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3h ago

NASA Confirms Daylight Meteor Airburst Over Northern Ohio

Multi-sensor data indicate a six-foot object fragmenting high above Medina County with an energy release near 250 tons of TNT, with searches in mapped fall zones ongoing without verified meteorites.

A fireball streaks across the sky in a video captured by a National Weather Service employee in Pittsburgh.
The National Weather Service in Cleveland said that per GLM imagery, a loud boom heard in Northeast Ohio on March 17, 2026, was the result of a meteor landing.
Image
Ohio meteor

Overview

  • NOAA’s GOES-19 Geostationary Lightning Mapper detected a bright flash at 13:01 UTC, corroborated by videos including footage captured by NWS Pittsburgh employee Jared Rackley.
  • NASA estimates the meteoroid at roughly six feet and about 17,000 pounds, traveling near 44,000–45,000 mph before breaking up tens of miles above the surface near Valley City.
  • The airburst generated sonic booms and a pressure wave that rattled homes across Ohio and neighboring states, with a seismometer in Lorain County recording slight ground shaking.
  • The American Meteor Society logged hundreds of sighting reports spanning multiple states and Ontario, with daytime visibility unusual for such events.
  • Analyses including a MyRadar debris-field map point to the highest odds for meteorite fragments in parts of Medina County near Rittman and west of Wadsworth, though recoveries remain unconfirmed and searchers are urged to avoid private property.