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Report: The exploding meteor over Pittsburgh produced blast equal to 30 tons of TNT

Ben Woodgates/CNN

Report: The exploding meteor over Pittsburgh produced blast equal to 30 tons of TNT

According to a report by The Washington Post, citing NASA sources, the meteor that exploded Saturday morning in the skies above Western Pennsylvania produced a blast that was equal to 30 tons of TNT.

On New Year’s Day, a loud boom was heard and felt throughout the region, with some people reporting rumbles in their homes and rattling windows.

Satellite images taken by the National Weather Service’s Geostationary Lightning Mapper at 11:20 a.m. Saturday showed signs of lightning over Washington County that do not appear to be connected to any actual lightning activity that occurred in that area on that day and time. Weather service meteorologists in Moon also said there was no thunder in the area.

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But reports from folks who heard the boom or felt trembles came from all over southwestern Pennsylvania and even parts of Ohio and West Virginia, according to comments posted this weekend on the Facebook account of the local National Weather Service.

New Year’s Day boom remains a mystery, but it was heard (and felt) far and wide
Tim Grant
New Year’s Day boom remains a mystery, but it was heard (and felt) far and wide

Clarifying what has otherwise been a general mystery, NASA told The Post that the meteor was a yard in diameter, weighed 1,000 pounds, and hit the atmosphere at a staggering 45,000 mph.

A meteor of that size travels through Earth’s atmosphere every three or four days, but because most of the planet is water-covered, the majority of those meteors fall where no one sees or hears them, said Bill Cooke, who leads NASA’s meteoroid environments office, to The Post. (Here’s their full story.) Were it not for Saturday’s cloudiness, he said, the meteor might have created an impressive light show.

“If it had been clear, there would have been something 100 times brighter than the full moon moving from north to south in the Pittsburgh sky,” Mr. Cooke told The Post. “That would have been pretty cool to see.”

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While the region missed out on the lights, the event reverberated among those who heard it.

“We heard this in Wintersville, Ohio, as well,” said Brandon Delaney, whose community sits just west of Steubenville. “Rather odd sound, but didn’t hear any sirens afterward, so we didn’t think much else of it.”

First Published: January 5, 2022, 3:23 p.m.

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