11 Years Ago, A Massive Meteor Exploded Over Cedar Rapids

Do you remember the night when our skies lit up thanks to a large meteor exploding over Cedar Rapids? It happened 11 years ago and there are numerous videos of what happened that night.

I must confess that I had completely forgotten about this event. If not for this video which I stumbled across on YouTube, it would have likely remained a faint memory. This video is from a security camera at Electronic Engineering at 1900 6th St. SW, Cedar Rapids looking northeast the night of April 14, 2010. The huge flash was accompanied by a loud sonic boom.

There are multiple national news sites that covered this meteor explosion and the aftermath. NPR shared a story called "Wow! Meteor Turns Day Into Night in Midwest". The headline at CNN read "Massive Fireball Reported Over Midwestern Sky". CBS News even got in on the meteor fun.

A few weeks after the meteor blew up over us, The Christian Science Monitor reported that a man found part of the meteorite along with others who had found chunks of this space rock.

The Sioux City Journal shared that the meteor and resulting fireball was a part of the Gamma Virginids meteor shower that started on April 4 of that year. There were many eyewitness reports including drivers on I-380 who saw the fireball that night.

It was visible over Cedar Rapids and other parts of Iowa and Wisconsin as video from CNN shows.

Do you remember the sky explosion that night? It certainly was one of the brightest events we've witnessed over Iowa in decades.