Loud boom over Northern California and Nevada thought to be from meteor

April 22, 2012 – Northern, CA - People in Northern California and Nevada reported hearing a loud boom in the sky above the Sierra Sunday morning. The Tuolumne County sheriff’s department said they are investigating the possibility that it might have been the physical impact of an overnight meteor shower. Some people in the Tahoe area said they saw what they believed to be a meteor just prior to the sound. People who live in Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County, Placer County, Tuolumne County, Amador County and Nevada County contacted our sister station in Sacramento. KCRA is reporting that they heard the sound just after 8:30 a.m. A television station in Reno said they received similar calls from the city of Reno and as far away as Incline Village. Meteorologists in California and Nevada including our own Rob Mayeda said there were meteor showers Saturday night that could have still been going on Sunday morning. If the boom was a signal that an outer space rock made its way through the atmosphere, then there could be a rock or rocks now on Terra Firma. So far, no one has called authorities or television stations to report “a hit.” Mayeda said the meteor would likely be a bolide rock and that it likely burned up before getting to the ground. Every year the Earth passes through the orbit of a comet causing the Lyrid meteor shower. The results on a clear night are a meteor shower, which comes in the form of shooting stars streaking across the night sky. The stars are actually debris from the comet as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere. –NBC Bay area

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