A meteor weighing 7 tons caused a loud noise in the Northern Ohio region, sending many people into panic. Witnesses saw a bright fireball descending from the sky in disbelief, at first not being able to tell what they were seeing.
NASA confirmed the loud sound was due to the meteors as they fragmented, entering the Earth’s atmosphere. It created a pressure wave when it reached the atmosphere, leading to a boom that shook buildings. The meteor traveled at a speed of 45,000 miles per hour, seen in ten states, the Canadian province of Ontario and Washington, D.C.
An employee of the National Weather Service office also shared a video of the incident, witnessing the bright ball in the sky. Apart from this, many residents in New York and Pennsylvania reported hearing a boom sound, unaware of the meteor before the confirmation. Some assumed it to be a loud explosion in the area, rattling their whole houses.
A 6-foot wide meteor weighing 7 tons and traveling at 45,000 mph exploded over NE Ohio just before 9am. It produced a very loud boom, which this doorbell camera caught! Due to the fragmenting, smaller meteorites were deposited in Medina County! ☄️
📹: Misty Klingmann pic.twitter.com/l9Hsdp0ATj
— Tyler Sebree ⚡️ (@TylerSebreezy) March 18, 2026
Several people uploaded dash cam and doorbell camera videos on social media that caught the visual or loud sound from the meteor. According to NASA, the meteor resulted in energy equivalent to 250 tons of TNT.
Furthermore, data analysis revealed that the meteor may have been first seen 50 miles above Lake Erie, off the coast of Lorain, Ohio. Then it went east of south, fragmenting over Valley City, Ohio. It travelled roughly 34 miles through the Earth’s atmosphere.
🚨Everyone screaming “7-TON ASTEROID HIT OHIO… WHERE’S THE CRATER?!”
You’re asking the wrong question… because you don’t understand what actually happened.
That rock didn’t “hit” the ground.
It got destroyed before it ever had the chance.
A 7-ton object moving 40,000–45,000… pic.twitter.com/cIhAUS5mV8
— A Gene Robinson (@AlGeneRobi96834) March 18, 2026
The head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office, Bill Cooke, said, “Some fragments, some tiny pieces of it, actually made it to the ground. This could just be a small asteroid that hung out in the belt and eventually migrated, or it could be a fragment from a larger one. We really don’t know.”
Heard the loudest boom just now in northeast OH. People heard it as far as Avon. What was that? Meteor? @NWSCLE
— Jace (@jacecraftmiller) March 17, 2026
The National Weather Service also identified the bright object as a meteor using a geostationary lightning mapper. Many people wondered if the meteor would have left a crater on the surface. But it was a small meteor that fragmented completely before hitting the ground. The atmosphere was able to take the impact and convert it to sound.
