Social media was alight Tuesday with videos that appeared to show a fireball blazing through the night sky above highways of southeast Michigan, and flashes of blue and orange light over settled snow.
As witness accounts — as well as surveillance and car dash camera footage — made the rounds, The National Weather Service Detroit (NWSD) wrote on Twitter that the flashes and bangs were “likely” a meteor, not thunder and lightning.
NWSD later confirmed that a meteor had occurred, citing the U.S. Geological Survey. It blew up over Detroit with enough force to register as a 2.0 earthquake, National Public Radio reports.
The Ingham County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said in a Facebook post that the sighting was “a natural meteor fireball,” urging people not to call 911.
Read more: A Mysterious Object Flying Past the Sun Is Our First Confirmed Visitor From Another Solar System
Here’s how people reacted when night turned to day over Detroit.
- Here’s How Effective the Original Vaccines Are Against Omicron
- The Promise—And Possible Perils—of Editing What We Say Online
- How Trump Survived Decades of Legal Trouble: Deny, Deflect, Delay, and Don't Put Anything in Writing
- Flint Is Still Shaken by its Water Crisis—and Residents Are Experiencing Long-Term Mental-Health Issues
- A Beer Shortage Is Brewing. A Volcano Is Partly to Blame
- How Fasting Can—and Can't—Improve Gut Health
- Cities Keep Enforcing Curfews for Teens, Despite Evidence They Don't Stop Crime
- Joe Manchin’s Red Tape Reform Could Supercharge Renewable Energy in the U.S.
- Column: We Should Talk More About What a Brilliant Actor Marilyn Monroe Was
