Thanks to one of the cloudiest climates in the country, unfortunately, most Central New Yorkers didn’t get to witness the meteor. But it was
captured on video in Western New York and Toronto, and people from Virginia to Ontario heard the deafening boom that sounded to some like gunshots or a falling tree. As one of the 181 observers who filed reports with the meteor society put it: “Scared the bejesus outta me.”
Based on those reports, the society calculated that the meteor hit the atmosphere above Lake Ontario and disintegrated just south of Rochester. NASA’s estimated trajectory shows a different path, with the meteor striking above Syracuse at 12:08 p.m. and diving southwest toward the Finger Lakes for 3 seconds before flaming out. It was just 22 miles above the ground at that point, which is a long, long way for a meteor to penetrate the atmosphere.