Event: 20260317-125642

Many eyewitnesses in the states of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District of Columbia and the Canadian province of Ontario have filed reports on the American Meteor Society website of a very bright daylight fireball seen March 17 at 8:57 AM Eastern Daylight Time (2026 March 17, 12:57 UTC). The meteor was also detected by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper on the GOES satellite and several cameras in the region. An analysis of all currently available data places first visibility of the meteor at an altitude of 50 miles above Lake Erie, off the beaches of Lorain in northern Ohio. Moving east of south at 40,000 miles per hour, the fireball - caused by a small asteroid nearly 6 feet in diameter and weighing about 7 tons - traveled over 34 miles through the upper atmosphere before fragmenting 30 miles over Valley City, north of Medina. The fragments continued on to the south, producing meteorites in the vicinity of Medina County, Ohio.

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.
We thank the American Meteor Society for providing the eyewitness accounts.

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Event Data