Bright flash, boom reported in rural Minnesota likely a meteor, officials say

Minnesota officials said reports of a bright light and booming sound in rural Beltrami County on Monday night were likely caused by a meteor.

The boom shook houses, rattled windows and alarmed pets, but Beltrami County Emergency Management said there were no power outages or blown transformers.

“Law enforcement checked the area as well as power substations and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, there hasn’t been any power outages reported,” emergency officials wrote on Facebook.

Footage of the flash and boom taken at about 6:40 p.m. local time from a house in Nymore was posted on Facebook.

A second, silent video posted Tuesday, taken at the Bemidji Regional Airport at about the same time as the first, also depicts a zipping dash of light consistent with meteors.

“There was something of significance that passed over the skies of Beltrami County, but we can only speculate it was a meteor at this time,” said BCEM Director Christopher Muller, according to WCCO-TV.