Red-Coat
Gold Member
I reserve judgement on Bazil's observation, but it is at least possible for streaks to exhibit this behaviour. I saw it multiple times when three friends and i observed the Perseid shower from the Mojave Desert in one of the more spectacular years. Although showers like this come in from the same direction, when the meteoroids enter the upper atmosphere they experience deflections and may also break up into multiple fragments. We saw multiple 'zig-zag' streaks to the extent it was impossible to keep track of some of the flights when following the expected direction of travel by eye.
The other remarkable thing was how close some of the streaks appeared to be to the ground, despite being so high up. As we were leaving, one particularly bright streak appeared across our field of view that caused all four of us to instinctively duck (a completely unnecessary precaution), and my friend who was driving almost veered off the road leading back to LA.
Although I'm not saying that's what happened here, it does also happen nearer the ground - not from atmospheric glancing effects, but when (if) a meteorite experiences stress-related detonation and breaks up into smaller pieces that have their own trajectories independent of the original direction of travel. The same sort of effect as you see from a 'starshell' type firework.
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