According to authorities, the loud "boom" heard early Saturday morning in Salt Lake City and the rest of northern Utah was probably a meteor.
Around 8:30 on Saturday morning, the "boom" was audible in southern Idaho and northern Utah regions.
The University of Utah's seismograph monitoring department claimed that several individuals felt the "boom," which raised fears of an earthquake because the noise was so loud.
"We can confirm that it was not an earthquake," wrote UUSS on Twitter.
We've received many reports of people feeling or hearing a "boom" ~8:32 am. We can confirm that it was not an earthquake.
— UUSS (@UUSSquake) August 13, 2022
Residents in Utah Disturbed By Meteoroid Flying Across Sky
During a morning run in Salt Lake City, Utah, Governor Spencer Cox tweeted that he heard the noise. He added that it wasn't coming from any local military installations.
Heard this while out on a run in SLC. We have confirmed it was not seismic/earthquake and not related to our military instillations. This is likely the best theory. https://t.co/mEGfjtveNE
— Spencer Cox (@SpencerJCox) August 13, 2022
Home security cameras recorded the boom, and some people posted videos and audio on social media. One of the residents was left perplexed by what that was.
Wendi Melling, a resident of South Salt Lake, heard the noise as she was about to leave her home on Saturday morning. She described her experience to the Salt Lake Tribune as a "loud deep booming sound" followed by a brief period of rumbling.
Melling told the publication in a Facebook message that she heard something fall inside the house.
The sound was indeed like the sonic booms Melling had previously experienced, and it was quickly followed by a brief instance of low, rolling thunder. Melling said a rumbling sound was heard 3 to 4 seconds after the blast.
Officials Explain What Happened To Utah
The National Weather Service appeared to have the solution amid the chaos. They tweeted that a signal they had seen north of Salt Lake City that wasn't associated with a thunderstorm had been picked up by their Geostationary Lightning Mapper.
The meteor notion was "bolstering the meteor theory" by the service's tweet that it was probably a meteor's path or flash.
The tweet from the weather agency and a report from the American Meteor Society are related. The society's website noted that 14 sightings of the meteor were made in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming around the boom. The Snowbasin Resort, located at the north of Salt Lake City, near Hunstville, shared a video of a meteor blazing across the sky.
According to EarthSky, meteors can produce a sound similar to a sonic boom as they penetrate the planet's atmosphere.
American Meteor Society explained that meteors might light up the night sky as they become "fireballs" when they enter the atmosphere of Earth. According to NASA, while traveling through the Earth's atmosphere, meteors and fireballs normally do not remain complete, but, occasionally, meteorites can be discovered.
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