Bright fireball over New York and Ontario produces sonic boom

ByTeo Blašković

A bright fireball was observed over Western New York and Southern Ontario around 09:10 – 09:16 UTC on May 27, 2026 (05:10 – 05:16 EDT). Several witnesses reported hearing a boom associated with the event.

Many people in Western New York and Southern Ontario saw the fireball early Wednesday morning, with some describing the sonic boom it produced as a powerful thunder. A person from Elma, southeast of Buffalo, said the sound woke her up.

Tim Collins, research associate in astronomy at the Buffalo Museum of Science, described the object as a meteor/bolide that broke up after entering Earth’s atmosphere.

The event was captured by multiple web cameras and on NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-19 (GOES-19).

Bright fireball over Western New York and Southern Ontario on May 27, 2026 captured by NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-19 (GOES-19). Credit: NOAA/GOES-East, CIRA

The New York fireball came less than two days after another camera-friendly meteor was recorded over Mayon volcano in the Philippines at 14:33 UTC on May 25.

Interestingly, that object crossed the sky near the erupting volcano before ending in a bright terminal flash. The event drew extra attention because PHIVOLCS later had to clarify that the meteor disintegrated in the atmosphere and did not strike Mayon’s slopes, after misleading AI-generated videos began circulating online.

More significant fireball and meteor reports are available in our Meteor activity archive.

Featured image: Fireball over Grand Island, Western New York, on May 27, 2026. Credit: Stephen Mathes, WGRZ-TV (stillshot from the video)

Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.

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