Sighting in Triembach-au-Val, January 7, 2013

At about 4:13 in the morning, a motorist saw a flash in the sky that lasted around three seconds. It was followed by a ball from which several fragments broke away. No other witness came forward.

The GEIPAN investigation found that the description matched the appearance of a bolide, meaning a meteoroid entering the atmosphere. January 7 falls at the end of the period of the Quadrantids, a meteor shower. At the time, the sky was heavily overcast across France except in the southeast, and somewhat clearer over Germany, in the direction the witness was facing. The very early hour probably explains why there was only one report, and the event had a better chance of being seen in Germany than in France. There is no recording in the BOAM database, probably because of the cloud cover. The same day, at 11:45 p.m., a large bolide had been observed over central France (see the Saint-Étienne-de-Boulogne case).

GEIPAN classified the case as B: probable observation of a bolide.