CLEVELAND, OH — Residents across the tri-state area were jolted awake Tuesday morning by a powerful “boom and rumble” that many initially feared was an explosion or an earthquake. However, weather officials and astronomers have confirmed the culprit was a massive meteor that entered the atmosphere shortly after 8:00 AM.
The event, which occurred around 1301Z (9:01 AM local time), was so significant that it was felt and seen by observers as far west as Illinois and as far east as Pittsburgh.
One of our employees, Jared Rackley, caught this morning’s meteor on camera from the Pittsburgh area. pic.twitter.com/2LdqOpChti
— NWS Pittsburgh (@NWSPittsburgh) March 17, 2026
Eyes in the Sky
The National Weather Service (NWS) in Cleveland officially identified the phenomenon using the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM). While the GLM is primarily used to monitor total lightning—including in-cloud and cloud-to-ground strikes—its sensitive sensors captured a high-energy signature over Northeast Ohio that was inconsistent with storm activity.
“The latest GLM imagery does suggest that the boom was a result of a meteor,” the NWS stated in a social media reply, attaching a map with a locator circled over the northern part of the state.
A Multi-State Event
The American Meteor Society (AMS) has already been flooded with reports, tallying over 140 eyewitness accounts from a wide geographic footprint, including:
- Ohio
- Kentucky
- Indiana
- Pennsylvania
- Illinois
In Pittsburgh, an NWS employee managed to capture the fireball on video, providing a rare visual record of the meteor’s descent. The “boom” reported by residents was likely a sonic boom created as the space rock traveled faster than the speed of sound before disintegrating in the upper atmosphere.
What is a GLM?
The technology that solved the mystery is part of the latest generation of weather satellites. The GLM captures hundreds of images per second, allowing meteorologists to detect sudden flashes of light that indicate severe weather. In this case, the “flash” was the friction-induced incineration of a meteor, providing a clear data point for a phenomenon that lasted only seconds.
No damage or debris has been reported on the ground, as most meteors of this size vaporize entirely before impact.
