Moment meteor explodes into fireball after scorching through atmosphere at 40,000mph

An American city was left stunned after a meteor exploded in a fireball this week, causing a sonic boom which could be heard more than 200 miles away.     

The incident was caused by a small 6ft asteroid breaking into fragments just before 9am on Tuesday (March 17) over Olmsted Falls in Northeastern Ohio. 

NASA measured the meteor moving at around 45,000mph.

It was first spotted over Lake Erie and broke up with the force of 250 tons of TNT after travelling through the upper atmosphere for 34 miles.   

Bill Cook, a NASA spokesperson told News5 Cleveland: ‘I woke up this morning, and the sky fell, so I feel like Chicken Little right now.’

Security camera footage from an Ohio school shows the fireball after a meteor entered the atmosphere and exploded (Picture: Olmsted Falls City Schools District/Cover Media)

He confirmed the speed, saying it was ‘“’fast for a human but slow for a meteor.’

The fireball was caught on a security camera belonging to local school Olmsted Falls and Superintendent Dr Jim Lloyd shared the footage online.

‘Video from our bus garage camera,” he captioned the video. “A meteor in the sky.’

There were no reported injuries but the explosion was visible from as far away as Chicago, Toronto and Philadelphia. 

About 17,000 meteorites fall to Earth every year.

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