Another large fireball in New Zealand, a large bolide in the Gulf of Mexico and a Danish incident

2026, February 5. New Zealand, West of North Island, Tasman Sea. Fireball. Seen in Auckland, Bay of Plenty Region, Northland Region, Waikato Region, Wellington Region and West Coast Region. Time: around 01:09NZDT. Report of concurrent sound. See previous posts for New Zealand meteor activity. The airburst on the 30th was at high altitude and low energy yield, not like the November 2014 event. The repercussions of that airburst ran through 2015, seeing multiple mass strandings. Unfortunately, there have now been at least two highly visible fireballs following this airburst, which means the risk of cetacean strandings is extremely high. You could call it a stranding stream. 

Preliminary Track. 

2026, January 31. Denmark, Ålbæk Bugt, south of Skagen. A 13.7-meter-long cachalot (Sperm whale) stranded and died. Two fireballs of note: One occurred on the 4th and the other on the 20th. Both produced sonic booms. The first was seen in Friesland and the second in Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Skåne County, Skåne län.

2026, February 3. Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Levy and Citrus counties in Florida, USA. A large bolide. Time: Around 11:50 pm. GLM detected. First notified by a witness from Wakulla County 160 km away to the NW.

Image: GOES Lightning Mapper (GLM).