for yor info: FIREBALL REPORT, Meteorites, Bolides, JAN 25 - FEB 19 2009

After a busy 'fireball in the media week' in january, which I reported here:
Thread: Fireball meteorite Recap of last week JAN 17-23 2009

there was a fireball silence in the media in the first week of february,
although some bright events happened in that week too according to
[link to www.amsmeteors.org]
but they didn't make it to the news media.

But now media reports have picked up steam and I plan to recap that here:

Bright fireball events jan 25 - feb 19 2009

jan 26 USA Hawaii At 6:26 am I saw a large bright green fireball about the size of a full moon shoot through the dark sky coming from the north moving west.... Fast.
Hawaiian Islands.
Thread: I saw a green fire ball this morning..............
jan 27 USA San Francisco I spotted something falling last night at about 9:55pm, facing south. It was very bright, with a small train, lasting about 4-5 seconds. It looked as though it would hit the ground, but it was hard to see as it disappeared behind trees and buildings.
[link to transientsky.wordpress.com]
jan 28 USA Nebraska The color was red/yellow and I think mostly from the fire that was surrounding it. There was also a short tail of fire following. My first thought was a meteor, as I saw details on the surface of the object that appeared to be circles or craters. It was coming in at a very high rate of speed and I was only able to view it for a few seconds before it went out of sight behind some trees. The size was very large, I would compare it to about half the size of the moon (although the flames surrounding it could have made it look larger).
[link to www.ufostalker.com]
www.examiner.com/r-6141753~Flaming_fireball_from_the_sky.html​
jan 29 USA Illinois 11:00 p.m., I was outside on my deck and witnessed something in the sky that completely blew me away. I described it to my husband as a huge falling star that had a very long and bright tail. I don’t remember the color of the object itself, but the tail was a bright blue and green. As it got closer to the ground, it disintegrated in a bright blast of orange sparks, resembling fireworks. The entire thing only lasted maybe 3 to 5 seconds. It was absolutely breathtaking.
[link to transientsky.wordpress.com]

**Update**
Feb 9 Hawaii An isle resident who saw the green fireball in the sky the night of Feb. 9 "thought the world was coming to an end."
Joanna Spofford, walking with her 3-year-old daughter in Kalama Valley, said, "It was the scariest thing in the world."
Astronomers said the celestial apparition could have been a new meteor, possibly from "a clump of cometary material that hadn't dispersed enough to become an annual shower."
[link to www.starbulletin.com]
**
Feb 10 Canada BC At about 4:30 p.m., an extremely bright, starlike object appeared in the sky over the Northern or Central Okanagan, which was seen from as far south as Okanagan Falls, south of Penticton. Leaving a short, glowing trail, it crossed the sky heading in a westerly direction. Some observers reported that when it was close to the western horizon, it exploded into many fragments.
[link to www.bclocalnews.com]
Feb 13 USA Kentucky, people in central Kentucky heard loud booms, felt their houses shake, and saw a fireball streaking through the sky.
[link to www.counton2.com]
Feb 13 Italy another fireball at least 10 times brighter than a full Moon lit up the sky over Italy. Although it is tempting to attribute these events to debris from the Feb. 10th collision of the Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 satellites, the Kentucky and Italy fireballs also seem to be meteoroids, not manmade objects. Italian scientists are studying the ground track of their fireball, which was recorded by multiple cameras, and they will soon begin to hunt for meteorites.
[link to www.spaceweather.com]
Feb 14 Argentina A fireball was seen in two entire provinces 600 kilometers from north to south and some 500 from east to west. It had white light that turned to blue and finally to greenish blue, with an approximate duration of between 5 to 10 seconds. Some witnesses - not all - report hearing a detonation."
[link to inexplicata.blogspot.com]
Feb 15 USA Texas, A daylight fireball over Texas on Sunday, Feb. 15th, triggered widespread reports that debris from a recent satellite collision was falling to Earth. Those reports were premature. Researchers have studied video of the event and concluded that the object was more likely a natural meteoroid about one meter wide traveling more than 20 km/s—much faster than orbital debris. Meteoroids hit Earth every day, and the Texas fireball was apparently one of them.
Feb 17 USA SC Fireball spotted streaking across sky in Summerville. I was at the bus stop this morning with my son and so something that looked like a shooting star in the trees
Maybe you can tell me what this is? I have attached a picture.
[link to www.counton2.com]
Feb 17 USA Florida 6:30 PM est ball of fire over south florida...I swear this is true. I was driving on i95 south a few moments ago and there was a ball of fire to the west..
did anybody saw this?? exactly like the one in Texas.
Thread: ball of fire over south florida...

Fireballs happen all the time and many of these meteorites remain unseen because they enter the atmosphere at daytime or in sparsely populated areas, or they can be man made space junk.
So the number of these things hitting the earth is no exact science and the chances of being hit by a meteorite are still extremely slim, although there is a steady increase in fireball reports, like in the USA:

overall USA events (brighter than mag -5) :
2006 515 reported events
2007 587 reported events
2008 726 reported events
[link to www.amsmeteors.org]

On average this results in 1.67 events a day over the last 3 years.

2009 138 reported events until february 18
So in the first 49 days of this year there were already 138 events seen primarily in the USA, or 2.82 events a day.
A remarkable 69% increase

We'll just have to see if this keeps up or maybe decreases again in the coming months.