Are you sure it wasn't just a firefly?

When viewed from a good angle, and against a dark background, a glowing firefly may be indistinguishable from something bright in the sky.. The valley is very bright, and most meteors (meteorites are the remnants found on the surface of the earth, if any) are bright enough.

That last part was supposed to be "[...most meteors...] are not bright enough".

I'd be more impressed if Margaret saw a firefly in November in Silicon Valley!

I've certainly seen meteors unexpected in the dawn sky as well as watched showers out near Shoreline Park, so i don't discount that Margaret could have seen a meteor.

Twitter seems like a good place to hunt this down, and lo, others saw it Margaret.

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I think it was the superintendent of Mountain View-Whisman school district crashing to earth.

Yes, I saw it. I was at el camino and charleston/arrastradero. It looked like a huge sparkler. Unfortunately there were some trees in front of me which obscured my view.

I saw it too! I was driving back from San Jose and it looked to be right over the Santa Cruz Mountains. A good 5 seconds in the sky and VERY stunning.

I saw it clearly from vicinty of Calderon/Dana and from its trajectory, great speed, faint trail and flaring, and sudden flameout I was sure it was a meteor - unusually bright and rather long-lasting.

I can't imagine mistaking a firefly (if there were any around here) for a meteor.

Possibly a rocket, or part of one, from Vandenberg.

Yes, I saw it while driving south on San Antonio Road, and had a good view. The glowing meteor stopped just short of the ground (presumably vaporized at that point), and left a visible trail in the sky. From my position, it appeared to come at a very steep angle, perhaps 20 degrees off vertical.

Saw it from Shore Line Park, looked like it was over Los Altos, but can't be sure, but definitely between us and the mountains. smoke trail lingered for minutes, Others there saw it too. Looked greenish, saw some clips on youtube of daytime meteors, looked the same. If someone finds it (if it didn't all burn up) it's worth some money!

This article was in the SF Chronicle. Guess there were many others who saw it too!
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I saw a fireball near Willows in Glenn County. I thought it actually hit ground west of town. It was a large slow moving fireball. At first I thought it may be a plane crashing. But after reading about the Taurids meteor shower happening at that very time, I know know it was a meteorite. It was awesome!