UTAH (KTVX/NEXSTAR) — An extremely loud boom was heard throughout Utah Saturday morning, shaking homes and alarming Utahns throughout the state.
At this time, neither the Salt Lake City Police Department, nor the Hill Air Force Base just north of the city, know what caused the boom. But the National Weather Service’s Salt Lake City division has suggested a meteor as the most probable cause.
The two reddish pixels shown over Utah’s Davis and Morgan Counties in the image below (from the GOES-17 geostationary lightning mapper) are not associated with evidence of thunderstorm activity in satellite or radar, NWS said on Twitter.
Rather, those are “likely the meteor trail/flash.”
NWS later shared a video from a Utah resident that appeared to show the meteor streaking across the sky, further confirming the theory.
University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) had also confirmed that the boom was not due to an earthquake.
Following Saturday morning’s “boom,” concerned Utahns have taken to social media to share videos that captured the concerning sound — including this clear, but expletive-laden example — or simply to offer their theories on the cause.
“People of Utah, I’ve watched enough Ancient Aliens to know an alien spacecraft sonic boom when I hear one,” one Twitter user joked.
“WHAT WAS THAT?!?” asked another. “The whole house shook with a loud boom.”
“Call me a conspiracy theorist but that BOOM just felt all over Utah was not natural. Has to be some sort of Government experiment,” someone else wrote.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox, too, claimed he heard the boom while out on a jog, but backed the NWS’ meteor theory.
“We have confirmed it was not seismic/earthquake and not related to our military installations. This is likely the best theory,” Cox said, referring to a video he retweeted from the NWS which pointed to a meteor.
KTVX has reached out to multiple state agencies regarding the incident, and will provide updates as they are confirmed.
