See it: Bright daytime meteor triggers sonic boom over Ohio, Pennsylvania
A bright meteor streaked across the sky over Ohio and Pennsylvania around 9 a.m. Tuesday, producing a loud sonic boom that rattled homes in the Cleveland and Pittsburgh areas.
NASA says a fireball breaking through the Earth’s atmosphere was the cause of a loud boom heard by thousands on the morning of St. Patrick’s Day.
Residents across Cleveland, Ohio, reported a sudden boom that shook windows and startled neighborhoods Tuesday morning as the meteor blazed overhead.
National Weather Service offices in Cleveland, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received multiple reports of the fireball shortly after 9 a.m. EDT. An employee at the Pittsburgh office captured video of the event.
As reports of the shaking spread, NOAA’s GOES-East satellite helped confirm the cause. Its lightning mapper detected a brief bright flash over the region, despite no thunderstorms in the area at the time, indicating the signal was likely from the meteor rather than lightning.
A fireball meteor seen over Cleveland, Ohio, on NOAA's GOES lightning mapper on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Image: NOAA GOES EAST)
NASA: Asteroid unleashes energy of 250 tons of TNT creating sonic boom
NASA said the fireball meteor was likely first visible above Lake Erie in northern Ohio as it moved southeast at about 40,000 mph. The space agency estimates the fireball was created by a small asteroid about 6 feet in diameter, weighing about 7 tons.
Eye witness reports were submitted to the American Meteor Society website on Tuesday from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the Canadian province of Ontario.
The map below shows the reports and the trajectory of the asteroid. NASA dubs these skyfall events "chicken little."
NASA's All Sky Fireball Network map of the fireball event seen from Delaware to Canada on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/AMS)
"The asteroid unleashed an energy of 250 tons of TNT when it fragmented, resulting in a pressure wave which propagated to the ground, causing the booms and explosive noises heard by many of the public. It may have also shook houses north of Medina," according to NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.
"THE SONIC BOOM CAME FIRST THEN THE WHOLE HOUSE SHOOK VIOLENTLY," one witness from North Olmsted, Ohio, wrote.
Report a Typo
