☄️Meteor Fireball Shakes Houston

“We felt the house shake for a couple of seconds. It was a vibration. It was silent, but the house was definitely moving.” — Kiyan Badkoubeh, KPRC weekday morning producer. A meteor, roughly 3 feet across and weighing about 1 ton, entered Earth’s atmosphere at around 35,000 mph on Saturday, creating a shockwave equivalent to 26 tons of TNT. Loud sonic booms that rattled homes, shook buildings, and sent vibrations through neighborhoods across the region. Reports poured in from Cypress, Katy, Cinco Ranch, Wharton, and beyond, including northwest Houston suburbs and Waller County. Waller County Judge Trey Duhon posted on Facebook last night: “Waller County is booming apparently.. and I’m not talking about growth.” Daji reported in her article last night. NASA’s “Chicken Little Trajectory”: The meteor first became visible near Stagecoach, Texas, northwest of Houston, then moved southeast before fragmenting near Cypress Station/Bammel, west of Cypress. For those wondering, myself included, “Chicken Little trajectory” is NASA’s playful, tongue-in-cheek term in their official fireball reports — a nod to the classic fable “Chicken Little” (“The sky is falling!”), since meteors involve actual rocks falling from the sky. 🍀Just days earlier, on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, a larger daytime fireball was confirmed by NASA over Ohio. That one was about 6 feet across, weighed roughly 7 tons, and originated from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. And not only are our skies lighting up — so are our temperatures! Saturday was one of the hottest March days on record in Houston, and thanks to a heat dome building to the west, we’ll continue tracking potential record-breaking highs over the next few days. March Average High: ~75 Sunday: 88 Record: 89 in 1916 Monday: 88 Record: 89 in 1929 Tuesday: 86 Record: 88 in 2020 A lot to cover — from space rocks overhead to scorching temps on the ground. See you at 8 for the latest! 🫶 Brittany