CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A fireball lit up skies across Northeast Ohio Tuesday morning after a seven-ton asteroid entered the atmosphere and broke apart over Medina County, NASA confirmed.
The space agency said the meteor was first detected at 8:57 a.m. off Lake Erie near Lorain. It traveled more than 34 miles through the atmosphere before breaking up, with some fragments falling to the ground.
“That’s a rocky or metal piece, a fragment that’s floating through space, that comes in contact with our atmosphere; it’s that friction that creates that streak of light that we see,” said JonDarr Bradshaw, a community engagement coordinator for the Great Lakes Science Center. “It’s very rare, because the earth has such a thick atmosphere, that that particle, that object actually makes it all the way to the ground.”
Astronomer Jay Reynolds explained Tuesday’s experience was once in a lifetime.
“A shared experience, the sound of meteors, something from space coming in,” Reynolds said. “It’s a big deal. How often does this happen, very rarely.”
Reynolds spoke with 19 News about what meteorite that might be found could look like.
“What you want to look for is something in your backyard that shouldn’t be there,” Reynolds said. “Look at the rocks, look at them carefully. You’d be surprised and just say well what’s the big deal, yeah, it’s a meteorite.”
Tens of thousands of people heard and felt an explosion all over Northeast Ohio and into Pennsylvania and New York Tuesday morning.(Source: WOIO/NWS Cleveland)Pressure wave caused the ‘big boom’
The meteor, estimated at 6 feet in diameter, was traveling at 40,000 miles per hour. NASA said when it broke up, it unleashed a pressure wave responsible for the loud boom heard throughout Northeast Ohio.
“That’s pretty incredible, right here in our own backyard!” said Bradshaw.
NASA said people reported seeing the fireball in places as far as Ontario, Canada.
There were also witnesses in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Damage in Strongsville(Julia Thyret | (Source: Viewer))Homes shook in Strongsville and beyond
In Strongsville, Kerry Woloszynek said the boom shook her entire house.
“It was just like a boom,” she said. “It was just all at once and shook the house.”
Kerry said the force knocked items from shelves inside her home.
“They like started leaning forward and all of this stuff just started leaning off of them,” she said. “Like I’m picking up glass. Like what was that?”
She said her first thought was that something had struck her house.
“You go from did something fall on my house. Was there a home explosion,” she said.
Residents across the region reported similar experiences
Hope Intihar said her house shook as well near Cleveland State’s campus.
“I heard it, like my house shook. It literally felt like a car hit my house. It freaked me out,” Intihar said. “I thought my dog like knocked over a trash can or something heavy.”
She said she looked out her windows after finding nothing inside to explain the shaking.
Meteorologist Jeff Tanchak said the meteor would have been visible to the naked eye had skies been clear.
Meteorologist Kelly Dobeck noted that once a meteor reaches the ground, it is classified as a meteorite.
No injuries have been reported.
Copyright 2026 WOIO. All rights reserved.