Did anyone else see this bright meteor/meteorite

Was off sick this week, but a colleague at work just told me he saw a huge fireball on Sat night. He's a farmer and isn't 100% certain of the time but it would have been about 10pm. He saw what he describes as a fireball 'as bright as the sun' travelling from west to east. It was white in colour with a very definite tail but broke up after about 6 seconds or so.

Wish I'd seen it!!

I got more info on the sighting, they say it between 8 and 9 pm, this coincides with all of the other reported sightings, something big happened that night, to have been seen by so many over such a wide part of the country.
BTW, its great to see so many replies
I was expecting a definite silence.

Hi,

I too saw this last Saturday night (3rd Feb) from my home in Wexford. The time was around 8.20pm, I saw a bright blue flash (similar to lightning). I looked out the window and a second or so later saw a white fireball travelling roughly SW. This then exploded into 3 or 4 pieces, all of which burned a fiery orange and disappeared.

Im amazed there werent more sightings or reports of it, as it was so spectacular.

With all the recent fireball and meteorite sightings, it sounds like we're running through uncharted terriority. Does anyone know of any reason why this is happening now? Usually these things are reasonably predictable, and we know the source :

I wonder myself now and again when activity like this increases beyond what are 'expected' rates for that current time of year, that what if it was an unmarked asteroid that just passed by within the last year? A small, undetected asteroid will still leave behind some debris as it travels (look at Phaethon and the Geminids). Is there something NASA is not telling us in the past year?