A streak of light in the sky that left many Northern Californians perplexed on Wednesday evening turned out to be a meteor.

Lick Observatory near San Jose, California, posted on its Facebook page Wednesday night that the flash was indeed a fireball.

"A bright meteor was visible in the skies over the Bay Area shortly after sunset ... leaving a bright trail that was visible for many minutes in the western sky," according to the observatory that overlooks San Francisco Bay and is operated by the University of California.

The meteor trail was backlit by the sun just after sunset, causing its unusual appearance. The streak also changed into a curvy shape as it was blown by winds in the upper atmosphere, the observatory said.

The American Meteor Society also weighed in, posting on Twitter on Thursday morning that it received more than 120 reports and studied 45 photos about the bright light that was seen from at least three states.

Dec. 19:Twitter erupts after mysterious light seen in evening sky over Northern California

"We confirm the event that occurred over San Francisco last night was a fireball," the society said on Twitter.

The streak was primarily seen over Northern California but people also saw it as far away as Nevada and Oregon, according to the society's Vincent Perlerin.

The society's experts also studied two videos taken about 5:35 p.m. Wednesday.

"Both videos clearly show that it was a fireball and not a rocket launch as some people initially thought," the society said.

Posts started showing up on Twitter immediately afterward, with some speculating it was a satellite launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base northwest of Lompoc in Santa Barbara County.

But a planned satellite launch from the base Wednesday night was scrubbed just before liftoff.

The meteor society said the meteor traveled from the northeast to the southwest before ending "somewhere in the Pacific Ocean in front of the San Francisco Bay."

Other agencies quickly guessed it was a meteor Wednesday night.

Scott Carroll, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Eureka, said video and pictures of the streak suggested it originated in the sky and came in the direction of earth, rather than the other way around.

"It looked like the trail was brighter the closer it was to the ground," Carroll said.

The California Highway Patrol in Northern California received a second-hand report at the same time of a possible aircraft crash and fire in eastern Shasta County that proved to be unfounded and likely linked to the flash in the sky.

People in south Redding, California, and as far away as the San Francisco Bay Area tweeted photos of the unusual looking cloud.

Even the National Weather Service in San Diego asked people in Southern California if they had seen the bright light.

Follow Mike Chapman on Twitter: @mikechapman_RS