Meteorite Blasts Through Texas Home — Unbelievable Fall

Adriana Stone 0 1 min read

Meteorite Blasts Through Texas Home — Unbelievable Fall

A meteorite smashed through the roof of a two-story house near Houston on Saturday afternoon. It tore a hole, buried itself in a bedroom floor, then bounced and hit the ceiling again.

It happened around 4:45 p.m. in northwest Harris County. Neighbors heard a loud boom. People looked up and saw a bright fireball streaking across the sky.

The homeowner, Sherrie James, said she heard a loud explosion inside the house. Her grandson checked and found a hole in the ceiling and the rock sitting on the floor below.

“A meteorite unexpectedly came through my roof today, causing damage to my home here in North Houston,” she wrote in a Facebook post.

Fire Chief Fred Windisch of the Ponderosa Fire Department said he had never seen anything like it in decades on the job. Miraculously, no one was hurt.

NASA says the object entered the atmosphere at roughly 35,000 miles per hour. The original rock may have been about three feet across and close to a ton before it broke apart. That breakup created a pressure wave. That’s why people heard loud booms across the region.

Radar and lightning-mapper data confirmed debris falling between northwest Houston and nearby communities. Pieces scattered across parts of Harris County as the meteor broke up above ground.

James has put the chunk she found in a plastic bag and plans to keep it. A fundraising page was reportedly started to help cover repairs to the roof, floor and ceiling.

The timing is notable. Just days earlier, a meteor made a loud explosion over parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania, rattling buildings there too.

Local crews responded quickly. Officials inspected the scene and secured the area. Authorities are coordinating with experts to document the rock and determine next steps.

Here are the original social posts related to the event:

Send this to a friend