Reports of an explosion from people across New England Saturday afternoon sent police agencies and others scrambling to understand what caused a double boom that was so loud it shook buildings in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Boston residents were left petrified after the loud blast rattled their homes with the police probing the ‘bizarre’ incident.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) later confirmed the sound was likely from a suspected meteor.
‘Unlike earthquakes which occur at discrete location in the earth, sonic boom events occur along a linear path in the atmosphere. Therefore, the location provided is an approximation,’ the USGS stated.
The American Meteor Society said that the booms heard about 2:30pm and were actually caused by a meteor about 3 feet wide entering the atmosphere around the New Hampshire border with Massachusetts, north of Boston.
Robert Lunsford, the Fireball Program Monitor with the society, said the group received dozens of reports from Delaware to Montreal with people either hearing the double boom, feeling the ground shake or seeing the fireball – which he said looks like a shooting star in the daytime sky.
‘It was definitely bigger than a normal fireball, about a yard wide,’ he said.
But Lunsford said it’s unlikely the meteor struck the ground.
‘We would need more information about the trajectory the speed and other aspects to know for sure if it hit the ground, but if it didn’t burn up, then it would have landed in the ocean,’ he said. ‘Most of them do burn up before they hit the ground.’
The sound of the bang was so loud that it appeared to be more locally based rather than in the sky. Boston PD sent its officers to the Brighton area of the city to investigate.
The USGS said the widely felt sonic boom was likely from a meteor entering the Earth’s atmosphere over the Massachusetts / New Hampshire border
Boston residents were left petrified after their homes were rattled by a loud boom with even the police probing the ‘bizarre’ incident after an influx in 911 calls
NOAA satellites showed a large flash over Boston around 2pm
People in a handful of states posted on social media about feeling the buildings they were in shaking.
Several videos posted on X also captured what sounded like two quick booms, with no fire, smoke or other visual causes.
The meteor theory was corroborated by meteorologist, Nick Stewart, who speculated the boom could have been a meteor entering the atmosphere, as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) geostationary lightning mapper indicated a flash at the exact time of the loud noise.
‘The flash density product really shows this anomalous ‘flash’ which is pretty distinctive of a bolide/meteor reentry,’ Stewart wrote on X. ‘This is the likely source of the loud boom/explosion.’
Several people filed reports with the US Geological Survey, registering the shaking they felt with the National Earthquake Information Center, agency spokesman Steve Sobie confirmed.
The agency opened an event page, based on the number of ‘Did you feel it?’ reports it received on its website.
But Sobie said there was no event registered on the agency’s seismographs. meaning the shaking was not due to an earthquake.
An official at the National Weather Service said it was up to NASA to confirm whether the sound came from a meteor.
How would you feel if an unexplained boom shook your home with no answers from authorities?
Dashcam footage posted to social media picked up on the loud sound that frightened residents
Although Boston is currently getting rain, Stewart said the flash ‘does not correlate with active thunderstorms.’
The Boston Globe’s meteorologist, Ken Mahan, also said it was an apparent meteor that was ‘essentially a fireball,’ he told the outlet.
‘These are large and often spark a sonic boom when passing through the atmosphere with speeds faster than the sound barrier and air compressing ahead of the meteor as it races through, generating a massive pressure wave,’ he said.
‘The average size bolide meteor sits at one to two meters.’
Many social media users said it sounded like an ‘explosion’, but no smoke or fires have been detected.
Dashcam footage posted to social media picked up on the loud sound that frightened residents.
‘My cat and I both jumped up! Scared the bejeezus outa both of us!!’ a Facebook user said. ‘I thought a tree fell on my house, but I went outside and didn’t see anything.’
‘I assumed it was thunder, but now I wonder,’ another wrote.
‘I thought my house was exploding. I ran outside,’ a third wrote.
Since the boom, there’s been a surge in search activity as resident try to pinpoint what caused the mysterious noise.
Several police departments have put out statements that they were aware of the boom, but at the time were unsure of its origins.
‘We are getting numerous reports from residents of hearing a loud boom sound. It was heard over the eastern part of the state. Unknown origin no reports of hazards at this time,’ Watertown Police wrote.
‘The Boom: No reports of any damage or local incident as of yet. Earth Quake maybe,’ police in Coventry, Rhode Island, said.
