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12h ago

NASA Confirms Daylight Meteoroid Over Northern Ohio Triggered Sonic Booms

Scientists say the 6-foot, 7-ton object released roughly 250 tons of TNT as it fragmented high above the region.

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 Geostationary Lightning Mapper logged a flash at 9:01 a.m. ET over northern Ohio near Lake Erie, with videos from multiple cameras, including NWS employee Jared Rackley, capturing the fireball.
  • NASA estimates the meteoroid traveled about 44,000–45,000 mph and broke apart roughly 30 miles above the Valley City area north of Medina County, generating a pressure wave felt across several states and into Ontario.
  • Seismic instruments recorded slight ground shaking while the American Meteor Society collected hundreds of eyewitness reports from the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Canada.
  • Private analyses, including a MyRadar debris-field map, point to the highest odds of meteorite finds near the Rittman–Wadsworth corridor in Medina County, though no recoveries have been officially confirmed.
  • Officials report no injuries and continue technical analyses and coordination of potential recovery efforts as public searches begin in likely fall zones.