Rare fireball spotted over eastern US caused a sonic boom

By Meteorologist Chris Dolce, CNN

(CNN) — A rare fireball bright enough to be seen during broad daylight dazzled skies and triggered a sonic boom in parts of the eastern United States on Tuesday morning.

The fireball was likely an unusually bright meteor, a piece of space rock burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. Fireballs burn as bright or brighter than Venus, the third brightest object in the sky, according to NASA.

This fireball was reported by skywatchers in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio near 9 a.m. ET, according to the American Meteor Society.

A loud boom was heard in the Cleveland area when the fast-moving meteor broke through the sound barrier, according to the National Weather Service.

That’s close to where a satellite instrument normally used for detecting lightning saw the bright flash the fireball gave off as it entered Earth’s atmosphere.

Daytime fireball sightings are rarer since they have to be brighter than those at night, the American Meteor Society told CNN in June 2025, when a similar one was widely seen in skies across the Southeast US.

There are no active meteor showers until the Lyrids begin on April 17.

The-CNN-Wire
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