on my camera?
Usually 100 to several hundred kilometres. It glows between about 100 and 40 km up, so even a flash low over the rooftops is far beyond your horizon.
When is the next good chance to see fireballs?
The Taurids: peaks around 5 and 12 November 2026, with a new Moon on 9 November, so the nights will be dark.
Sources and calculation
Sources: Space.com (Anthony Wood, 6 October 2026) and Hoodline (6 October 2026) on the Arizona fireball, the doorbell camera near Scottsdale and the SouthWest RailCams webcam in Dragoon; NASA Watch the Skies blog (26 March 2026) on the Ohio daytime fireball; EarthSky, Taurid meteors 2026 (peak times after the RASC Observer’s Guide); American Meteor Society definitions. Distances calculated by Astrometrik on a spherical Earth. The doorbell video belongs to its owner, so we link to reports about it instead of copying it.
Positions and times were recalculated with Astronomy Engine, the sky-calculation library Astrometrik uses; times for Vienna and Istanbul are local time. The artwork on this page was drawn by Astrometrik.