Strange light seen in the sky Saturday night

If you saw a strange light over Southeast Missouri on Saturday night, you're not alone, and it probably wasn't an alien spaceship.

Several people in Cape Girardeau reported seeing a strange light in the sky — with colors ranging from blue to green to orange — Saturday night around 8 or 9 p.m. Those who saw the light said it changed colors in its path across the sky, then appeared to split and disappear.

Cape Girardeau Police Department spokesman Sgt. Barry Hovis said a dispatcher on duty that night reported no calls to the police department about the lights. But Hovis did witness the strange phenomenon himself as he drove home from St. Louis.

Hovis said he couldn't tell what the light was, but he saw it in the western sky, describing the colors as similar to those created when copper burns. He said the light then split in two before disappearing.

The Paducah, Ky., office of the National Weather Service received reports on the odd light, said meteorologist Robin Smith, and the office has been researching the cause.

Smith said the light definitely wasn't tied to any kind of terrestrial aircraft "mishap."

"The only thing we could think of was it was a meteor coming down," Smith said.

Weather service reports are similar to accounts by people in Cape Girardeau of a green light moving quickly across the sky.

Smith said the weather service office did receive a report of an impact in northern Iron County, Mo., and a small fire associated with the impact.

"That's as far as we got," Smith said, saying the weather service hadn't investigated the incident further as of Monday afternoon.

A dispatcher for the Iron County Sheriff's Department, when contacted late Monday afternoon, said she'd heard no reports of any impact site.

msanders@semissourian.com

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