Event: 20240823-111300

Over 70 eyewitnesses in the states of Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota have filed reports on the American Meteor Society website of a bright fireball seen August 23 at 6:13 AM Central Daylight Time (23 August 2024 11:13 UTC). An analysis of these accounts indicates that the meteor was first seen at an altitude of 50 miles above the Wisconsin town of Fairchild, moving slightly east of South at 36,000 miles per hour. Travelling 39 miles through the atmosphere, it brightly flared twice before breaking up 29 miles above the town of Shamrock.

The fireball broke apart with an energy of approximately 60 tons of TNT and the flares were easily detected by the Geostationary Lightning Mappers on the GOES 16 and GOES 18 satellites. The available data indicate that the meteor was produced by the atmospheric entry of a small asteroid 3.5 feet in diameter and weighing roughly 4000 pounds.

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Event Data