At 2:12 PM this afternoon, something strange happened. A large boom penetrated the air above Danvers. As I sat at the Elm and Maple Street light, the sound shook the car and caught me off guard. I looked at the driver next to me, in the lane outside of Berry Tavern, and she was looking around. We caught our eyes and rolled down our windows, "Did you hear that?" we both asked. We had not clue what it was.
I turned right onto Elm Street to head home and I noticed a tree down. I wondered if that made the noise. But, as I got closer to home, I noticed other people outside looking up. Clearly, other people heard the noise, too.
As I walked it in, I asked Emmie if she heard the noise. She had...and was going to call me about it. A few moments later, police raced down the street. Was it an explosion? We both wondered. Then, we looked at the Danvers Facebook page. Other people all over town heard it. But, then we soon found out online, the sound was heard elsewhere - Melrose, Woburn, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, on the Connecticut border, and Maine. Tony came over for dinner and he heard it.
It took a while to figure out what happened. However, a the GOES-19 satellite that tracks lightning strikes detected a huge flash in the sky. Jeff - our custodian at school - corroborate that story. And soon, it became clear. The big boom was actually a meteor - of the bolide variety - causing a fireball as it broke up over the atmosphere and the large boom we heard. It is definitely the first fireball I've ever heard.
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