Possible meteor lights up Vancouver skies with thunderous fireball
A possible meteor was spotted over Metro Vancouver on Tuesday night, and the accompanying soundwave sent residents scrambling to social media to uncover the cause.
Reports about a potential meteor began showing up online shortly after 9 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, with multiple people asking about a thunderous sound.
“Loud boom, and the apartment rattled a bit. I’m close to downtown. Anyone else?” someone asked on Reddit.
Discussion soon turned to the possibility of a meteor or a bolide burning up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Northwest.
Here in Port Moody we heard loud noise, then house shook…didn’t see any lightning….earthquake?
— JAY JANOWER (@JayJanower) March 4, 2026
Looks like the GOES 18 satellite just picked up a #meteor that just burned up in the atmosphere over southern BC! It caused a huge flash of light seen all the way down in parts of Washington and a loud boom was reported in parts of southern BC! Anyone see/hear it? pic.twitter.com/su4OqcZSOi
— Jonathan Pulley (@WhidbeyWXGuy) March 4, 2026
The International Meteor Organization (IMO), which was created in 1988 in response to a growing need for international cooperation of amateur meteor work, received over a dozen reports of a “fireball” over Metro Vancouver.
“The Fireball Report online form guides you through describing what you saw in a way that provides useful information to astronomers studying meteors,” explained the IMO online. “The information you provide can be combined with that of other eye-witnesses to give a good estimate of the trajectory of the fireball, and to help determine if a ground fall occurred.”
International Meteor Organization
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Videos of the possible meteor flash were soon shared online from the YouTube livestreaming channel, Vancouver Views Live.
In the video clipped and shared to X, a flash could be seen in the clouds above the city’s skyline behind BC Place.
A boom could also be heard a few minutes later.
Videos of the meteor seen tonight around southern British Columbia and even down to Washington!
Time of flashes: 9:08:50 PM
Time of booms: 9:11:23 PM#meteor #vancouverbc #WashingtonVancouver. pic.twitter.com/u09E4CacYS
— Chris Wells (@ChrisWe56184750) March 4, 2026
Deep Cove Kayak Centre in North Vancouver also captured the flash on its webcam.
“Great capture,” said a commenter on the Instagram post. “I live in Kitsilano, and I felt it. I heard a boom, and our house momentarily shook.”
View this post on Instagram
According to Matthew Cimone, senior space science interpreter at the HR MacMillan Space Centre, meteors are basically leftover chunks from the early solar system as the planets formed.
“Some might cross paths with our own orbit and enter the atmosphere with great speed,” Cimone told Daily Hive. “Most are small grains of sand and quickly burn up as ‘shooting stars,’ but if they are larger, a metre or more in diameter, they can create sonic booms and tremendous air pressure as they ram through the Earth’s atmosphere, which may cause them to explode before hitting the Earth’s surface.
“The resulting shockwave is not only loud but can damage nature and cities. The burning ‘fireball’ of a large meteor is also fabulously bright, with observers noting that night can appear as day as they illuminate the sky. Notable historical fireballs such as the Chelyabinsk meteor over Russia were brighter than the sun and damaged thousands of buildings. The Tunguska event of 1908, thought to be an exploding meteor, flattened 2 thousand square km of forest.”
The flashes in the night sky and the sonic boom were experienced as far away as Merritt in south-central B.C. and Sedro-Wooley in Washington, according to the IMO online reports.
“Heard what sounded almost like a firecracker in Bellingham,” shared a resident. “It was such a surprising sound, I jumped.”
Daily Hive has reached out to the Canadian Space Agency about this possible meteor and will update this story.
Did you see the fireball in the sky on Tuesday night, or hear the possible meteor’s sonic boom over Metro Vancouver? Let us know in the comments or get in touch at vancouver@dailyhive.com.