January
Quadrantids
Tom Banks braved the predawn weather on the morning of the 3rd and picked up 21 Quadrantids and a few sporadics between 05.00 UT and 07:23 UT, though cloud frequently interrupted viewing. The video networks picked up around 2500 confirmed Quadrantids, almost entirely on the night of 2nd/3rd January. This is normal for the Quadrantids, which have a sharp but strong peak.
Fireball reports
SPA members reported four fireballs to the International Meteor Network in December, and four in January. One of those reported by SPA members via the IMO was on the evening of the 1st of December over the border between Scotland and England. This event reached magnitude -6.
In addition, I received reports of two other fireballs, on the 12th of December with a visual magnitude of at least -6 off the east coast of Scotland and over South Wales on the 26th, reaching visual magnitude -5.7.
February and March
There are no major showers in February or March, and no members reports of any radio activity. There were however a few nice fireballs seen during this period.
Over 300 people across Europe, including 20 in the UK, reported a fireball on 19th February at around 03:44 UT. The event was over northern Germany but was still about magnitude -1 even in the UK. The IMO report on this event and more images can be read here https://spa.imo.net/members/imo_view/event/2025/1019
Fireball over Germany on 2025-02-19 at 03:45 as seen from the UK
Another bright event was reported by 136 people over Southern England on the 26th of February at around 16:35 – see https://spa.imo.net/members/imo_view/event/2025/1191 for more information.
There was also a fireball seen over Northern Scotland on the 4th of February at about 22:15. A short video of this event is available here https://spa.imo.net/members/imo_view/event/2025/763
Finally, a fireball was seen off the coast of North Western England on the 18th of March at around 22:37. The IMO report of this can be found here https://spa.imo.net/members/imo_view/event/2025/1646
The UK Meteor network picked this event up on 20 cameras, and photos and details of the meteoroid’s orbit are here https://archive.ukmeteors.co.uk/reports/2025/orbits/202503/20250318/20250318_223302.406_UK/index.html
Fireball seen over NW England on 18th of March 2025.
April and May
The April Lyrids peaked on the 23rd of the month. No unusual activity was noted although there was one bright fireball detected at 01:38 on the 23rd over North-Eastern Scotland. The UK Meteor network has more information about this in the Lyrids report https://tinyurl.com/mr2zeppy.
The May Eta Aquariids peaked on the 6th and were very quiet this year with no unexpected activity around the peak. However, on the 14th of May there was an interesting Eta Aquariid that came in at a very shallow angle of 10 degrees and travelled for over 100km over Kent, Surrey and London. The ground track and some pictures of are on the UK Meteor Network’s site here https://tinyurl.com/ms4ycmrp
There were also a few other fireballs of note.
On the 10th of April there was a very bright magnitude -6 fireball over Northeastern Scotland. This was a sporadic that was picked up by the UK Meteor Network.
68 people also reported a bright event over Scotland on the 16th of May at 20:38, though it as it wasn’t dark yet there are no photos of it. A day later on the 17th, 58 people reported another fireball over Derbyshire, this time at 21:30. More can be found out about these events on the IMO website https://tinyurl.com/pfzp6za8
Finally, and excitingly, on the 23rd of April and in addition to the Lyrid detected over Scotland, a second fireball was detected over Southern England. We believe this one probably dropped a few meteorites near Bury St Edmunds, though nothing has been found yet. There’s a news article about this in the meteor section of our website here https://tinyurl.com/3puttvst
June and July
The main event of June and July this year was a meteorite-dropping fireball over Scotland on the 2nd of July.
This event, widely reported in the papers, travelled east over Ben Nevis and probably dropped meteorites a few miles to the south of Spean Bridge (see map below). The meteor shone as brightly as magnitude -12, as bright as the Full Moon!
The meteor was tracked by the UK Meteor Network’s cameras and seen by dozens of members of the public who reported it via the IMO and to the press. The terrain is very wild and remote so no search has been organized but UKMON have urged anyone who lives or is walking in the area to keep an eye out for small black rocks.
There’s more on the BBC news website here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq8ze2vnz38o
and a full technical report with photos and video is available on UKMON’s website. https://archive.ukmeteors.co.uk/reports/2025/orbits/202507/20250702/20250702_235005.149_UK/index.html
The fireball as seen from one of the UKMON cameras in Central Scotland.
The track of the meteorite, as calculated by our Meteor Section director from video data
Members’ Visual Reports
Aside from the fireball, visual reports were made of three other bright events. On the 2nd of June at 22:27, twenty five observers over the UK saw a bright fireball over Mid-Wales. This fireball was heading north and probably broke up over Shrewsbury. Meanwhile on 28th June at 00:02, two observers in Eastern England spotted a fireball over Belgium which was also seen by fifteen other meteor spotters in Europe. Finally, on the 26th of July around 22:35 several observers in Eastern England saw a fireball over the Netherlands. This was also seen by observers in Belgium and the Netherlands. Only the one over Mid Wales was picked up on the UK camera networks.
Fireball on 2025-06-02 as seen by a UKMON camera in central England.
August and September
Coming Soon