Meteor Airburst over South Carolina

2026, May 28. USA, South Carolina, Columbia. Airburst. Sonic boom heard at 05:23:4. It was heard all over the midlands of South Carolina. 20° smoke trail lasted in sky for over 45 minutes. Time: approximately 5:30 PM EDT. Downtown Columbia, South Carolina. Loud explosion-like boom with sharp percussion characteristic. Some even reported feeling the pressure wave. USGS: Mag 0.0 so it wasn't an earthquake. Described as similar to black powder detonation. A distinct sound and vibration wave were reported from North Augusta all the way to Darlington County and Florence, South Carolina. This stretches across a radius of nearly 145 miles (approx. 232 km). People from Sumter, Camden, Blythwood to Lexington heard it, conveying the sound was incredibly loud. Sumter is the furthest from Columbia and is about 71.3 km away. Physical Effects: Windows rattled at the local news station (WLTX, Columbia). Concussive force was felt by National Weather Service meteorologists at Columbia Metropolitan Airport (KCAE). No structural damage reported beyond window vibration and light metal distortion. Sky Conditions at Time of Event: Heavy cloud cover (cumulus, cumulonimbus, stratus); thunderstorm activity was ongoing in region; no lightning or thunder reported associated with this boom; no precipitation at observer location at time of event. Additional Observations: Event heard by multiple witnesses across Richland and Lexington counties. Sonic characteristics varied by location (downtown Columbia: sharp explosion-like; Irmo: car accident-like rumble; Gilbert: heard but uncharacterized). Meteorologist Chris Jackson was in South Carolina at the time and said: It felt like someone shoved me right in my chest an instant before the boom began. 

This is a preliminary report with likely more data and images to come. 

Like most of these land-based events, they give me a considerable amount of data to use for cetacean strandings. 

USGS