{"id":140726,"date":"2026-03-17T14:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/140726\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T14:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:46:09","slug":"sonic-boom-from-a-meteor-shakes-ohio-and-pennsylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/140726\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonic boom from a meteor shakes Ohio and Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SatelliteAccording to the National Weather Service out of Cleveland, the sonic boom that many reported hearing in Ohio and Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning was from a meteor. NWS Cleveland said<\/a>: \u201cThe latest GLM imagery (1301Z) does suggest that the boom was a result of a meteor.\u201d GLM stands for Geostationary Lightning Mapper<\/a>. So satellites saw the bright flash of a meteor entering Earth\u2019s atmosphere near Cleveland, Ohio. Read more about a sonic boom from a meteor below. Image via NWS<\/a>.
\nSonic boom from a meteor shakes Ohio and Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

KABOOM! Did you hear it? Around 9 a.m. EDT on St. Patrick\u2019s Day, March 17, 2026, residents of Ohio and Pennsylvania began flooding the 911 line with reports<\/a> of an \u201cearthquake like\u201d explosion. The National Weather Service out of Pittsburgh was quick to report<\/a>:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re receiving reports across western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio of a loud boom and a fireball in the sky. Our satellite data suggest it was possibly a meteor entering the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

And the National Weather Service out of Cleveland followed up with data confirming the meteor. Looking at satellite imagery from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM<\/a>), you can see a bright streak over the Cleveland area that would be consistent with a meteor entering the atmosphere. NWS Cleveland said<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The latest GLM imagery (1301Z) does suggest that the boom was a result of a meteor.<\/p>\n

So satellites saw the bright flash of a meteor entering Earth\u2019s atmosphere near Cleveland, Ohio.<\/p>\n

Some people also saw the daylight fireball<\/p>\n

The American Meteor Society has more than 100 meteor reports pending from Ohio, Pennsylvania and as far away as Virginia and Canada. The reports all seem to be describing the same event. One observer, Nicole T., recounts both seeing the fireball and hearing it. Nicole wrote<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The low rumbles I heard were maybe a minute or two after if disappeared.<\/p>\n

Alec H., reporting from Cincinnati, Ohio, saw the meteor but didn\u2019t hear the sonic boom. Alec wrote<\/a>: <\/p>\n

It was cool looking, felt like that Russian meteor video without any boom.<\/p>\n

Maybe you also remember the Chelyabinsk meteor<\/a> that broke apart over Russia on February 15, 2013? It was a small asteroid with an estimated size of 65 feet (20 meters) that grabbed the attention of many as it sailed overhead. As people rushed to look at it out their windows, the resulting sonic boom shattered glass and injured observers. So far it doesn\u2019t appear there are any such reports with the Cleveland meteor.<\/p>\n

Video of the fireball<\/p>\n

Some dash cams and security cameras caught the fireball entry. Check out the video below. The meteor enters the field of view toward the end of the 22-second video.<\/p>\n

A News 5 viewer sent this video of the meteor burning up over Northeast Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u2014 News 5 Cleveland (@news5cleveland.bsky.social)<\/a> 2026-03-17T14:27:37.654Z<\/a><\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the view from a dash cam:<\/p>\n

Someone in PA caught the Cleveland meteor on his dashcam driving towards NE Ohio.Source: x.com\/hankf330togo\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rav (@rvbdrm.com)<\/a> 2026-03-17T14:32:12.340Z<\/a><\/p>\n

And you can listen to the boom in this video:<\/p>\n

A meteor hit Cleveland?????? From a friend:<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Rooster (@rooster.info)<\/a> 2026-03-17T14:09:02.637Z<\/a><\/p>\n

Will it leave behind debris \u2013 meteorites \u2013 that hunters can pick up? We\u2019ll let you know if we get reports!<\/p>\n

Bottom line: Did you see or hear it? A sonic boom from a meteor shook parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning. People saw the fireball as far away as Canada and Virginia.<\/p>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt
\n View Articles<\/a><\/p>\n

About the Author:<\/p>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt – EarthSky\u2019s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube – writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She’s been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children’s picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to the National Weather Service out of Cleveland, the sonic boom that many reported hearing in Ohio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5787,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-140726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-earth","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}