{"id":531087,"date":"2026-03-18T15:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/531087\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T15:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:59:09","slug":"eye-witnesses-describe-the-meteor-that-flew-over-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/531087\/","title":{"rendered":"Eye-Witnesses Describe the Meteor That Flew Over the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"anchor-ba35f9\" class=\"body-graf\">A meteor falling from the sky was responsible for a loud boom heard on March 17 heard throughout multiple states in the eastern part of the United States, reports the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-71ef22\" class=\"body-graf\">&#8220;It shook my whole house,&#8221; Andrea Witt, who lives in Lorain county in Ohio, tells TODAY.com. Witt was filming when the meteor flew over her house <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@malefic_rising\/video\/7618277563579862302\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">and captures her shock on camera<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-66c8dd\" class=\"body-graf\">Jess Adamini, who is based in Cleveland, was sitting on the couch with her husband when the boom startled them. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-1983f7\" class=\"body-graf\">&#8220;It really did sound like it came from the sky directly over my home,&#8221; she says. &#8220;It was extremely loud. It shook the ground. It&#8217;s kind of remarkable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-79e1fe\" class=\"body-graf\">Adamini took to social media to gather information. Online, multiple videos showed what appeared to be an object tumbling from the sky and hurtling toward the Earth.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-3b85cd\" class=\"body-graf\">In one video <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DrJimLloyd\/status\/2033901268008087827\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">taken from a school bus parking lot<\/a> by the Olmsted Falls City School District, in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, between 8:56 a.m. and 8:57 a.m., a shiny streak appears at the top of the screen, disappearing into the clouds as it headed to the ground below.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-651a05\" class=\"body-graf\">There were no reports of injuries, and NASA confirmed it was a meteor.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-e1415b\" class=\"body-graf\">&#8220;An analysis of currently available data places first visibility of the meteor above Lake Erie,&#8221; it <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NASASpaceAlerts\/status\/2033953593242349621\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-0f8ab5\" class=\"body-graf\">&#8220;The fireball \u2014 caused by a small asteroid nearly 6 feet in diameter and weighing about 7 tons \u2014 moved southeast at 45,000 mph before fragmenting over Valley City. The fragments continued on to the south, producing meteorites in the vicinity of Medina County, Ohio.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-5c75f3\" class=\"body-graf\">&#8220;We heard this boom and big boom and a vibration in the building,&#8221; Cleveland business owner Terry Peterson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wkyc.com\/article\/news\/local\/northeast-ohio\/meteor-northeast-ohio-loud-boom-national-weather-service-cleveland\/95-1777464c-9f6e-4607-b132-639921e50b95\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">told Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2849e7\" class=\"body-graf\">Ralph Harvey, professor of planetary materials at Cleveland&#8217;s Case Western Reserve University, said this fireball was actually not that big.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-336924\" class=\"body-graf\">&#8220;In asteroid terms, it\u2019s small,&#8221; he told TODAY in an interview that aired March 18. &#8220;There\u2019s almost no likelihood they would have seen it ahead of time and been able to predict anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-85d83c\" class=\"body-graf\">Still, he noted that it was moving fast.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-9e0a9b\" class=\"body-graf\">&#8220;Rocks hitting the atmosphere, even the tenuous upper atmosphere, at that speed, it&#8217;s like slamming into a brick wall,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-fe7989\" class=\"body-graf\">A National Weather Service employee also <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NWSPittsburgh\/status\/2033904011183546605\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">recorded the meteor<\/a> in Pittsburgh. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-083cef\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cOne of our employees, Jared Rackley, caught this morning\u2019s meteor on camera from the Pittsburgh area,\u201d the service captioned the clip.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-6cf5e5\" class=\"body-graf\">A user on X noted the loud noise and reached out to the National Weather Service Cleveland to get to the bottom of things.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-7f58bc\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThe latest GLM imagery (1301Z) does suggest that the boom was a result of a meteor,\u201d the agency replied, referencing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.earthdata.nasa.gov\/data\/instruments\/glm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Geostationary Lightning Mapper<\/a> that is used for lightning detection. The National Weather Association also says it can <a href=\"https:\/\/nwas.org\/icymi-the-other-flashes-in-the-sky-glms-ability-to-observe-meteors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">track meteors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-d4bcb7\" class=\"body-graf\">A TikTok user also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@flippingcle\/video\/7618232133768760606\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">shared a clip<\/a> of the moment the meteor appeared to have hit land, generating the sound of a loud drum.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-5d1138\" class=\"body-graf\">Another clip posted on X recorded a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MiniRetrie27785\/status\/2033903440938594523\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">dog reacting<\/a> by trying to get inside its home after the boom.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-dd8cc8\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThe house shook, it was scary,\u201d the caption read, in part.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-74ee84\" class=\"body-graf\">The American Meteor Society says it <a href=\"https:\/\/fireball.amsmeteors.org\/members\/imo_view\/event\/2026\/1828\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">received over 150 reports<\/a> of a fireball in the sky on March 17 from Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Ontario, Canada.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-4d2ade\" class=\"body-graf\">Despite the sight and sound, there hasn&#8217;t been confirmation about the meteor landing.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-b1b7d9\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cWe have not heard of anything actually hitting the ground,\u201d National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Mitchell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/news\/2026\/03\/meteor-could-be-cause-of-boom-felt-across-northeast-ohio-weather-service-says.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">told the Cleveland Plain Dealer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-e20d20\" class=\"body-graf\">Meteoritic activity is not totally unusual.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2e0d6b\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cScientists estimate that about 48.5 tons (44,000 kilograms) of meteoritic material falls on Earth each day,\u201d NASA <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/solar-system\/meteors-meteorites\/facts\/#h-meteors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">says on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-7139ba\" class=\"body-graf\">Seeing meteors is not necessarily altogether rare, either. In July 2025, people throughout the Southeast <a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/video\/-fireball-seen-shooting-across-southeast-sky-is-confirmed-meteor-242355269554\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reported seeing a fireball in the sky<\/a> that was visible from outer space. That meteor was reportedly traveling 30,000 miles per hour.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-06259f\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThis was a rock barreling through the atmosphere, coming straight out of outer space,\u201d cosmologist Paul Sutter told TODAY.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-569795\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">In 2018, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/rare-meteor-credited-bright-light-rattling-noise-over-michigan-n838311\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">meteor exploded<\/a> over Michigan, shaking the ground and causing the U.S. Geological Survey to register it as a 2.0 magnitude earthquake.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A meteor falling from the sky was responsible for a loud boom heard on March 17 heard throughout&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-531087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}