Overland fireball explosion delivers data on meteor airbursts

2026, August 14. USA, Washington. Fireball. Overland. Not linked to the Perseids meteor shower. Sonic boom. Delayed sound propagated over 100km from event with concurrent signature exceeding double that distance. Time: around 07:47 UT.00:48. Travelling north. Seen in British Columbia, Oregon, Washington. Multiple fragmented events throughout the entry, with a highly possible meteorite fall. The sound also registered on infrasound instruments at Washington volcanoes, including Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens. Witness accounts included statements such as: The loudest thunder you’ve ever heard, was about 1.5-2 minutes delayed, two almost distinct claps, slightly vibrating windows, a loud boom that shook house about 30 seconds after we saw the light, it scared me and we just had a huge thunderstorm last night that wasn’t nearly as loud, Boom, thunder like sound followed by ground shaking, Low booming noise lasting roughly 5 seconds. Sounded like a whoosh & then a big boom. The impact was marked immediately by a bright white-blue flash across the whole sky, followed 4 minutes later by a dense, deep thud that felt like a shockwave had hit the whole house. I heard a fairly loud pop and a crackle. A deep thud around 1 minute from its sighting. Kind of a hum or buzzing.

Update: Preliminary NASA data: Illuminating phase was 77 to 45 km above the ground, entry speed: 14.5 km/s, average meteoroid diameter: 40 cm, initial weight: 77 kg, energy of the explosion:10,000 kg/TNT, meteorite fall - radar signs indicate that small fragments have reached the ground.

Credit: U.S. Geological Survey Instruments at Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens capture infrasound signals.

June update, Fireballs, Strandings and Asteroid Flyby

Fireballs reported in Florida, Newport in California, Hawaii, UK and Bay of Biscay. Cetaceans ashore in the Shetlands, UK (Sowerby’s beaked whale), California, Iceland, Alaska (pregnant Cuvier's beaked whale), Oregon, Honolulu (Blainville’s beaked whale), Canada, Vietnam, and Japan.

Asteroid: (2026 LS1). Diameter: 14 m - 32 m. Flyby: 2026, Jun 13. Close Approach Time: 06:48 ± < 00:01. Velocity (VRE): 8.34km/s. Drop Line: 2 hours.

Image: NASA

Fireball over British Columbia

2026, April 29. Canada, British Columbia, Greater Victoria region. Fireball. Seen in OR and WA over 160 km from the event. Time: around 07:11UT, 12:12 a.m. LT. Travelling SW over the coast. Meteor was approximately a metre wide, flying over Port Alberni west towards Bamfield before landing in the Pacific Ocean. A second meteor was also caught on camera around 1:30 a.m.

Oregon whale stranding

2025, November 9. Oregon, Pacific Ocean off Westport. Fireball. Time: 01:31 LT or 09:26 UT.

2025, November 15. USA, Oregon, Yachats. A juvenile Humpback whale, live stranding. Reports that crabbing gear (fishing line) was cut away from the whale's upper body. I'm more interested in this event in case there are further strandings in the region. 

Airbursts and the Pacific whale population decline

The population of Pacific gray whales has plummeted to its lowest point since the 1970s, with record-low calf numbers, following a period of "unusual mortality" from 2019 to 2023. Scientists are concerned that environmental changes, particularly in Arctic feeding grounds influenced by sea ice decline and ecosystem alterations, are impairing the whales' ability to reproduce and survive. Despite previous resilience, recent data suggests the gray whale population may be struggling to adapt to rapidly changing ecological conditions, raising alarms about their long-term recovery prospects. Pacific gray whale numbers have dropped to their lowest since the 1970s, with a significant decline in calf populations. The recent decline follows a period of an "unusual mortality event" from 2019 to 2023, which significantly reduced population numbers. 

What scientists are saying: Researchers suspect that changes in Arctic feeding grounds, driven by climate change and sea ice loss, are impacting whale reproduction and survival. The current population estimates are around 12,900 adults and 85 calves, down from previous counts of over 19,000 whales. The decline in calf numbers correlates with reductions in sea ice cover in the Bering and Chukchi seas, affecting nourishment and reproduction. Stranded dead whales along the West Coast, some emaciated, indicate ongoing health issues possibly linked to food scarcity. Experts emphasise that the population’s ability to rebound rapidly is declining, indicating stress on the gray whale's resilience in a changing environment.

Reality: See June 2 post (Fireballs and Gray whale strandings timeline in California), and May 10th post (San Francisco Bay Cetacean deaths). These two particular posts and others point out that meteor airbursts are the primary cause of whale deaths unrelated to ship strikes and net entanglement.

(Courtesy NOAA Fisheries)

Good news for Gray whales in the North Pacific

"Unusual Mortality Event" declared over. 700 gray whales deaths were recorded off the coast from Mexico to Canada between 2019 and 2023. In a worrisome few years for the North Pacific gray whale population, hundreds washed up dead on shorelines along the West Coast leading to an estimated 30% decline in their population. During the years of the Unusual Mortality Event, 347 Gray whales were stranded along the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington; another 316 were reported in Mexico and 27 in Canada. The population numbers of the North Pacific Gray whale had declined during the Unusual Mortality Event, going from an estimated 20,500 whales in 2019 to 14,526 whales in 2023. Updated population numbers are expected to come out soon. Total calf production also declined, from around 950 calves counted in 2018 to an estimated 217 calves in 2022. In 2023, calf production increased slightly to 412 counted. Between 2018 to 2023 690 gray whales washed ashore from 2018 to 2023: 347 in the United States, 316 in Mexico and 27 in Canada.  Below is a map of the North Pacific Meteor Airbursts from 2018 to 2022. One of these had the equivalent energy of 49 million kilograms of TNT. They ranged from the Arctic Circle to California.

Oregon coast sees rare humpback death

2024, May 26. USA, Oregon shore at Manzanita, Nehalem Bay State Park. Dead Humpback is located offshore. This is rare as dead whales in the area are usually Gray Whales.

Dead whale floating off Oregon coast may beach soon near Manzanita (kptv.com)